Just a quick note to say that signed copies of Knitting Mochimochi are now available for international shipping! It’s about time, right? You can find it in the Mochimochi Shop.
If you’d like to request a special message, please email info [at] mochimochiland [dot] com at the time of purchase.
This bit of Tiny Factory propaganda comes courtesy of Bob, the winner of the caption contest! That means Bob gets the free PDF pattern for Error. Yay!
We had lots of great captions this time, so a few honorable mentions go to:
Recession? Tiny Factory stays busy because tiny cuteness is always in high demand!
by *Justine*
Tiny factory worries abut his wool footprint. It could always be smaller!
by Katherine
Who’d have thought downsizing could be so cute!
by Denise
Thank you for all the great captions, everyone!
I found myself in Soho the other day at the right time to check out Olek’s solo show “Knitting is for Pus****,” which is up at the Christopher Henry Gallery through May 28th.
(Sorry for my low-quality phone pics.)
The artist has created a living space completely covered in colorful crochet, much of it patterned with camouflage-like designs and with tweet-like messages worked into the fabric. The way that the crochet takes over every surface and hurts your eyes is nauseating and addictive. I can certainly appreciate the obsessiveness and time that that must have gone into making it.
Around the corner from the gallery was a bike with a crocheted covering that was unmistakably Oklek. It was a perfect punctuation to see right after leaving the show.
The crocheted work of Olek is something I realized I’ve seen around NYC in the past few years, but for some reason she hadn’t really been on my radar until now. Shameful I know!
Winning caption by Bob:
The means of production belongs in the hands of the cuteletariat.
Tiny Factory is always trying to speed up production, but that might be the least of his problems! Leave your caption in the comments, and we’ll choose our favorite on Monday.
The winner this time will get a free PDF pattern for Error, the only (soft) hardware guaranteed not to crash!
The other day I noticed that my desk drawer that I normally keep stuffing in was empty. I had just opened it to refill it when Nipsey decided he had found a new bed!
It didn’t take him long to figure out that this bed wasn’t as comfortable as he had expected, and it was such a tight fit that I had to help him out. But not before documenting his humiliating position!
If you live in NYC, you can take an upcoming Tiny Knits class with me on June 19th at Brooklyn General!
Here’s the class description:
Teeny-Tiny Toy Knitting
Take quick and simple knitting to the extreme by learning to make miniature toys no bigger than a peanut! Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land will show you the basic techniques and minimalist details needed to knit an adorable Tiny Panda or other toy in about an hour. Techniques covered include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cord, and simple embroidery. The finished projects make cute trinkets, embellishments, or accessories.
Date/Time: Sunday, June 19, 1-3 pm
Price: $50
Level: Intermediate (some experience with circular knitting is helpful)
Supplies needed:
– Tiny knitting kit, which can be purchased at Brooklyn General OR Fingering-weight yarn in 2 colors
– Set of size 1 double-pointed needles
Sign up on the Brooklyn General website or call 718-237-7753. Hope to see you there!
I’ve been a bit obsessed lately with the new tUnE-yArDs album, “Whokill,” so I thought I’d share this video of one of the songs. It reminds me of the Fang Island video I posted here last year. Face painting and classroom fun!
Remember the colorful mochis I was knitting for a new art piece that’s going up in the Lion Brand Studio in August? I’ve continued knitting them in whenever I find some time—between other projects, when I watch TV, or go to knitting groups. I think their numbers are really climbing, although I don’t have an exact count right now because some are still in Berlin from being in my last show. (They were playing the part of asteroids on the 26-foot-long asteroid belt.) Soon, I’ll have to figure out exactly what I want to do with them!
It’s interesting how my eyes find patterns in the colors when I just dump them out of the bag I keep them in and let them fall randomly.
For the piece, which will be more or less two-dimensional and will hang on a wall, I’ll make sure they all have noses and are all face up (though their bodies will be oriented in all different directions), but how to arrange them? I originally planned to keep it as a big random bunch, although lately I like the idea of shaping the mass into a longer curve that has some movement.
There’s a big part of me that wants to add some really big mochis to the crowd, and have them be performing some action like eating the smaller ones or something. But I kind of want to challenge myself to keep it abstract.
I hope to add many more mochis in the next few months; with enough of them, some could act as a base layer, and others could kind of float on top. I think this would add a lot of depth and interest. (I tried a bit of that in the photo below, but I don’t think it really comes through in the image.)
Here’s another quick arrangement, this time by size, with the biggest in the middle and the smallest on the outside.
Even though this now feels like a pretty silly project that I took on, knitting hundreds of these little guys one by one, it also feels like I’m stretching my brain in a good way to figure out something to do with them that is worth the time that I’ve put into making them. I have about two and a half more months to make up my mind.
I should also mention that this knitting madness is made possible by the generosity of Koigu, who contributed lots of their beautiful brightly-colored yarn!