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Knitting Mochimochi is 10!

Right after I posted that look back at Greetings from Mochimochi the other day, I realized that this anniversary also meant that my first book, Knitting Mochimochi, is also ten years old this year!

Creating my first book was a ton of work and a ton of fun, especially the Tulsa photo shoots with Brandi Simons.


Confused Moose: This photo shoot involved getting little knitted birds wet—fun!


Tiny Pencil: Second professional manicure in my life for this photo! (The first was for prom.)


Baby Gators: This is still one of my all-time favorite Mochimochi Land photos… Actually several from this book are all-time favorites!


Here’s me with my sister, Leah, during the first photo shoot for the muff. We decided to reshoot it later with two models instead of one, but I’m glad Brandi thought to snap this picture of Leah and me.


The cutie in the middle is a high school senior now! Myself and fellow model Mike Simons (Brandi’s husband) haven’t aged a bit.


Posing Cuter Polluters in a big chunky necklace I got a thrift store in Tulsa while I was there.


I have a lot of photos of Brandi flat on the ground, trying to get the perfect angle. She’s such a professional!


And she’s a wonderful mother!


So many photos in this book (and other books) were shot in Brandi’s girls’ playroom. It got the best light! Incidentally, my kids’ room also gets the best light in the house we live in now, so I occasionally sneak in to take pictures there too.

I learned so much in the process about designing, writing, editing, and photography. And the feeling of holding a copy in my hands for the first time was one of those big life experiences that I’ll remember forever.

My style has changed a bit since 2010, but I still love so many of the patterns in this book, and I’m happy that people are still knitting from it. You can find it on a lot of websites (also as an ebook), and I keep a stock of signed copies here.

Greetings from Mochimochi 10 year anniversary

Greetings from Mochimochi was ten years ago this month!

Ten years ago I brought Mochimochi Land into the real life for the first time at gallery hanahou in NYC. Putting together Greetings from Mochimochi got me exploring a big interconnected world of knitted weirdness, and my subsequent installations at venues like Vogue Knitting LIVE were based on this first one. And it had a working model train!

I couldn’t be more grateful to KOKO Art Agency for making this magic happen and helping inspire so much Mochimochi Land fun in the past ten years.

Arise, Creepy Kittens!

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The time has come to knit something spooky. Something ookie. Something cozy and squozy and vaguely feline. Spooky Ookie Cats are (vampire) bite sized, intermediate-level projects designed to satisfy all your October cravings for snuggles and weirdness.

Knit a Guitar Case Cat ⚰️, Ghostie Cat 👻, Jack-o-Cat 🎃, and Itchy Witchy Hat Cat 🎩 in a just few hours each with this collection. Dust off your spookiest yarn scraps for these projects! The PDF download is now available from the Mochimochi Shop and Ravelry.

Thank you to Marilyn Passmore for her tech editing, and to Linda, Rebecca, and Amanda for test knitting!

Virtual Trunk Show with Cheers To Ewe

Update: Despite some technical difficulties caused by rain, we had a fun chat! And here’s the info for the Virtual Trunk Show:

Through Sunday (9/27), take 20% off all kits here on Mochimochiland.com with the code CHEERSTOEWE20. If you order 2 or more kits, I’ll include a 3″ gnome sticker, either clothed or gnaked! (You can specify in your order notes which one you’d like.)

Lovely Ladianne of the Charlotte, NC yarn store Cheers To Ewe has invited me onto their YouTube show this Friday (that’s tomorrow!) for a Charlotte Area Yarn Crawl Special.

In addition to the conversation about patterns and animations (and perhaps a sneak peek of new stuff), we’ll be having a VIRTUAL TRUNK SHOW, so if you tune in you can find out how to get a nice little discount on my kits and have your money go to this awesome local yarn store too!

Subscribe to the Cheers To Ewe YouTube channel and you won’t miss it!

Sophie and Chanel at Home

Sophie and Chanel have been staying home during the pandemic. Would you like to see what they’ve been up to for six months?

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They spent about a month staring at each other. Or maybe it was two months. Hard to remember.

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Then they made a game of rearranging the furniture.

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Sunday evenings are for cuddles.

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At one point, it really didn’t feel safe unless everyone was wearing a mask. Makes it a little hard to see what’s on TV though.

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This is what they do when they get tired of staring at each other.

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There have been some dark days, and a whole lot of screen time, but they’re happy that they at least have each other.

Stay safe, everyone!