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Cross-stitch Class at Brooklyn General August 8

Posted on by Anna

In the past couple of years, cross-stitch has become second only to knitting to me in the category of favorite craft projects. New Yorkers who are interested in learning how to do it but aren’t sure where to start should check out the beginning-level cross-stitch workshop that I’ll be teaching at Brooklyn General at 5-7 pm on Sunday, August 8th. Participants will have first crack at my newest pattern!

forestfriends_class

Along with everything you need to know about how to work with a cross-stitch pattern, the class will include a tutorial on framing your finished cross-stitch and (if time allows) some tips on creating your own design.

You can sign up via the Brooklyn General website. See you there!

A Year of Tinys

Posted on by Anna

As I mentioned the other day in the post about my Tiny Sun, it has been a whole year since I began the “Tiny” series here on the Mochimochi Blog!

For those of you who weren’t with me a year ago, in July 2009 I was looking for a fun challenge for the month, and I decided to try knitting a new tiny toy every weekday and posting it here on my blog. I hesitantly started with a Tiny Brain, but then it was easy to continue with all the helpful suggestions that people gave me in the comments. When the month of July was over, I was still getting lots of super ideas, so I thought I’d continue the series with a new tiny knitted toy each week. I’ve surprised myself by keeping it up ever since then, without (as far as I can recall, at least) a single week missed!

I thought it would be fun to put together a visual with all of the Tinys that I’ve made over the past year. It’s a total of 70 teeny-tiny Mochimochis! Here they are in alphabetical order.

yearoftinys

I’ve thought about stopping the series now that it’s been a year, but I would be a little sad to do so. There are just so many Tiny possibilities left in this world! I could also start on some other type of series, but nothing that I’ve come up with so far (like knitting giant things, for example) has quite gotten me excited enough. But if you’ve had your fill of tiny knitting and you have an idea for something totally different, I would love to hear it!

I’ve also been happy to get lots of inquiries about patterns for these tiny toys. I do plan to release another set of Tiny patterns sometime soon, so please keep an eye out for it! (I’m pretty certain that the Tiny Gnome and Tiny Frog will be two of the four patterns, but I’m still undecided about the other two…)

Summer Reading

Posted on by Anna

My July 4th weekend consisted largely of reading and sleeping in the grass. How appropriate that I was reading this book.

theaccidental

I loved it. It’s been a long time since I got excited about a book, so I feel the need to spread the word. As you can see, it’s The Accidental by Ali Smith. It came out a few years ago.

While I’m talking of new favorite things, the best movie I saw recently was Please Give (not spectacular, but unexpectedly good), and in the music category I’ve been enjoying The National’s Boxer (admittedly late to this one too).

Book Signing at Lion Brand Studio July 27th

Posted on by Anna

I’m very excited to announce that I will be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC July 27th for a Knitting Mochimochi book signing!

km_lionstudio

Like other visitors to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, I am in love with the beautiful space, and so I can’t wait to be there with the full collection of toys from my new book.

I’ll be there at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 27th, so please come by if you’re in the city! There will also be raffle drawings—fun! See more info on the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website.

Two Terrific Testers Talk Knitting Mochimochi

Posted on by Anna

None of my patterns would be what they are without my amazing group of testers. That includes the new patterns in Knitting Mochimochi of course—not only did my testers do a great job of trying out the patterns and helping me edit them, but they also were able to keep it all under wraps for a whole year!

Two of my testers recently reviewed Knitting Mochimochi on their blogs, and they both also happened to post a photo of their version of Neck Nuzzler from the book. Fun!

Oiyi wrote a really thorough review on her blog Oiyi’s Crafts. Her Neck Nuzzler looks quite similar to mine (only better, let’s be honest).

necknuzzler_oiyi

She used the recommended yarn in the pattern to knit this guy, and he turned out great! I always looove seeing Oiyi’s photos of tests that she’s done for me. She’s such a meticulous knitter (of course!), and she’s also a fantastic photographer.

Along with the review, Oiyi is doing a giveaway of Knitting Mochimochi on her blog! You can enter to win a copy of the book by leaving a comment on her review post—deadline is July 9th.

Hannah at Bittersweet Blog is another top-notch tester. Like Oiyi, she’s a talented knitter and photographer. She also is way ahead of me as the author of several books about making vegan desserts that everyone can get excited about.

Hannah admits her biased opinion in her review of my book, but her kind words about it have me really touched nonetheless.

And check out her Neck Nuzzler on this elegant model!

necknuzzler_bittersweet

Thank you so much to Oiyi and Hannah and to allll of my wonderful testers!

Tiny Sun

Posted on by Anna

tinysun

Yes, we know, everything revolves around him. But that doesn’t mean he has to act like it does!

I thought a Tiny Sun was appropriate today for a couple of reasons: first because we’re smack in the middle of a hot summer, and also because today marks almost exactly a year ago that I began the Tiny series, so it seemed fitting that this be the tiniest in scale thing yet! By my calculations, this guy is about 44 BILLION times tinier than the real sun.

The very first person to leave a comment suggesting that I knit a Tiny Sun (to go with the Tiny Earth I made) was Tango, almost a whole year ago! Free pattern for her!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!