Blog

Tiny Collection 2 Patterns Now Available!

Posted on by Anna

OK folks, the tiny trend continues in the Mochimochi Shop with Tiny Things Collection 2!

tinys2_announce

These little guys are hugely addictive! You’ve been warned if you start making entire herds of Tiny Vacuums, Tiny Babies, Tiny Lollipops, and Tiny Lions. All use fingering weight yarn and size 1 needles. Techniques include picking up stitches, I-cord, and a little bit of mattress stitch and Kitchener stitch for the vacuum.

And if you’re in a not-so-tiny mood, these projects can be easily scaled up just by using thicker yarn and larger needles—like this!

You can buy the PDF pattern collection for $5 here in the Mochimochi Shop.

Mochimochi Land Needs a New Tagline!

Posted on by Anna

logo_snake

Now that I’ve started adding cross-stitch patterns to my shop and I might someday do other kinds of projects, I’m thinking it’s time for a new Mochimochi Land tagline! Right now, it’s “Knitted toys and people living together in a spirit of tolerance.” I like the subtle humor of this, but I think a tagline that isn’t so knitting or toy-specific might be a good idea.

You guys are creative, so I would love to hear YOUR ideas for a new Mochimochi Land tagline. Please leave them in the comments to this post! It should probably be catchy and cute, but not too cute. (You know what I mean.)

I won’t necessarily use one of the suggestions, but I might! If I choose your suggestion, there’s no prize, but you do get some glory for totally knowing what Mochimochi Land is all about.

Last-Minute Shamrocks

Posted on by Anna

Feeling compelled to add a little green to your outfit today? If you have a few minutes, you can whip up a shamrock pin by making three hearts from my free pattern, attaching them together, and adding an I-cord!

hearts_shamrocks

I blogged about these shamrock pins that veeda made last year, and I’ve since seen one or two more pop up on Ravelry. It’s such a clever idea!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hearts for Haiti at Churchmouse

Posted on by Anna

I just received happy news from from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas in Bainbridge Island, Washington, who last month sponsored a “Hearts for Haiti” charity fundraiser to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. They offered a collection of hand-knitted hearts (made from my free pattern) for people to purchase with all proceeds to be donated to Partners in Health. The event raised almost $1,200!

Annabella was nice enough to send over a couple of photos from the fundraiser.

churchmouse1

She said there were bowls filled with little knitted hearts all over the shop. Cute!

churchmouse2

It’s so inspiring to see knitters working together to help a very worthy cause, in a very fun way. Certainly when I designed the little pattern in 2007 I had no idea of the potential it had in the hands of others.

If you are interested in using any of my patterns to help raise money for a good cause, please email me at info [at] mochimochiland [dot] com.

Magic Drawer

Posted on by Anna

I was working at my desk last night when I realized that the left drawer in my desk is kind of magical. I always have it crammed full of polyfil for stuffing convenience, so whenever I open it a big cloud of fluffy white stuff appears. The identical drawer on the right side of the desk contains balls of colorful yarn, which is almost as magical.

magicdrawer

I’m often at my desk working on a project with both drawers open, and I feel like the captain of some whimsical white knitting ship in a remake of Spaceballs.