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Puppet Love!

Posted on April 2, 2009 by Anna

There’s nothing like a friendly puppet to brighten someone’s day! The latest pattern in the Mochimochi Shop introduces three new characters who can’t wait to get on your needles…

Puppet Love includes a pattern for a basic puppet shape for adult-size hands, plus variations for Mack the Monkey, Buddy the Bug, and Gertie the Bird!

Techniques for this playful knit include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cord, and mattress stitch.

You can buy the pattern as a PDF download for $5 here.

And watch out for more Puppet Love variations in the future!

Lovely Shamrocks

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Anna

It’s still March for a couple more hours on the west coast, right? Just enough time to squeeze in one last shamrock-themed post for the year.

Aren’t these shamrock pins made by veeda great? Notice something interesting about them? They’re each made of three hearts! Add an I-cord and a pin at the back, and you’re all set for next March. So clever.

Henry Hatsworth in the Addictive DS Game

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Anna

My husband tossed me a new DS game a week ago that he thought I would like. Turns out I more than like it—there are huge blocks of time over the past two weekends that I kind of can’t account for now, as if I had blacked out. These were, of course, hours that I spent zombie-eyed and clutching my DS close to my face.

Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure is deceptively simple, comprised of a combination of platform and puzzle games, but it’s challenging and, as I found, totally addictive. Instead of writing more about it, I have to get back to playing now.

Check out John’s review of Henry Hatsworth on the A.V. Club. (And if you’re really into gaming, check out his coverage of last week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.)

Wild Things

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Anna

Maybe everyone has seen this already? Just in case not:

I don’t want to make any assumptions about how great the movie will be based on the trailer, but it’s an amazing trailer, at least. (The Arcade Fire song is a nice touch.)

Love the poster, too.

Love is in the Air at the Post Office

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Anna

Today is March 26th, but that’s apparently still “close enough” to Valentine’s Day for the Columbus Circle post office!

post_valentines

You may remember this display case from its autumnal theme that I photographed last October. The Valentine’s display is a bit more ambitious, with its paper cupid, fake roses, and tissue paper, and maybe the extra effort is why they decided to leave it up for an extra 40 days.

Or maybe the person who does the displays was laid off sometime around February 14th. That seems more likely, sadly.

See No Evil!

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Anna

seenoevil

A little glimpse of the next pattern to hit the Mochimochi Shop. (The image represents only one-third of what the entire pattern will be.) It’s coming in April!

Some New Musics

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Anna

The idea of going to SXSW was again tempting to me this year, but when I really thought about it, it would probably have been tons of waiting in lines (which I hate), loud noises (which I dislike), and standing in one place for hours at a time (which makes me woozy). So instead this year I sifted through A.V. Club and Pitchfork coverage, and came up with a few bands that I’m planning to be a fan of. These are they:

The Rural Alberta Advantage
I just bought their new (and first) album Hometowns. Everyone will like these Canadians.

Titus Andronicus
Nice punkly pop.

The Black & White Years
They are compared to Talking Heads a lot. They are also from Austin, which seems like a nice place to visit most of the year.

Parenthetical Girls
I just broke down and bought their 2008 album Entanglements. (I was planning to wait for a special occasion, but oh well.) It’s strange and silly and I love it. (You’ll probably hate it.)

Daniel Johnston Embroidery from Sublime Stitching

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Anna

Jenny Hart recently unveiled new embroidery patterns over at Sublime Stitching, including a great collection of designs by artist/musician Daniel Johnston!

I’ve been a Daniel Johnston fan for a while now, but I’ve especially had him on my mind recently because I finally saw the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston a month or so ago. It was sad, but neat to see different aspects of his genius in footage from his earlier years.

I’m also a big fan of Jenny Hart, of course—I took an embroidery workshop with her a couple of years ago, and she was a great teacher and a huge inspiration to me when I was first thinking about publishing patterns. I love that she does so much collaboration with interesting artists and musicians.