The pattern for Lucky is now available in the Mochimochi Shop!
This pattern is a quick knit with minimal seaming. Techniques include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles and mattress stitch.
Buy the pattern as a PDF download here!
Update: Thank you to Simply Knitting for featuring Mochimochi Land and Lucky on their blog!
I haven’t been a huge collector of the plastic Japanese miniatures that seem to only be gaining in popularity—most often food, furniture, and the like— but my ever-savvy mother-in-law Bonney introduced me over the weekend to her new collection of “Story of the Sweet Animals” miniature animal scenes that she got from this website. They’re amazing! Each blind box contains at least two adorable plastic animals, some darling plastic props (water, mushrooms, tree), and a little card backdrop scene.
Apparently you can connect the cards together to make a complete story.
Bonney bought a box of 10, so we spent a while ripping them open like it was a Japanese miniature version of Christmas. Unfortunately for me, there were no duplicates for me to take home, so I may have to buy some for myself. After all, according to the website, “Not only are the fun toys, but they are perfect as home décor.”
Of course! These would go perfectly with that new couch we just got.
I love these two colors together.
It’s something new I’m working on, something that is made up of a lot of different pieces. Anyone want to venture a guess? I’ll let you know if you’re right, but I might not be posting the finished piece for a little while…
You now have just under two more weeks to enter the Mochimochi Photo Contest! Have you entered yet?
We’ve already gotten some adorable and hilarious entries. I don’t want to single out any photos just yet, but you can see all of the entries so far at the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group:
Two weeks—by July 31—is plenty of time to knit up a Mochimochi Land toy, take a photo, and upload it to Flickr, so get started if you haven’t done these three things! There are fabulous prizes straight from Japan for first, second, and third place winners.
Check out all the contest details here, and see some of the aforementioned fabulous prizes here.
Voting will start in early August, so be sure to check back here then!
One of the highlights of picturesque Wiscasset, Maine, is Big Al’s, the giant odd lots store on the edge of town. Big Al’s doesn’t have everything, but it has everything else.
The place isn’t as big as a Super Wal-Mart—it might not even be as big as most regular Wal-Marts—but its warehouse-size building is huge by Maine standards. (And I believe it existed before the L.L. Bean outlet in Freeport.)
Permit me to share some of my favorite finds at Big Al’s from my recent visit.
Thank goodness! They have scrubs.
Thank goodness they have faux antique canned goods?
And they have lots of yarn! Lots and lots of novelty yarn in neon colors.
Don’t ask how many candles Big Al’s carries. As how many nautical candles Big Al’s carries. (Answer: I count at least 10 varieties.)
And finally, a cow computer cover:
Fits over monitor or PC!
My friend Audrey (the one who designs jewelry) sent me an interesting photo that seems a perfect followup to the creepy polyfil bag.
The photo is from a 1988 issue of National Geographic, from an feature titled “Wool: Fabric of History.” (I cropped out a flash reflection, but there was also a knitted tea set in the photo.)
Here is the caption that Audrey also passed along:
The cat’s alive, but the rest of Noeline Black’s friends are stuffed. Created by Black and other members of the Fabric Art Company in Wellington, New Zeland, they reflect the humor and ironies of domestic life. Taking yarn from her own leg, the woman at her far right is unraveling herself to make the baby she has always wanted.
It seems as though the Fabric Art Company no longer exists (at least not to the internet), but there are a couple of photos from a 1983 gallery installation they did on the Art New Zealand website.
Thanks Audrey!
A while back, I picked up an extra bag of polyester fiberfill while staying with my parents in Oklahoma. It’s got to be the creepiest polyfil packaging on the market.
Has anybody else seen this? I think I got it at a Hobby Lobby. What I find especially unsettling is the way that the sewing grandmother almost looks like she could be a real person (perhaps the user of said polyfil?), but then if you look at her hands, she’s pretty clearly a very realistic-looking doll. And then we’ve got what look like three little gypsies, something colorful that doesn’t really look like anything, something faceless on the left that might be an art piece (?), and a scary giant Santa.
I just wish I had taken a better photo of the bag—I left it at my parents again for use next time I’m in town (if they don’t throw it away first). The polyfil itself is pretty good though.
For the past year or so, every time I hit John up for a knitted toy idea, I’ve gotten the same enthusiastic answer:
“How about Resisty the Resistor!”
If you’re not electronically inclined, a resistor is something that regulates current in a circuit board, or at least that’s my basic understanding. What else could I expect from the author of Geek Out New York?
So, partly because I was looking for a small project to whip up yesterday, and partly because today is our second wedding anniversary, I finally broke down and made little Resisty.
Right now he’s on the hunt for a circuit board and maybe a few friends!
Update: Thank you to Michelle at the Craft blog for featuring little Resisty!