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Third Time at Vogue Knitting LIVE Chicago was a Charm

Posted on by Anna

This past weekend was Vogue Knitting LIVE Chicago—my third time to be there! It was a busy weekend of Mochimochi Land assembling, seeing familiar faces in the marketplace, a little lecturing on knitting toys, and handing out prizes to tiny hot dog hunters.

It takes a lot of prep to get ready for one of these events, but Soupy was on it last week, in a literal sort of way.

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This was my first time showing the classic tabletop Mochimochi Land at VK LIVE in Chicago, and it had some exciting additions, including donuts attacking bakers from my new book, Adventures in Mochimochi Land.

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Also new were tiny me, John, and our cats thanks to Joan, one of our favorite mochi makers. You could find the family just beyond the unicorn eaters.

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Speaking of family, here’s my mom! She joined me all weekend and was a great help. We even got her some Malabrigo yarn so she could knit a cowl as she manned the booth with me.

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Mom also helped me hang a new little garland at our table—I think it was a brilliant addition!

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Here are our nine successful hot dog hunters—as usual (for some reason) one of the tiny hotdogs went rogue and wasn’t heard from again!

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These frankfurter finders each won a copy of Adventures in Mochimochi Land or a tiny kit of their choosing.

And finally, Joyce won the weekend as the most savvy mochi knitter, having brought a written list of all the Mochimochi Land patterns that she’s already acquired and didn’t need to get duplicates of.

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Thanks to the Vogue Knitting LIVE team for a great weekend, and thanks to everyone who came out! With the baby coming in December, this will be my last VK LIVE for a little while, but I’m sure you can’t keep me away for too long.

Sheila’s HUGE Tiny Mochi Assortment

Posted on by Anna

I’ve been seeing some impressive tiny mochi projects on Ravelry lately—they make my day every time! It also bodes well for our upcoming annual photo and video contest. I’ll be announcing that here soon, but you can already start submitting your photos by adding them to our Flickr group. (And check out last year’s contest details for more information.)

I don’t want to ruin all the fun by sharing too much before the contest even starts, but I simply must highlight this giant assortment of tinys made by epic knitter Sheila.

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The smaller box that you see was made for Sheila by some of her friends, then true to form, Sheila blew up the idea to heroic proportions. Truly there is no end to her creative energy. (Be sure to check out her hexiscenes too!)

By the way, I’m still working on choosing the prizes for this year’s photo contest. If you have any ideas for what you’d like them to be, let me know!

A Little Lion on the Way

Posted on by Anna

I’ve got some personal life news to share today: John and I are expecting a baby boy in December!

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This is the first thing that I’ve knitted for him, a little lion ball. I’m planning to make several more in different colors and also maybe with different types of manes. They’ll either become a mobile or will just be little balls to play with.

Here’s the side view—very simple.

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The due date is December 19th, so the holidays will certainly be different for us this year!

I’ll continue shipping orders as long as I can, but there will be a delay in sending out tangible orders sometime after the beginning of December. (I’ll put up a notice about it when that happens, and we will continue shipping on a delayed schedule after that.) I’ll also be taking a few months off from most work, so the blog and social media will be pretty quiet for a while, but I plan to be back at it whenever I can.

Thanks in advance for your patience while we figure out how to be parents!

An Evening at Lion Brand and NYC Gnomes

Posted on by Anna

Following up on the previous post, last Thursday I was happy to be back at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio!

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Technical difficulties that resulted in me hoisting my laptop up for everyone to squint at, but people were patient with me and we all had a nice time.

Thank you to everyone at the Studio and everyone who came out! (And thanks to Koko for the photo!)

I was in the city for a couple more days, so I spent the time visiting friends, seeing museums, and sprinkling a little gnome magic around. One gnome wanted to be right in the middle of everything, so he got dropped off at 14th Street and 9th Avenue in Manhattan.

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Gnome number two was more of a hipster, so he disembarked at the Bedford Ave subway station in Brooklyn.

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Gnome number three was up for some culture, so he left us at PS1 in Queens.

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And the last tiny gnome took off all his clothes at City Hall in Jersey City.

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I’m certain that each of these guys has now found a new home and is having a whole different big city adventure now.

While I was leaving them around, of course, I shared their locations and photos on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. So if you’d like to keep up with future gnome drops in real time, follow me there!

Sept 17th Talk and Book Signing at Lion Brand Yarn Studio, NYC

Posted on by Anna

I get to go to NYC next week! I’m always excited to visit the last place I called home, and this time the occasion is also exciting—a talk and book signing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio!

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If you’re in the NYC area, please join me next Thursday, September 17th, at 6pm, when I’ll discuss the adventure that was the making of Adventures in Mochimochi Land with a slideshow talk. The studio always does other little giveaways in conjunction with their talks, so it’ll be a fun evening. RSVP here!

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Maybe I’ll also bring a few gnomes with me to leave in the city while I’m there for a couple of days. If you see a gnome roaming around the city, please give him or her a nice home!

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It’s Mystery Kit Time Again!

Posted on by Anna

Put on your Sherlock hats, it’s time again for mystery kits!

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These are three all new tiny designs that may not return again for a while. And through September 30th you can get them for free! Here’s how:

• Order 2 kits or books (or one of each) from the Mochimochi Shop, and you’ll receive one randomly selected mystery kit with your order. (No need to add the kit to your cart!)

• Order 4 kits or books (or some combination thereof), and you’ll receive TWO mystery kits.

• Order 6 kits/books, and all will be revealed!

Like all tiny mochi kits, these come with a pattern and enough yarn (Cascade Heritage, a wool/nylon blend) and stuffing to make 2 or 3 itty-bitty creatures. You’ll need a set of size 1 double-pointed needles (which you can also now purchase from the Mochimochi Shop).

Would you like a hint? Well, we’ve got a human-like creature, a machine-like creature, and a beast-like creature in the mix this time. We’d also love your help keeping the mystery fun by not discussing the kits you receive online until October.

You know you love a good mystery!

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Back Page Contest Winner

Posted on by Anna

It was very hard to choose a winner of our Back Page Contest—so many of you found clever ways to use the 2-dimensional landscape page from Adventures in Mochimochi Land. (I knew you guys would come through big time!)

So John and I had a big debate about it last night, and we finally settled on…

Gummy Bear Photo Bomb by Tara!

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We loved the way that this image plays with the idea of a photo itself, and it has so much energy and humor.

Congratulations, Tara! You win this awesome collection of books from Potter Craft and Potter Style.

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I’ll be contacting you via Flickr for your mailing address.

Of course, we were smitten with lots of other photo entries, so here are some highly deserved honorable mentions.

One way to get a kite out of a tree by KnitWit685

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Travel Agent Squidy by Michelle

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The Photo Shoot by juleenbean

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Photographer Eddie by Salla Ahola

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(We liked the caption to this one: Nature photography proved to be too challenging for Eddie. The birds were just flying around and posing behind his back.

Big thanks again to everyone who entered this contest. We’ll have our big annual photo + video contest coming up in a couple of months (with even more awesome crafty prizes), so please stay tuned for that!