Happy New Year! I gave this one a very slow start as things have been crazy and I’m mostly taking it day-to-day so far. I imagine many people are feeling this way! Anyway, whatever day it is, it’s a good day for knitting something tiny and cute, so let’s knit tiny tigers together for the year of the tiger!

Just looking at these little guys, with their peppy stripes and friendly face fuzz, makes me happy. It’s a quick pattern that uses stranded color knitting, I-cord, and a smidge of picked up stitches for the tail. Great for yarn scraps, or I also have a kit that makes two yellow tigers, one for you and one for a friend!

I have Yuri from Eylul yarns in Osaka, Japan, to thank for motivating me to make this pattern. I spent one new year in Japan when I was an exchange student (many years ago now!), and it was such a wonderful time of family and friends and fancy foods and wishes for the new year. And I have Lora Kinberger to thank for her test knitting!

As for this design, I think this is the first time I’ve gone with this sort of side-facing look for the face—it’s something I’ve been doing in clay for a while, actually, and it only recently occurred to me to try it in knitting.

I like how you get to see the full face and body at the same time! It’s very illustrative, and although I’m not an illustrator, I’m trying to open my eyes more to the shapes and patterns that illustration can inspire.

Anyway, I hope you love the pattern, and I hope we all have many good things ahead in 2022!

Oh, and you can take 22% off most everything in my shop right now with the code HappyNewRawr!

As you may have heard, the 2021 Mochimochi Land holiday pattern is here!

Goodnight Mice are sleepy little creatures who just want to curl up and forget about the holidays, and the world in general. Sounds nice, right?

The mice are quick enough that you can make a few for gifts and even knit them little stockings or sleeping bags to nestle into. Or just make one for yourself and call it a day!

I like my holiday knitting to be as simple as possible, so I aimed to design a mouse that had some shaping to the face without using short rows. (I love the effect of short rows and I’ve been using them a lot lately, but they do require a little dexterity and paying a bit more attention to where you are for a few rows.) That was also motivation for me to learn a new (to me) sock heel technique, the afterthought heel. It uses waste yarn, a smidge of picking up stitches, and grafting (which also takes a little focus, but in this case it’s a small number of stitches).

But my main challenge with this project turned out to be designing a creature that didn’t look like a koala!

My lovely mother-in-law, Bonney Teti, has an eye for such things, and she gave me several rounds of feedback as I was working out the design. Then she became the first pattern tester, so she deserves a lot of credit! By the way, Bonney has a really fun podcast that she does with her son (my husband), John. Check it out!

Once I had a draft of the pattern, my sharp-eyed tech editor, Marilyn Passmore, got it into shape, as she’s been doing with all of my patterns for a long time. Marilyn is just the best!

A few days past the initial pattern launch, I’ve been delighted by how many of you have already downloaded Goodnight Mice for yourselves—thank you! And some VERY cute mice have already been popping up on Instagram and Ravelry, YAY!

Whether or not your holiday plans include these mice, I hope you skip the stress and find the fun as much as possible, and GET SOME SLEEP!