A HUGE thank-you to everyone who entered the Mochimochi Photo Contest!!! Your creativity astounds me, and I’ve found myself inspired over and over again by your beautiful, funny, and clever photos.

The contest was a great success, with 90 participants and more than 400 entries. But choosing finalists for the photo contest is wayyy harder than I thought! My husband and trusted Mochimochi Land partner John and I have been narrowing down our favorites, but we’re still not quite down to our top ten. So tomorrow and Wednesday we’ll present our 20 semifinalists and encourage you to campaign for your favorites in the comments. Then the list of finalists will come later in the week and voting will commence!

Today we’re presenting (in no particular order) our Honorable Mentions: photos that didn’t make our semifinalists list, but that we still think are awesome.

UPDATE 12/12/07: I’ve taken the images in this post down to save bandwidth, but you can still click on the links to see the photos!

Camouflage by muffychloe
This Sleepy Snake is trying to fool a mouse by disguising himself as an Uh-Oh. Too clever!

Action Safari Shot! by Sevous
A yellow bob tries to evade the menacing (and totally cute!) cat in multiple shots.

Albino grass tries something new by cspooks
An albino Grass sees what life as a tooth might be like. Love it!

Bob and Grass Family by wrchill
This is the story of how Bob and Grass fell in love and had a bob/grass hybrid offspring. Wow!

Carrot Hiding in Berries by flowers.leaves
Ninjabun’s carrot looks so cute nestled in this bunch of berries.

Knits & Bobs by world ruined
A most artistic close-up of everyone’s favorite long-nosed friend.

Grass Stain on the Wheel by kountingsheep
Not only is this photo totally funny, but it’s also a crocheted version of Grass!

Dog and pigs in blankets by Ouonqui
Tee hee hee!

Bob-B-Q by rsislandcrafts
Bob and friends celebrated Thanksgiving this year with a Bob-B-Q! I love their expressive eyes and the pattern alterations.

Bob & Alfie by lizzie j b
Mochimochi Land toys paired with pets are the cutest! This confrontation is especially funny.

Check back tomorrow for the first group of semifinalists!

One of the fun things about New York is the tradition of holiday shop displays, which range from the sublime to the charming to the thoroughly creepy.

I’m planning on reviewing some notable holiday displays throughout the next month, and so I thought I’d start with the one I see almost every day.

The Shops at Columbus Circle are an upscale mall of sorts connected to the Time Warner Center. (I’m usually there for the Whole Foods in the basement, not the Swarovski boutique.)

Every holiday season, or at least for the past three that I’ve been here for, they haul out these enormous spiky stars and hang them from the ceiling.

The stars change color along with atmospheric holiday music. It’s quite beautiful. My husband’s CNN friend says that the Time Warner people are proud of their elegant, interfaith display.

One star hangs lower than the rest, though, and its sharp metal tip points directly at the people riding up from Whole Foods on the escalator.

Every time I get groceries in November and December, I think about the cable breaking and this pointy steel and glass object plunging through my right shoulder. My hands are full of grocery bags, so I’m helplessly immobile as the star of death comes crashing down, ripping my flesh asunder.

Here is the view, looking up, right as I’m about to pass under it.

At least it would be a festive way to go!

Our little haystack has attracted some unwanted attention from a hungry sheep!

After the sheep satisfies his appetite and gets a name, he’s hoping to become a pattern in the shop along with his haystack friend.

A few more sheepish views:

I just got an email from someone who wanted some clarification on how to join the feet in the Mochimochi Reindeer pattern. It’s a very simple method, but not so simple to explain in words. Since I also use the same basic method for the Ninjabun and the Woodins patterns, it occurred to me that others might like a quick visual guide. Here goes!

I’m starting at the point at which you have two finished feet, and you’re ready to join them together. I find it easiest to first divide the stitches of each foot onto two needles.

Next, work across the first half of stitches in the foot that has the yarn attached to it. Once you’ve worked these stitches, cast on additional stitches, if the pattern calls for any, using backward loop method.

Now pick up the other foot, and begin knitting across it, starting with what would be the first stitch in the round if the yarn were still attached to that foot.

Below is a top view, showing the working strand of yarn on the right and the cut yarn (held up) attached to the last stitch on the foot.

Continue to knit all the way around the foot, ending with the stitch with the cut yarn. You can twist the cut yarn around your working yarn or weave it into the stitches later.

Now you’re on the “back” side of the feet. Cast on additional stitches, if required, in the same way as on the front side.

Finally, continue to work across the remaining stitches—the second half of the stitches from the foot you started with.

You’re now ready to continue working the stitches in one big round. You will end up with a gap between the feet, which you can stitch up at the finishing stage of the toy.

I hope this mini-tutorial is helpful to some people. I just wrote this up quickly, so if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments!