Vogue Knitting LIVE is returning to Chicago March 9-11, and Mochimochi Land will be there! See the world of mochis in person, pick up kits and books, and hunt for tiny clover on Sunday for prizes.
This will be my first in-person event in over a year! I’m looking forward to breathing that nice hotel air again and seeing all your lovely faces and handknit apparel.
Last month it was my pleasure to lead a stop-motion animation workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library. This was my first time trying such a workshop, and I was lucky enough to have a big group of enthusiastic would-be animators of all ages attend. (I could tell from the start that they would be jumping right in, because it was a beautiful July Saturday in this beautiful college town, and they had chosen to spend the afternoon in a basement with me!)
After a presentation of my various animation projects, along with some examples of approaches that were very different from mine, everyone broke up into teams to make their own animations. The library supplied iPod Touches loaded with the Stop Motion Studio app (yes, this is the coolest library, and it’s totally worth becoming a card holder even if you don’t live in the area), and they also had plenty of models and craft supplies for people to use. Many participants came with their own materials, from paper to Legos to knitted mochis!
As people finished up their short animations, we gathered around the devices to see the results, and I was impressed by just how different everyone’s projects were. The animations were both narrative and non-narrative, things shot overhead and against the wall, scenes with backgrounds and at least one that incorporated a self-portrait.
A couple of people have shared their results with me—here’s a short one starring knitted patriots that Sara made.
And here’s a cool origami animation shared by a participant named Kevin—he made this after the workshop, based on what he experimented with at the library.
Is it bad to say that this was way more fun than teaching a knitting class? Well, fortunately knitting and animating are not mutually exclusive activities. I do hope to have the opportunity to do this again soon at another venue.
Thank you to Erin at the Ann Arbor District Library and to everyone who came to the workshop!
Opening tonight (6/22) is Sweet ‘n Low, An International Show of Cute at Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA.
Here’s a peek at my piece, a community of global gnomes.
From the previews I’ve seen, this will be an exciting exhibition. And cute!
The show runs through August 23rd. Details at the Bedford Gallery website.
People of Ann Arbor, come take a stop-motion animation workshop with me on July 1st at the Ann Arbor District Library!
The workshop is 2-5pm and is open to everyone from 6th graders to adults. I’m going to talk about a bit of my animation work, and then we’ll all try our hand at making fun animations together as teams. We’re going to use a free mobile app, so that means you can take your skills home with you and continue making more animations on your own if you like.
Get the details at addl.org.
Hope to see you there!
If you’re going to be anywhere near NYC this weekend, I hope you’ll get yourself to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for Vogue Knitting LIVE.
Here’s the rundown of Mochimochi Land goings-on:
• You can join me in a group knitting project—we’ll be making as many FellowSheep as we can all weekend, sponsored by Lion Brand!
• Check out a small display of classic Mochimochi characters and animations!
• I’ll be in the art gallery area of the marketplace all weekend signing books and selling kits at a special price, including exciting NEW kits that you can’t find anywhere else yet!
• On Sunday there will be a tiny ninja hunt in the Marketplace! Each person who finds a knitted ninja will win either a copy of Adventures in Mochimochi Land or a tiny ninja kit.
• My mom’s gonna be there too!
Free event alert! Come knit tiny pumpkins with me at the Chicago downtown library on October 24th.
You can bring your own yarn and needles (if you’re new to knitting tiny toys, I recommend worsted-weight yarn and size 5 DPNs), or you can purchase a kit from me containing yarn, needles, and stuffing at the event. I’ll also have my other books available for purchase.
Check out the full information here!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mom also helped me hang a new little garland at our table—I think it was a brilliant addition!
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!
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.
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.
Following up on the previous post, last Thursday I was happy to be back at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio!
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.
Gnome number two was more of a hipster, so he disembarked at the Bedford Ave subway station in Brooklyn.
Gnome number three was up for some culture, so he left us at PS1 in Queens.
And the last tiny gnome took off all his clothes at City Hall in Jersey City.
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!