Category: Events

Seoul Box of Fun Giveaway Time

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by Anna

It’s time for one lucky contributor to Project Gnome Diplomacy to win a fabulous box of fun from Seoul!

Here’s what’s in store for the winner.

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Highlights include:

— A cute bee + hive magnet set

— A Sticky Monster Lab Smoothy King banana figure

— Weird fox and ogre face peel masks

— Cute tooth-shaped toothbrush holders

— Fun cloth ribbon

— Individually wrapped caramel erasers

— Lotsa stickers and candy!

OK, selection time. I’ve got a big bag of names to draw from, and it’s hard to choose just one…. but… the winner… is…

John, who contributed Lief Gnomenson and his younger brother Sprout! Congratulations, John! I’m emailing you right now for your mailing address.

Big thanks again to all of you who contributed to Project Gnome Diplomacy. As generous gnome makers savvy enough to participate in an online call for gnomes, you are all winners in life. We’ve been talking about the gnomes’ ultimate destiny with Everyday Mooonday (and generating some fun ideas!), and I’ll be sure to share an update on this project as it developes.

Photos from The Gnome Genome Project

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Anna

Well, the big trip to Seoul happened like a blur last week, and we’ve been back in Chicago for a couple of days already, trying to recover from jet lag. (It’s really hard!)

I can’t express just how amazing our week was. Most of our time was spent setting up the exhibition at Everyday Mooonday. The welcome that they gave the show was just incredible!

This was by far the most complex show that I’ve done, with four rooms to fill with gnomes displayed every which way.

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I also set up the Mochimochi Land tabletop display (a bigger version than I’ve done at recent Vogue Knitting LIVEs), which took a good 15 hours or so to arrange and stitch together.

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John was a big help throughout—he managed to mount 81 tiny gnomes to the wall in perfect circles!

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A few more photos from the show, including pics of your gnome diplomats on display, after the jump!

Continue reading “Photos from The Gnome Genome Project” →

VK LIVE Pasadena Recap

Posted on April 21, 2015April 22, 2015 by Anna

I just returned from a really fun weekend at Vogue Knitting LIVE in sunny Pasadena!

Right here is where I would insert a photo of palm trees, but I have a habit of missing important “locale” photos, and instead this is the only photo I took outside of the marketplace all weekend.

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I passed this place every morning on my run, and I liked the local flavor of it amongst all the upscale chain stores. Pasadena has an interesting mix of the old and the new like that.

The last time I was in the area was for VK LIVE in LA four years ago. So this was a welcome opportunity to return, and it was great to see some familiar faces from last time, plus plenty of new people.

Thursday and Friday morning were a blur of stitching and pinning Mochimochi Land together. Seven hours of work on this might seem like a lot, but spreading it out over two days helps a lot, and I don’t get much happier than when I’m listening to some music on my phone and making little dramas take shape.

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And to me it’s worth it to add all the fun little details for people to discover.

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I set up most of Mochimochi Land in a similar way as I did in NYC earlier this year, but I like to change it up a bit every time, so this time we had colorful sheep, alpaca, and disco gnomes!

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See more from the weekend after the jump!

Continue reading “VK LIVE Pasadena Recap” →

Another Great VK LIVE

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Anna

I just had the best weekend at the 5th Anniversary Vogue Knitting LIVE! It seems strange to return to NYC and spend the entire three days in Times Square, but I loved every minute of it (except for the black ice on Sunday—whoa that was a weird way to start the day). So much fiber excitement, so many familiar faces and friendly new ones too!

And this year, Mochimochi Land was back in classic form.

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I brought back elements from the display that I showed at the first VK LIVE (which itself had been a modified form of my 2010 show Greetings from Mochimochi), and added new scenes and characters. Setup on Friday was an intense seven hours of arranging, pinning, and stitching, but maybe there’s nothing I love more than to dump out a big pile of mochis and figure out what they’re all going to do with (and to) each other.

See more after the jump! Continue reading “Another Great VK LIVE” →

See you at VK LIVE NYC

Posted on January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 by Anna

For the fifth year in a row, Mochimochi Land is coming to Vogue Knitting LIVE in NYC!

That’s right, next weekend’s event is the 5th anniversary show, and I believe it will be my 9th overall VK LIVE. How time has flown since that first show!

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For this VK LIVE, I’m actually going to reprise the Mochimochi landscape that I brought to that first show. Mochimochi Land is getting packed up to be shipped out right now, in fact! This year’s display will be updated with many newer characters getting up to cute and strange mischief, including a sneak preview of what’s in store from my forthcoming book.

And here’s an idea I thought would be fun: this year you can be a part of Mochimochi Land by adding your own tiny mochis! Bring a creature (about 2″ or smaller) that you’ve made from a Mochimochi Land pattern, and add it to the scene.*

Also, we’re bringing back the Sunday hunt! This year we’re celebrating 5 years of VK LIVE with tiny balloons.

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Ten tiny balloons will be hidden around the marketplace on Sunday, and everyone who finds one wins a copy of Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi!

I’ll also be signing books, and tiny kits will be 2 for $20. So I hope to see many familiar faces and many new ones next weekend—find me in the 6th floor art gallery!

Vogue Knitting LIVE NYC
January 16 – 18
New York Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway, NYC

* You can either take your mochi home at the end of the day/weekend, or just donate it to us (we can’t ship it back to you after the event is over). Also, don’t bring one that is too precious to you, as there’s always a small chance that it could escape into the world!

VK LIVE Chicago Wrap Up: Gnomes, Twigs, and Tiny Pumpkins

Posted on October 29, 2014October 29, 2014 by Anna

This past weekend was Vogue Knitting LIVE in Chicago—my eighth VK LIVE! It was a busy four days of teaching, chatting with knitters (lots of new people and familiar faces too!), doing sales in the marketplace, and transporting delicate twigs back and forth across the city.

As usual, I was too busy to remember to take enough photos, but here are a few highlights.

My tiny knitting class Thursday night all showed up in similar outfits, so we just had to take a class photo.

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One of my students showed up drunk, so he had to leave early.

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But seriously, it was a great group of knitters, and we had a blast knitting tiny gnomes and making weird gnome jokes throughout!

My Friday morning toy design class was so much fun too. Everyone took a turn sketching out their toy, and we all talked about how the design could be executed using various techniques. The toy concepts ranged from a cat pillow to a knitted Audrey II! The classroom wall was full of exciting ideas by the end.

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Friday night and for the rest of the weekend, I could be found hanging out with my artwork in the marketplace. Here’s how we ended up displaying the twig sculptures.

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My table (which I forgot to take a picture of, of course) was right next to this, so I got a kick out of hearing the attendees’ reactions to my twigs and their inhabitants—there were lots of squeals of “cute!,” and every once in a while someone would react with shock to the twiggin who’s getting eaten on my new piece.

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(I’ll show more photos of the biggest twig soon for those who didn’t see it in person!)

There were so many cool things to see in the marketplace (including lots of other amazing fiber art), but one highlight that I actually photographed was getting my portrait illustrated by Jana Kinsman!

Jana was right across the room for me, doing everyone’s portrait for free! I love the concept of her Doodle Booth, and I love that the VK LIVE people thought to bring her in.

And lastly, the Great Tiny Pumpkin Hunt on Sunday was a success! Nine out of ten tiny pumpkins were found within the first two hours, and the last one came in at the end of the day, brought by the vendor whose booth it was at. Apparently people had been walking by the little pumpkin all day and just not seeing it! I tried to get every pumpkin finder’s picture, but somehow ended up with just seven.

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They all seemed pretty happy to keep their pumpkins and get a copy of Huge & Huggable Mochimochi.

Oh, and maybe 50 people told me that they saw the interview in the Tribune! And several even said that it was the way they found out about VK LIVE! That was awesome to hear.

Thank you to the VK LIVE team and all the knitters who came out for an excellent weekend of fun and inspiration!

See You at VK LIVE this Weekend

Posted on October 23, 2014October 22, 2014 by Anna

Vogue Knitting LIVE is this weekend in Chicago! I’m kicking off my VK LIVE weekend early by teaching a tiny toy kitting class tonight and a toy design class tomorrow morning. The marketplace opens tomorrow night, and for the rest of the weekend that’s where I can be found. These guys will be there too!

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This is a detail from the new Wooly Woods sculpture I’m unveiling this weekend. I worked on it all summer long, and I’m excited to finally show it to everyone! I’ll also be showing pieces from the original Wooly Woods exhibition in Berlin last year.

Plus! I’ll be signing books and offering my tiny kits at a special discount!

Plus! On Sunday we’ll have the tiny pumpkin hunt in the marketplace!

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Come early and keep your eyes peeled—the ten people who find pumpkins will win a free copy of Huge & Huggable Mochimochi!

I’m so looking forward to seeing some of your lovely faces this weekend!

Ten Tiny Pumpkins

Posted on September 30, 2014September 30, 2014 by Anna

Sometimes it’s fun to just settle in with some good podcasts and knit ten tiny pumpkins.

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These dudes are destined to be hunted at Vogue Knitting LIVE in Chicago next month! They’ll be hidden around the marketplace on Sunday, October 26th, and everyone who finds one will win a free copy of Huge & Huggable Mochimochi!

Registration is open for VK LIVE, and I believe there are also still spots open in the classes I’m teaching there.

Want to knit tiny pumpkins of your own? The pattern is available as part of the Tiny Fall collection!