Category: Knitted Things

Insert Coin

Posted on by Anna

A little update on how the arcade mochi is coming: He’s lost some of his negativity!

insertcoin1

That’s right, no more “GAME OVER” for this guy—all you need to do is insert a coin! It was the happier colors I’m working with that inspired the change.

Now, it may sound really simple to switch out the letters on his screen, but I had already established that they would be 3 stitches wide, and that presented a problem when it came to the letter N. After going through several iterations in which it looked like “IMSERT COIM” and IHSERT COIH,” I finally gave up and made the N four stitches wide. That means that the letters are just ever so slightly off center, a reality that bothered me at first, until I decided not to let it bother me anymore. He’s going to be super cute!

insertcoin2

So now I almost have all of the main pieces finished for my second version. I did reconfigure the structure of the seams just a bit, so that all of the pieces could be laid flat for blocking.

insertcoin3

So I’ll need to stitch them together again to make sure they fit properly. Then it will be time to add all the fun embellishments that I’ve been looking forward to for months. The finished design is feeling really close now!

Arcade Mochi: Stars and Stripes

Posted on by Anna

It’s been about two and a half months since my last update about my as-yet-unnamed arcade mochi, which seems to be a consistent interval with this epic project. But things are happening! We have colors!

arcade_color1

It was only as I was photographing these bags of Cascade 220 that I realized how patriotic this arcade game might be. But I think the color ratios will be different enough, and I’ll probably throw in some yellow too. Choosing the final colors for this guy was a big holdup with the project—I want him to look just right if I’m going to knit the whole thing over again!

Before I go on, here’s a reminder of where I was with this project in November:

arcade_prototype

The finished prototype has been sitting on my desk ever since, just staring at me for two and a half months.

Aside from colors, the other big decision-making that I’ve had to do before moving forward was figuring out what kind of colorwork I wanted to integrate. There are just so many 8-bit possibilities! But (at least for now) I settled a single large star to go on the sides, plus maybe smaller stars on the top panel.

I used Illustrator to do all my colorwork “sketching,” then I knitted my first star swatch.

arcade_color2

(Yes, the colors I used in Illustrator and the colors I used for the swatch and the colors I’m using for the final design are all different. Why make things simple when they can be complicated?)

My first star turned out a little too wide (stupid grids and my refusal to get the proportions of the squares right before beginning to knit), so here’s my second, slightly taller star swatch.

arcade_color3

And now it’s time to start knitting what I hope will be the final toy. I’m feeling star-crazy, so I’m beginning with the panel that will make up the back and sides of the toy. Since I already made a full prototype, I know exactly how many stitches to cast on and how to shape the sides of the piece, and I can just concentrate on the color design at this point. I even stopped to take a pattern photo!

arcade_color4

As I mentioned in my “shop talk” post from a couple weeks back, I usually knit things over again to take the technique photos for my patterns, but when I’m working on a project this large, I try to photograph crucial steps as I knit.

I still have far to go before finishing, but I finally feel like I have a clear direction with this project. I should probably stop making predictions about when the pattern will be ready, but it WILL be ready eventually, even if no one remembers arcade games by the time it’s finished.

Micro Gnome

Posted on by Anna

Just when you thought the tiny gnome couldn’t get any tinier…

micrognome

I’m already getting excited about knitting a ton of these guys for a fun photo shoot! There will also be a pattern, probably in the spring.

Last Day for Your Photos!

Posted on by Anna

UPDATE: The contest is now closed for entries. Thank you for your photos, and please check back soon for honorable mentions and semifinalists for YOU to vote on!

tinyelephant_brandiPhoto by Brandi Simons

Don’t forget! Today (Monday 12/9) is the last day to enter your photos in the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest—photos added to our Flickr group after midnight (Pacific time) won’t be eligible for the contest. But if you just can’t help being late, don’t fret! All photos added after midnight automatically will be entered in next year’s contest.

Once all your photos are in, John and I will carefully look over all the entries, and do the difficult task of selecting honorable mentions, and then our semifinalists, which we will ask you to give us your input on. And next week we’ll have the final vote for everyone to participate in. So be sure to check back here for all the photo fun!

Arcade Mochi: The Prototype

Posted on by Anna

Here’s a project that got put on hold for way too long: my unnamed arcade mochi! He sat unfinished on top of my yarn drawers for a good two months before somehow making it through the move to Chicago without unraveling. It felt so good to pick this guy up again and finish the prototype yesterday!

arcade_prototype

(I really need to start putting things on my office walls—yuck!)

I don’t usually make prototypes for my designs, but I wanted to get the shape of this one just right before adding colorwork and other details. (The pink rectangle was just to help me see where the top front panel will go.) I’ve had second and third thoughts about the final colors, and now I’m anti-black and trying to decide if he’ll be orange, red, pink, or some shade of blue. Or who knows, maybe even green! Pretty much any color but black is what I’m thinking right now.

While I think about colors, I’m getting started on the color chart for the sides and back of this guy. Just getting ready to make a design takes some time, but now I think I have the correct number of squares to work with.

arcade_backchart

I use Illustrator to make my charts—it can be time-consuming (especially when I forgot how Illustrator works, as I often do), but I like the control that I have and the way that I can easily fill in squares with the Paint Bucket tool.

The thing that really motivated to continue with this design is the toy design class I taught at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio last month. I’ve already gotten updates from several of the people who took the class and went on to finish their designs! I hope to teach this kind of class again soon—it was really inspiring, and I may have learned just as much as everyone else.

In case you haven’t been following along, here are my earlier posts in this series:

Arcade Mochi: Face Off
Arcade Mochi: Taking Shape
Arcade Mochi: The Screen
Arcade Mochi: The Sketch

I’ll be back with another design update soon(ish)!

Spooky Pattern Round-up

Posted on by Anna

Looking for something quick and spooky to knit this month? I’ve got some ideas for you! (See below for names and links.)

spookyroundup

Gobbledyghost, Woodins (free pattern)

Candy Corn (free pattern), Tiny Fall Collection, Tiny Ghost (from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi)

Naughty and Nicey (from Knitting Mochimochi), Boo the Bat

Little Miss Widow, Hurly-Burly, and Bitty Witches (and more—from Super-Scary Mochimochi)