What to do with all that candy corn that you knitted from my free pattern? Paula Knits packaged hers into cute gifts!
(I love that she marked them clearly as a “trick,” just in case someone wonders if it’s edible.) These would be really fast to put together in time for Halloween!
Whoa, Halloween is this weekend, people! You may have your costume all ready, but how about your knitted treats? There’s still plenty of time to whip up a few Boos for your favorite tricksters!
I was checking out the recent Boo additions on Ravelry the other day, and realized that there are now over 500 projects listed! Here’s a small selection of some that caught my eye this time.
Sometimes the subtlest design details are the coolest. I love this striped Boo from Nettischaf:
Browny is a sweet little modest Boo from Junovela:
I love the colors and the awesome button on Tracy’s Boo:
Aranyita’s disco bats appear to be ready to get down this Halloween:
As always, Boos are better in twos, and better yet in threes—as snapper’s Boos know!
Hey, Boo is now 2 years old! I’ve been astounded by the popularity of this simple knitted toy that I designed a while back, and it delights me every time I see a new incarnation of this little guy.
Sometimes projects just aren’t quite working as we had expected. When onna stick decided that her Grouchy Couch colors weren’t what she had in mind, instead of ditching the project, she made it into a bed instead. But not just a bed—a bed with a mysterious monster lurking under the covers!
I love it!
I found onna stick’s monster bed in the Mochimochi Friends Flickr pool. Add your photos of toys made from Mochimochi Land patterns to the group by November 15th, and you’ll be entered in the Mochimochi Photo Contest!
I pretty much squealed when I spotted this on Ravelry the other day.
How cute is this! This is cute.
The mysterious Strickbombe knitter recently decorated this bench in Saarbrücken, Germany, with a snail made from my free pattern and mushrooms and grass of her own design. I want to live in a world where every public bench is curated by a knitter like this.
She has many more creative yarn bombs on her blog (including some fun with Tiny Perching Pigeons)!
I’ve noticed many new Boos flying around the internet latey—I guess it’s getting to be that time of year!
This one by Eskimimi is simply breathtaking.
She altered the wings to make them lie flatter, which seems brilliant to me. Eskimimi’s blog is one of the few that I follow regularly, so it was a happy surprise to see her Boos in my RSS.
If you make a Boo, be sure to add your photos to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr!
So I guess it’s September! Summer always seems to slip by quickly, but this year’s record heats are making me less nostalgic than usual for sticky days. (Fingers crossed that today might just be the last of those!)
It’s back to school time for many, so why not kick off the season with some adorable Petite Pencils made from the pattern in Knitting Mochimochi?
From Greetingarts, Mr. Stubby and his friend look a little ambivalent about this pop quiz.
The pencil made by estars 100 thinks he’s found a clever way to avoid doing homework…
And cupcakefields’ no. 2 is getting right down to business on the first day of class.
I love all of these silly guys! Now I’m thinking I should have made a couple Petite Pencils for my friends who just started grad school. Maybe for midterms!
You can have your own photos of Mochimochi toys appear the gallery by adding them to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr.
By the way, we have a couple updates about this year’s Mochimochi Photo Contest: Knit Picks will again be a sponsor with fabulous gift certificates for the winners (yay!), and John will also be traveling to Japan in a few days just to pick up some other cool prizes. (OK, so he’s not making the 13-hour flight just for the photo contest, but he promises to get some neat stuff in between his work at the Tokyo Game Show.)
It’s looking like the deadline for the contest will be November 1st—I’ll make an official announcement later, but until then, you can check out the guidelines for last year’s contest.
I’ve been happy to see photos of tiny gnomes, frogs, pancakes, and trash cans from the Tiny Things Collection 3 appearing in the
Mochimochi Friends Flickr group lately!
Some of my faves are…
vapmore’s watering can-guarding garden gnome:
(a cute photo, and a fantastic pattern tester!)
Margaritas8’s
frog-in-a-spoon:
and marianne’s stuff’s stacked pancakes!
Marianne also tested the pattern collection for me, as did Marti – thank you to all three of you testers!
As these knitters and photo-takers know, the two tricks to photographing tiny knits are focus and props. If you’re using a point-and-shoot camera, check to see if it has macro setting (the symbol for it commonly looks like a flower)—this will help you get your subject in focus when you’re shooting it up close.
As for props, this is something I could get more creative with myself! I like to use my hands as props a lot, because they’re always on hand (ha, ha), and they instantly show scale. But any common object, especially one that relates thematically (watering can for the gnome) or in design (stack of pennies with stack of pancakes), can make for a very cute and eye-catching photo.
Once you’ve finished your photo shoot, whether with one of these tiny guys or with another Mochimochi toy you’ve made, be sure to add your photos to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group! You’ll have a chance to win fabulous prizes in the upcoming 2010 Mochimochi Photo Contest. (Official announcement coming soon!)
I am drooling over this pastel TV Guy from Hello Maddy in the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group!
I’m also finding myself studying that cupcake fabric to try to decide which one I want to eat. (The chocolate cake with yellow frosting seems to have my name written on it.)
The pattern for TV Guy can be found in Knitting Mochimochi. And remember to add your photos of Mochimochi toys to the Mochimochi Friends group pool—they will be automatically entered in the next Mochimochi Photo Contest!