Recently I’ve received several requests for a tutorial on picking up stitches—it’s a technique that I use allll the time, so it’s about time that I show it! (And it comes in handy for one of the mystery kits that I’ve been shipping around the world this month…)
Visit the How-to page for the full tutorial!
Ready for a MYSTERY? The 2014 mystery preview kits are here!
Now through July 31st, purchase two kits and/or books from the Mochimochi Shop, and you’ll receive one of these mystery kits for free!
Want some hints about what’s inside? All three are new, never-before-seen designs for adorable tiny creatures. One is feathered, one is furry, and one is… something else. In my completely biased opinion, these are the best mystery kits yet!
Order two kits and/or books, and a randomly-selected mystery kit will automatically be sent with your order. (You don’t have to add it to your shopping cart.) Order four kits/books, and two different mystery kits are on their way. Order six kits/books, and all will be revealed!
Once the mystery kit special is over, these patterns won’t be available until later this year. So don’t miss out!
After seven years of running Mochimochi Land mostly on my own (with help from John and lots of other awesome people), I feel that it’s finally time to hire someone for part-time help. This is a big step!
I’m looking for someone in the Chicago area who is willing to come to Lincoln Square once or twice a week for a few hours at a time. Duties may include assembling kits, going to the post office, organizing samples, helping out at events, and possibly blogging and social media. Knitting skills and a passion for cute stuff are a must; photography and social media skills are a plus. Ideally you don’t have cat or wool allergies.
If you’re interested, please email me at info [at] mochimochiland [dot] com with the subject line Part Time. Tell me about yourself and include a link to your website or Ravelry page. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
If my Twitter feed is any indication, knitters and crocheters are pretty psyched about Yoshi’s Wooly World, the new game Nintendo just announced that’s coming out in 2015.
Adorable, right?
This is the second yarn-themed Nintendo game in recent years (Kirby’s Epic Yarn came out in 2010), so I take this as a good sign that knitting and crochet still have a solid pop culture presence, and there is plenty of crossover between gaming and crafting. Awesome!
Just a few days after I first heard about Yoshi’s Wooly World, a couple of nice people on on Twitter let me know that a little piece of Mochimochi Land made an appearance in Nintendo’s public announcement about the game. When discussing the game’s development, the Nintendo presenter showed this image, among others.
They added yarny Yoshis to Gnomes vs Snowmen! The photo looks like it came from my display at Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago last year, so someone must have taken it from the event’s website.
I don’t have any more information than that, but I just had to share this fun discovery! It’s very cool to think that my art may have had some small influence on how the game designers envisioned the wooly world of Yoshi. I’m looking forward to playing the game next year!
The newest pattern in the Mochimochi Shop is a little bit make-believe and a lot bit magical!
In fact, Farfalla the Flying Narwhal is a little more make-believe than I had thought, because I’ve been referring to her as female, and someone on Facebook just informed me that only the male narwhals grow tusks… I guess this gal just can’t be boxed in!
It’s hard not to love a narwhal, but when I was thinking about designing one, it took me a while to figure out how to make mine a little special. It was my sister-in-law Jenna who initially suggested giving a narwhal wings, way back in… April of last year. So this one has been in the works for a while! Thanks, Jenna!
Another cool thing about this project is that the photo shoot for it got me to finally visit the Chicago beach! I realized that it was less than a 10 minute drive from my apartment—I had no idea. My sister just happened to be in town last week, so I recruited her as a hand model. Thanks, Leah!
Farfalla is an intermediate-level pattern, and techniques include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, a little stranded colorwork, and mattress stitch. I recommend using worsted-weight yarn (like Cascade 220) and size 5 DPNs, but as with any toys, you can scale up or down using a different yarn weight and needle size.
The pattern is now available as a PDF download for $6 in the Mochimochi Shop.
Knit one for you, and one for someone who doesn’t believe in magic… maybe now they will!
Exciting day! It’s time to announce the winners of our 2014 Mochimochi Photo Series Contest!
First, I want to again thank everyone who participated in the contest. We were really impressed by the funny, sometimes touching, and all very creative stories that you put together with your mochis!
And a big thank-you goes to our contest sponsor, Happy Go Lucky, for beautiful prizes of mini skeinbows! If you haven’t yet, please check out the Happy Go Lucky shop, and also the interview I did with Julie Lindsey, the awesome lady behind the yarn.
And now for the top three winners, as selected by John and myself. (It’s a hard job, but at least there were no tears this time.)
See the winning entries after the jump!
Continue reading “Winners of the 2014 Mochimochi Photo Series Contest”
Here’s some cool news: Super-Scary Mochimochi, my book of patterns for cute and creepy mochis, has just come out in Korean!
The guy on the cover toting a net of naughty mochis is my friend Mike (who’s also my photographer’s husband). So now Mike can say he’s big in Korea!
This entirely translated version was published by Hans Media. I love how it has such a different look from the original book.
Even though I know the whole thing is in Korean (and I can’t read a bit of Korean), I just can’t stop flipping through the pages and seeing how different they look in translation.
And here’s a nice little touch that isn’t in the English version: cute little icons!
I don’t know what these guys are supposed to be, but I’m all for them.
I actually have more copies of this book than I need, so I would love to give two of them away to people who can use them. If you live in the US and are a native speaker of Korean, or know someone who is, or if you’re studying Korean in the US, please leave a comment! I’ll randomly pick two people to give the book away to next Tuesday (May 27th).
I am psyched to announce the newest pattern in the Mochimochi Shop.
Meet Quarters, formerly knows as the untitled arcade mochi project!
This design has been in the works for… nearly 10 months! If you’ve been a regularly visitor here during that time, you’ve seen that it started with a sketch, then went through a rough draft while I figured out the shape, and then finally I asked all of you for name suggestions while I worked on the pattern writing and chart making. (Thank you, Crysta, for the perfect name!)
A couple months of tech editing (thank you Marilyn), testing (thank you Linda, Rikke, and Amanda), and more editing, and we have a finished pattern! Just for fun, here’s the whole thing.
As you can see, the pattern contains photos, charts, and an assembly schematic. It’s definitely not a one-evening project, but I think it’s a very satisfying knit for anyone who’s into gaming (or loves someone who is) and is up for a challenge. Most of the pattern is knitted flat and seamed together, with intarsia along the way. The piping consists of two I-cords that are stitched on at the end.
The pattern is now available as a PDF download for $8 in the Mochimochi Shop. And get $2 off with the code LEVELUP through May 26th!
