Category: Mochimochi Land News

Winners of the 2014 Mochimochi Photo Series Contest

Posted on June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 by Anna

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” →

Super-Scary Mochimochi in Korean

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Anna

Here’s some cool news: Super-Scary Mochimochi, my book of patterns for cute and creepy mochis, has just come out in Korean!

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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.

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And here’s a nice little touch that isn’t in the English version: cute little icons!

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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).

Quarters the Arcade is Here!

Posted on May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 by Anna

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!

Tiny People 2 Patterns Now on Ravelry

Posted on April 24, 2014April 24, 2014 by Anna

This has taken way too long for me to accomplish, but the Tiny People 2 pattern collection is now available via Ravelry!

If you already purchased the patterns and would like to have them in your Ravelry library, just send me a message and include your last name and the email address you used when you made your purchase. That also goes for any patterns that you’ve purchased from my website, by the way!

Why don’t I just offer the patterns on Ravelry as soon as they come out? Whether I sell a pattern via my website or via Ravelry doesn’t make much difference as far as sales go. However, I like to think that Mochimochi Land offers more than just patterns, and so I want to encourage people to visit our own site where they can get inspiration from other people’s projects, see what weird cute stuff I’m obsessing about on the blog, and find out about events and other goings on, like the photo series contest I just announced. (I hope to see some tiny sumo wrestlers and ballerinas in the entries!)

Ravelry has been huge to my life as a knitter and to my business, so I certainly want to spread the love to them too. They get a monthly fee for the pattern sales in my Ravelry shop, and all of my patterns are listed there. (I usually list patterns on Ravelry a month after debuting them here, although I was late with this newest collection). Ravelry is also the only website that I regularly advertise on.

Just a little insight for anyone who might be wondering what’s up with my pattern availability. I leave you with a tiny sumo wrestler battling a giant piece of ebi sushi.

Announcing the 2014 Mochimochi Photo Series Contest

Posted on April 22, 2014June 2, 2014 by Anna

Update: Congratulations to our winners!

The time has come, mochi knitters, for this year’s springtime photo contest!

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We all know that cute knitted creatures are great for gifts, decorations, and the occasional tea cozy, but what do your mochis get up to when no one is looking? We want to see your knitted friends in action through a series of photos!

Choose any Mochimochi Land creatures to feature in your story. Then, take a series of photos showing your mochis getting up to something: fighting crime, exploring the universe, putting on a concert—let your imagination go wild!

The top three photo series will win stunning hand-dyed Mini Skeinbows from Happy Go Lucky, an awesome indie dyer local to our new Chicago home. And everyone will win positive creative karma!

The deadline for entries is May 27th.

CONTEST DETAILS

Eligibility

Knitters from all countries are welcome to enter! To be eligible, your photo series must contain at least one knitted toy made from a Mochimochi Land pattern. That can be any pattern from the Mochimochi Shop, from Anna’s books, or one of the free patterns available here. The pattern may be modified, but not beyond recognition from the original design.

How to enter

Simply add your photo series to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group, include numbers in their titles to indicate the order they should be viewed in, and tag them with seriescontest14. If you don’t have a Flickr account, it is free and easy to register (though we recommend signing up as soon as possible, because it takes a little time for your account to be approved for sharing photos in a group).

This is a series contest, so your entry should consist of 3 to 6 photos showing a story taking place. You may enter up to three series. Photos entered in this contest will not be eligible for the 2014 Mochimochi Photo Contest this fall.

Judging

Winners will be picked by us at Mochimochi Land, but the Flickr pool is open to be seen by everyone. We will be focusing on creativity in this contest, and not just looking for pretty images.

Deadline

The last day to enter the contest is May 27, 2014. We’ll announce the winners shortly thereafter!

Prizes!

The top three winners each receive a selection of colorful selection of fingering-weight wool/nylon yarn provided by Happy Go Lucky: third place gets a 6-skein Mini Skeinbow (Brights), second place gets two Mini Skeinbows (Brights and Lights), and first place gets three Mini Skeinbows (Brights, Lights, and Muted).

Thank you to Julie of Happy Go Lucky!

Tiny Ballerina Kits are Here!

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Anna

I’m excited to announce that we now have tiny ballerina kits in the Mochimochi Shop! I just couldn’t resist packaging this pattern up as a kit—we needed to get a little lady in the collection!

The kit comes with the pattern and enough yarn (Cascade Heritage, a wool/nylon blend) and stuffing to to knit up three tiny dancers. They make sweet little gift toppers, ornaments, and more. The kit makes a cool gift for fellow knitters too!

The kit is $12 in the shop. (International shipping is available!)

Hunt for Footballs at VK LIVE this Weekend

Posted on March 12, 2014March 12, 2014 by Anna

Going to Vogue Knitting LIVE in Seattle this weekend? Keep an eye out for mini footballs on Sunday!

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Ten of these footballs (five in classic “pigskin” brown, five in Seahawks colors) will be hidden all around the marketplace, and the ten people who hunt them down will each receive a free copy of my book Huge & Huggable Mochimochi!

They can also keep the footballs.

If you’re not familiar with Vogue Knitting LIVE, it’s an incredible weekend of classes, talks, panels, tons of shopping, and knitted art like you’ve never seen before. I’m sorry to be missing it, even though my absence is for a good cause: I’m working on a new book! I’m happy that at least I’ll be there in spirit with the football hunt. And if you’re going to the Chicago show in October, I’ll see you there.

The tiny football pattern can be found in my Tiny Fall collection. (Winter may be just ending, but it’ll probably be football season again before we know it!)

Ann Arbor Library Now Offering Mochimochi Patterns

Posted on February 27, 2014February 27, 2014 by Anna

I have some exciting news today for Ann Arbor residents! The Ann Arbor District Library now has 20 of my patterns available for download FREE to all of its cardholders.

How is this possible? Well, this cutting-edge library wants to offer unique items to its cardholders, so we’ve worked out a licensing arrangement for a three-year period. I get a licensing fee, the library gets to offer something new, and the people of Ann Arbor get to knit up Sleepy Snakes, Luvbots, and Gobbledyghosts—everyone wins!

As far as I know, pattern downloads is a new idea for a library, and we have Erin the librarian to thank for that! She invited me to speak at the library last summer (there was also a robot Mochimochi display and a Gnomes vs Snowmen-themed hunt that tied in with the library’s summer game), and things just got rolling from there. I’m planning to return this summer for another event—I can’t wait!

A town where designers are supported, and all the knitters can download patterns for free… sounds pretty ideal to me. Let’s hope more libraries see the potential in this kind of partnership!