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.

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!)

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!