Category: Mochimochi Land News

Ann Arbor Library Now Offering Mochimochi Patterns

Posted on 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.

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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!

New Tiny People are Criminally Cute

Posted on by Anna

If you read my post from Tuesday about the current state of my arcade toy design, you might be wondering if I ever finish any projects. I do! In fact, I have something exciting and new to share with all of you…

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That’s right, brand-new tiny people patterns! Can I say that these are my favorite tiny mochis yet? (No, that would make the others sad.) But I’m pretty psyched about these guys. Just think of the madcap capers they could pull off together!

Techniques include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cord, colorwork, and a little bit of wrap + turn. Like all tiny patterns, these ones recommend fingering-weight yarn and size 1 DPNs, but they’re also great projects for scrap yarn, and you can scale them up as much as you like.

The patterns are now available as a PDF download for $6 in the Mochimochi Shop!

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Knitting Mochimochi Now in Spanish and Dutch

Posted on by Anna

While I was feeling a little un-inspired (and maybe also a tiny bit sorry for myself) on Friday, a package of happiness arrived: Spanish and Dutch editions of my first book, Knitting Mochimochi!

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I had heard that the Dutch version had been in the works, but I had no idea the title would include as fun a word as knuffels. Knuffels! According to sources on Twitter, the word means both “stuffed animal” and “hug.” Simply the best word in any language period.

Amigurumi de Punto Mochimochi was a complete surprise, and a very welcome one! It appears to be intended for the market in Spain, but I’m hoping it will find its way to other Spanish-speaking countries too.

With the Swedish version, that makes four languages that this book is available in. Next, the wooooorrrld!

Kitschy Dog Winner and a Discount for All

Posted on by Anna

It was great to hear about people’s favorite knitting projects from 2013 in the comments on my kitschy Christmas dog post from earlier this week. You were a busy bunch last year!

And the randomly-selected winner of the kitschy Christmas dog from 1940s Japan is… Commenter #19, Anita!

My favourite project this year was my Sixareen cape by Kate Davies, my first fair isle project.

Congrats, Anita! I just emailed you for your address.

The rest of you deserve a little something for the new year too, so how about a discount on ALL of the PDF patterns in the Mochimochi Shop?

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Happy 2014, everyone! Let’s make it a year full of inspiration, art, and love.

Mochis Return to VK LIVE NYC

Posted on by Anna

You can’t keep me away from NYC for long—the mochis and I are headed back this month for Vogue Knitting LIVE in Times Square!

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Instead of showing one of my knitted sculptures or scenes this year, I’ll be showing some of my stop-motion animations in the marketplace’s art gallery (which I’ve heard will be on two floors this year—yay fiber art!).

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I’ll also have all my books available for sale and signing, as well as a special discount on kits. Please stop by and say hi if you’ll be there!

PLUS! There will be a tiny snowman scavenger hunt in the marketplace on Sunday the 19th. 10 people who find a tiny snowman will win a copy of my new book, Huge & Huggable Mochimochi!

PLUS! I’ll be leading a free workshop on designing your own knitted toy on Sunday at 11am.

PLUS! I’ll be on an artist panel (moderated by Debbie Stoller) at 2pm on Sunday too!

I can’t wait for all the VK LIVE fun. See you soon, NYC!

2013 Mochimochi Favorites

Posted on by Anna

It’s been another super year here in Mochimochi Land. 2013 was our seventh year, if you can believe it—that’s a lot of mochis!

Let’s wrap up 2013 with a quick look at some favorite happeningss on the blog.

**Favorite New Pattern**

Luvbots

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I’m a little bit in love with these guys, but it might just be the puns they inspire in me.

**Favorite New Contraption**

The Mark Hrachovec Yarn Winding Machine

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This thing saved my sanity this year. Instead of spending hours winding the bobbins for my tiny kits, I can spend minutes! My dad is the best.

**Favorite Tiny Mochi**

Tiny Butterfly

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This little guy was praised by poets! I haven’t written pattern for him yet, but I’m hoping to do so in 2014.

**Favorite Funny Mochi Scene**

Knitjvf’s Zombie-Killer Birds

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The most original way I’ve seen zombies defeated!

**Favorite Crazy Fun Projects**

I had TWO favorite crazy fun projects this year.

The Wooly Woods

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Because of course it’s a good idea to knit things on top of delicate twigs and ship them all to Germany for a show! (As ill-advised as this all seemed at times, it actually turned out great!)

Nickelodeon Holiday Animations

Anna Hrachovec for Nickelodeon: Holiday 2013 IDs from Anna Hrachovec on Vimeo.

The coolest project to wrap up 2013 with!

**Favorite Knitting Debate**

To Cozy or Not to Cozy?

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It’s the ultimate question that divides knitters these days. (As it turns out, everybody thinks they’re a little silly but ultimately harmless.)

**Favorite Mochimochi Mods**

Sarah’s Disney Knits

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This young knitter started with some shapes from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi and took them in an awesome direction!

**Favorite Animated GIF**

Caveman Family Meeting

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This year I started making some longer stop-motion animations, but the looped action of a GIF remains of of my favorites forms of expression.

**Favorite Personal Project**

A little kitty for my niece!

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I love having a niece to knit things for! Apparently the kitty (now named Nickus) gets to go on many adventures with Nora.

**Favorite Random Cute Things**

Hello Kitty Re-Ments!

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I just sent one of my last boxes out to the winner of the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest.

Conor Finnegan’s Fear of Flying

I was inspired by many kinds of art this year, but this short animation really stands out to me.

Those were just a few of my favorite things from 2013. Oh, and I didn’t even mention my new book, which was one of the most exciting things to happen this year!

But what keeps Mochimochi Land going and growing is the participation of all of you, in the form of your comments and emails, your photos of mochis that you’ve knit, and the way that so many of you have shown up at events and said hi in person! If anything, I want to foster more community here in 2014, and I hope to have more projects that we can all participate in.

Thank you for a wonderful year, everyone! Let’s make 2014 magical together!

Order by Noon Thursday for Christmas Delivery

Posted on by Anna

It’s been awesome getting all of your comments on our two groups of semifinalist photos. Clearly many of the photos have their fans, but who will make it into the finals? We’ll announce the final round of photos and start the big official vote tomorrow!

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Today I just wanted to make a quick announcement for those of you who may be giving Mochimochi gifts from Christmas this year. If you’re in the US and want delivery on physical goods (books, kits, buttons, etc.) order by noon EST tomorrow (Thursday 12/18) and select Priority shipping.

PDF patterns AND gift cards are always available for instant download, of course!

We’ll also be taking a short shipping break for Christmas: Orders of physical goods placed between December 24th and 29th will be shipped on December 30th.

That’s it for housekeeping! Be sure to check back tomorrow and VOTE!

Mochimochi on Nickelodeon

Posted on by Anna

I’ve been getting emails all month from knitters who think they’ve spotted knitted gnomes, snowmen, and other Mochimochi Land creatures on TV. If you’ve been watching Nickelodeon, you’re eyes are not deceiving you! Last month I had the opportunity to work with Nick on a series of animated holiday IDs featuring a variety of wintry mochis making mischief in the snow. If you tune in right now, you’ll probably see them airing between commercials!

I’m excited to share the full animations here.

Like with the other stop-motion videos and GIFs that I’ve made, the animations were created by moving the creatures a fraction of an inch and taking a photograph, and repeating that again and again until we had a series of hundreds of photos that could be put together to make one action happen. Then repeat. And repeat. Making a 10-second animation could take up to four hours, and that’s pretty good time for stop-motion!

I worked together with the Nick promotions team to concept and animate the first six IDs, with all the post-production work, including the sound and the flat animations, handled by Nick. The last four animations starring mochi-fied Nick characters were done by the Nick team themselves using materials I had made.

It was an incredible experience to get to work on these ambitiously-conceived animations with such a talented and enthusiastic team. I had a blast with this project, and I learned so much! The project has made me more excited about all the possibilities for mochis in motion.

Big thank-yous go to Matthew Duntemann at Nick and to my agent Koko for making this happen!