Time to start showing some stuff from my new book—I’ve been waiting so long for this!!

It’s really hard to choose which scary mochi to start with, but I have a lot to say about this guy…

Meet What-to-Werewolf! He’s a teen werewolf who improvised a costume for those waxing and waning nights when he still wants to be on the prowl.

His wolf hoodie is completely removable, revealing an otherwise ordinary boy.

Teeny-tiny people notwithstanding, I rarely knit human dolls, so this guy’s special for that reason alone. It’s even more rare that I knit separate clothes for dolls, so that made this project extra fun.

And let’s talk about that mirror photo! It was one of the most difficult we had to shoot—it turns out that doing a mirror shot and making it look like it’s in a miniature bedroom is tricky! Thankfully my photographer Brandi Simons had worked with me on my previous two books, and she knows how to create just the right environments around my toys.

First we had to find the right size and shape of mirror. That wasn’t too hard, but once it was photographed, the black-framed locker mirror looked just like an iPad. So to make it more mirror-like, Brandi tinted the frame brown and sharpened up the rounded corners in Photoshop. We also needed some miniature versions of stuff that a teenage werewolf would have in his room, and we ended up going with a combination of random little stuff (thank you, Wal-mart cheap party favor section) and things we printed out for mirror decor.

Here’s the photo again, annotated:

It was a huge relief when everything came together, thanks to Brandi. I feel so lucky to get to work with such a crafty photographer. I hope come September some of you will be knitting and photographing your own What-to-Werewolves!

Super-Scary Mochimochi is now available for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Starting September 18th, it will be in local yarn stores throughout the US, and signed copies will be available from the Mochimochi Shop too.

More Super-Scary previews are on their way in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Remember this guy?

A new pattern collection including him and three other tiny people is coming to the Mochimochi Shop soon! Stay tuned…

If you’re new to tiny knitting and live in the NYC area, I have a class coming up in September just for you!

On September 23 I’ll be teaching a Tiny Zombie knitting class at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in Manhattan. We’ll cover all of my tips and tricks for knitting really tiny toys, and you’ll take home a finished Tiny Zombie that you made in class!

See the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website for all the info and how to sign up.

I haven’t been teaching many classes lately—my time is largely taken up with designing these days—so this is a rare opportunity to see exactly how I knit tiny mochis and get started doing it yourself. I’ll also bring other samples from my new book Super-Scary Mochimochi for a meet and greet, so it’s going to be a lot of fun!

I’m super-excited to announce a new pattern in the Mochimochi Shop!

Lucky Stars have been in the works for a really long time. Back when I was first designing knitted toys, about five years ago, a star was one of my first ideas. But it took many failed attempts (and then a couple years in between tries, when I gave up on the idea for a while), before I figured out how to knit them the way that I pictured them in my head. It seems so simple now, but sometimes the simplest designs are the most difficult to work out!

The pattern comes in two sizes—a 2-1/2″-tall little Lucky Star that can slip into your pocket and a 5″-tall big Lucky Star that you can cuddly up with—and both can be knitted up in a matter of hours.

Techniques include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles (or magic loop with a circular needle) and picking up stitches.

The PDF pattern is now available as a download for $5 in the Mochimochi Shop!