Just a reminder that I will be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC tomorrow (Tuesday, July 27th) for a book signing at 6 pm!
All the toys from Knitting Mochimochi will be there for you to test-hug, and there will also be some fun raffle prizes. See you there!
I am told that the Knit Picks Podcast with my interview with Kelley Petkun is now up!
I had a great toy-knitting conversation with Kelley, who had some neat ideas of her own about what to do with Mochimochi toys. It was fun! (I’m not in the mood for cringing at my own voice this morning, so I’m not going to listen to it myself just yet.)
The Knitting Mochimochi release party on Sunday at Brooklyn General was so much fun! I didn’t know what to expect, since many people are out of town on July weekends, but I was pleasantly surprised by the steady stream of friends and new faces.
I got a little practice signing books, which is still kind of strange to me. It feels like a mixture of vandalism and middle-school yearbook signing. (“Stay sweet!”)
The best part was seeing people’s in-person reactions to the toys in the book. They were mostly of the “cuuute” variety (with one or two “huh?”s thrown in for good measure), and Grouchy Couch and the Feet Eaters seemed to get the most attention.
Thank you to Brooklyn General for hosting, and to everyone who turned out!
If you missed the party, next I will be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio on July 27th (Tuesday) at 6 pm for a book signing. I can’t wait!
Knitting Mochimochi has now been out for just about two weeks, and I’ve been overwhelmed (in a very good way) with all the attention it’s been getting in knitting magazines and around the web! That will probably all quiet down pretty soon, but in the meantime, here are two more nice features, both of which involve giveaways of the book!
CRAFT has been a very big part of my life since I started knitting toys in 2006. Not only do I turn to their blog every day for crafty inspiration and amusement, but they have also been instrumental in my design work. They featured my knitted toys online way back in early 2007, when I first began blogging, and since then they’ve published three of my patterns in addition to regularly featuring my designs.
So now I am thrilled that Natalie at CRAFT has just reviewed Knitting Mochimochi on the CRAFT blog!
My favorite line from the review:
This book is a perfect companion for the summer knitter as you could finish a cute project in no time (beach knitting!) and hand it off right away for a child or child-at-heart to enjoy.
Along with the review, Natalie asked me a few questions about writing Knitting Mochimochi—it was fun to share some thoughts about it with her. And CRAFT is giving away two copies of the book! To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment over on the review post on the CRAFT blog by noon PST this Wednesday.
Another two-book giveaway is also underway at Kathryn Ivy!
If you’re not already a reader, Katheryn Ivy is the website of Alice and Grace Schnebly, sisters who share their knitting expertise through reviews of books and yarn and their own line of patterns. They also have both test knitted patterns for me, so they are extremely familiar with my designs. (Check out these gorgeous Pile-able Pups made by Grace!)
I was really happy to be interviewed for their blog, especially because they asked me such great questions, including “What is your personal style?” (For years I had been secretly wishing someone would ask me that question someday!)
They’re also giving away two copies of Knitting Mochimochi, one through their blog and one through Twitter—check out their post to find out how to enter. (The deadline is noon PST this Friday.)
Thank you to Natalie and CRAFT, and thank you Alice and Grace!
I was thrilled to just discover a review of Knitting Mochimochi in the current issue of Knitty!
In the review, Amy Singer says the book made her “squeal out loud.” Just the reaction I love!
Knitty has a very special place in my heart—Amy contacted me personally in 2007 when I was just starting out as a designer, then she published one of my very first patterns in the Fall issue of that year! Having a pattern published in Knitty gave me some much-needed confidence in my design work and also brought a ton of new readers to my blog. It was such a great experience, and I’m sure I’ll be submitting another design before long.
By the way, I’m loving a lot of the patterns in the new “First Fall” issue, especially Lanesplitter and Mad for Plaid!
Thank you to Gaëlle for interviewing me on Knit Spirit! Knit Sprit is a popular French knitting blog, and it definitely makes me wish I had paid more attention in my high school French class so that I could read all the interviews, recipes, and more. Gaëlle was nice enough to post the interview with me in both French and English, so that post at least doesn’t require Google Translator.
(I’m pretty sure the word “crazy” in the title of the post refers to my toys, and not me. Mostly sure.)
In the interview, she asked me about my best and worst memories from writing Knitting Mochimochi, which really made me think back on the whole process from some of 2008 and half of last year. (I have way more good memories than bad!)
As I mentioned the other day in the post about my Tiny Sun, it has been a whole year since I began the “Tiny” series here on the Mochimochi Blog!
For those of you who weren’t with me a year ago, in July 2009 I was looking for a fun challenge for the month, and I decided to try knitting a new tiny toy every weekday and posting it here on my blog. I hesitantly started with a Tiny Brain, but then it was easy to continue with all the helpful suggestions that people gave me in the comments. When the month of July was over, I was still getting lots of super ideas, so I thought I’d continue the series with a new tiny knitted toy each week. I’ve surprised myself by keeping it up ever since then, without (as far as I can recall, at least) a single week missed!
I thought it would be fun to put together a visual with all of the Tinys that I’ve made over the past year. It’s a total of 70 teeny-tiny Mochimochis! Here they are in alphabetical order.
I’ve thought about stopping the series now that it’s been a year, but I would be a little sad to do so. There are just so many Tiny possibilities left in this world! I could also start on some other type of series, but nothing that I’ve come up with so far (like knitting giant things, for example) has quite gotten me excited enough. But if you’ve had your fill of tiny knitting and you have an idea for something totally different, I would love to hear it!
I’ve also been happy to get lots of inquiries about patterns for these tiny toys. I do plan to release another set of Tiny patterns sometime soon, so please keep an eye out for it! (I’m pretty certain that the Tiny Gnome and Tiny Frog will be two of the four patterns, but I’m still undecided about the other two…)
I’m very excited to announce that I will be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC July 27th for a Knitting Mochimochi book signing!
Like other visitors to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, I am in love with the beautiful space, and so I can’t wait to be there with the full collection of toys from my new book.
I’ll be there at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 27th, so please come by if you’re in the city! There will also be raffle drawings—fun! See more info on the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website.