Category: Mochimochi Land News

The Pigeons have Landed!

Posted on by Anna

Update: The Tiny Perching Pigeon Party was featured in Londonist! (Thanks, m@!)

I just had the best time making Tiny Perching Pigeons with Stitch London!

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About 40 London knitters turned out to this evening’s Tiny Perching Pigeon Party at St James’ Park. I was wowed by how many brought multiple pigeons already finished, and all the many variations were a riot to see.

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After a couple of hours of knitting and chatting, we all paraded over to Trafalgar Square with our feathered friends to replace the pigeons that were chased out a few years ago. (Feeding them is now banned in the square and surrounding areas.) No one seemed to object to our temporary flock of cuties, fortunately—although we certainly got the attention of some tourists.

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Once in place, the pigeons all got their picture taken by the group.

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After the photo shoot, most knitters took their birds home to cozy captivity. I’m planning to set a few of my own free in the city and in other parts of England that my mom and I travel to this week.

Thank you to everyone who made pigeons and contributed to this fun display of knitted cuteness in all shapes and sizes. And a HUGE thank-you to Deadly Knitshade and Stitch London for arranging the pigeon-perfect party!

Knitting Mochimochi Giveaway from Knit Picks

Posted on by Anna

If you haven’t seen it yet, Knit Picks is giving away two copies of Knitting Mochimochi on their blog! To enter, just leave a comment on their post about it.

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Knit Picks staffer Stacey wrote up the nicest post about the book and my designs. It’s so great to have the enthusiasm of a yarn company, and the comments that people have been leaving are just amazing—as of my writing this, there exactly 700 comments! I can hardly believe it, but you CAN believe that I’ve read every one of them. I’m so touched (and a bit bewildered) by the response!

Knitting Mochimochi News

Posted on by Anna

I’m so excited that the release of Knitting Mochimochi is now just two weeks away! It was a full year ago that I turned in all of the materials for it, so it feels like I’ve been waiting forever and the wait is almost over!

I have a few updates about it that I wanted to share with you because there is a lot going on.

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Signed copies
I will be selling some signed copies here on my website! I would have announced this sooner, but it was only recently that I was sure about it. They’ll be in the Mochimochi Shop starting June 29th for $20 plus shipping, and will only be available for shipping within the US. (But if you live elsewhere and really want a signed copy, I may be able to do international shipping on an individual basis.)

Free pattern
If you’re on Ravelry, you may have noticed that the Baby Gators pattern from the book is available for free! You can get the pdf pattern from CrafterNews right now, and I’m also going to publish it here on the Mochimochi Blog soon.

Release party
There will be a little release party/trunk show at Brooklyn General on July 11th (a Sunday), 2-6 pm. If you live in the New York area, I would loooove to see you there! It also happens to be right around my birthday (July 13th), and for my birthday I want people to show up on the 11th. Please come!

I will also be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC on July 27th for a signing!

Interviews, giveaways, and such
There are a few fantastic websites and blogs who are going to help spread the word about Knitting Mochimochi with some reviews of the book, interviews with me, and giveaways. I’ll keep you updated about those when they happen!

Make Perching Pigeons with me in London!

Posted on by Anna

perchingpigeonpartyIf you’re in the London area, join me and Stitch London on June 21st for a super-fun Tiny Perching Pigeon Party!

I’m visiting the UK for the first time this month, and pigeons seemed like the perfect thing for me to bring from one city with a love/hate relationship with these little guys (New York) to another. I originally came up with the Tiny Perching Pigeons especially for this trip, so I hope to see lots of pigeon-makers there!

We’ll meet up in St. James’ Park (On the grass by the café called ‘Inn the Park’) at 6 pm, then after knitting some pigeons we’ll head over to Trafalgar Square for a crazy-cute photo op with our friendly flock. Bring your pigeons ready-made (find the pattern here) or make one with us! See more info on the Stitch London blog.

By the way, as this is my first time to London, I would love to get your suggestions of stuff to do and see while I’m there! The big landmarks are already on my list, but if you have a cool shop, neighborhood, or restaurant to recommend, I’m all ears.

I’m looking forward to seeing all you Brit knitters on the 21st!

Mochimochi Land has a New Look!

Posted on by Anna

If you’re reading this, you likely have noticed that Mochimochi Land underwent a redesign over the weekend! I’ve been planning this new design for a looong time, so it’s exciting to finally go live with it!

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Aside from getting a cute upgrade, the new website has a few new features and pages, so I hope you’ll take a look around. (and please let me know if anything seems not to be working properly). The homepage now features beautiful big banners, the gallery page now features YOUR photos of Mochimochi Land toys in addition to my own designs, and the new how-to page is now the place to go for tutorials, with more to come soon. I’ve also listed my available one-of-a-kind toys in the new Mochimochi Shop!

You might have also noticed that Mochimochi Land has a new tagline: Let’s Make Happy. This was inspired by all your great suggestions that I got a couple of months ago. Thank you for all the ideas! The final tagline was based on the concept that I wanted Mochimochi Land to be a welcoming place where everyone can participate, and the word “happy” can be taken literally or a bit more tongue in cheek (because almost none of my toys ever crack a smile).

The programming of the new site was done by James at Banjocreative, and my husband John also helped with getting it all set up and making it go live. Thanks, guys!

New X-stitch Pattern: Merry Meadow

Posted on by Anna

Can you believe it’s May already? It’s about time I put this new springtime cross-stitch pattern in the Mochimochi Shop!

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I mostly worked on this pattern back in January, when springtime was just a pleasant dream, so I’m excited to finally release it! I think everyone can use some cute flowers and a little chaos and destruction for their wall.

The pattern, comprised of charts with symbols for colors, is available as a PDF download for $7.

Plus! If you buy the pattern before the end of May, you can get a big discount on it through CRAFT—see the details on the offer on the CRAFT blog. Thanks, CRAFT!

My Advance Copy Came!

Posted on by Anna

Yesterday was an exciting day for me! First, my advance copy of Knitting Mochimochi arrived!

This is me hugging it. (Please excuse the messy hair. To be honest, I was too excited to take a shower.)

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It’s so surreal to see the real thing, bound and with that new book smell and everything. I reeeally want to share some pictures of the inside. I will as soon as I can!

But that’s not all that happened yesterday. My chaotic workspace also appeared on the CRAFT blog for all the world to see!

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Natalie at CRAFT invited me to be interviewed for their “Make Space for Crafting” series. The above photo was actually taken last year, and the feature shows a comparison to what my desk looks like now that I have yarn-obsessed cats in my life. And basically the interview is just me blathering on about cats cats cats. Thank you Natalie!