I was recently contacted by a crafter who was interested in knitting up some hearts from my free pattern to sell in the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop to raise money for disaster relief for the people of Haiti. This is of course a very worthy cause, and I was happy that someone thought of using my design as a way to contribute.

It looks like the Craft Hope for Haiti project has been so popular among sellers that they are taking a break from accepting new items for now. I know many of you are sellers at Etsy, though, and at other craft fairs. I encourage anyone to get in touch if you’d like to sell items made from any of my patterns to raise money for Haiti relief. Typically, all I ask is that you donate 100% of the profits to an established and vetted organization (I recommend the Red Cross) and that you include a Mochimochi Land credit on your item listing / pricetag.

Hearts in particular are great projects for all kinds of charity fundraising. The Children’s Society, a UK organization that benefits needy children, is currently using the pattern to raise funds with a project called The Big Stitch. I am happy to hear that word is spreading and the project is helping a lot of kids!

If you’d like to use my patterns to raise funds for Haiti earthquake victims or other worthy causes, I would love to hear from you! Just send me an email at info [at] mochimochiland.com.

Yes, the much-anticipated patterns for Tiny Things are finally in the Mochimochi Shop!

This first collection includes patterns for a Tiny Elephant, Tiny Corn, Tiny Violin, and Tiny Toothpaste. Got some sock yarn scraps lying around from former projects? You don’t need much to make these guys! Or, if you’re not so miniature-inclined, these patterns will work with heavier-weight yarn too.

Techniques include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cord, picking up stitches, and simple color knitting.

Buy the PDF collection of patterns for $5 here!

I hope everyone’s new year is off to a great start! Because this is as good a time as any to be self-reflective, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the new year for Mochimochi Land.

I don’t have any specific resolutions for Mochimochi Land, but I plan to make it an exciting year in toys! The biggest anticipation for me is my book coming out in June. Argh still six more months away! I put a lot of 2009 into working on it (and so did my awesome testers), so I hope people will enjoy it and treasure it and sleep with their arms around it. Or just enjoy it.

Of course I have plans for lots of new patterns to add to the Mochimochi Shop this year, FIVE of which I am simultaneously working on right now. (This month will see the first Tiny Things collection and a new cross-stitch pattern!) In addition to continuing to always improve at designing knitted toys, I’m hoping to get better at designing in two dimensions and convert more people to cross-stitch.

I’m planning to keep up the weekly Tiny Series for a while, but I probably can’t do it indefinitely. Or maybe I can. We’ll see!

There are a few other big projects that I’m working on that need to stay under wraps for now. Don’t you hate that? I know, I shouldn’t have said anything. Just forget that I’m working on top-secret huge exciting projects.

Oh, and John and I are putting together plans for a site redesign! I can’t say when it will be done, but our plan is to create a pretty new website that’s easy to use and has more features.

I hope you will all continue to read my blog and leave comments in 2010 if I promise to keep blogging. Let’s make it another toy-rific year together! (Sorry, but this awful pun is here to stay for another decade.)