Category: Mochimochi Land News

Mystery Preview Kits are back!

Posted on by Anna

Do you love mysteries, free stuff, and knitting cute things? Now through June 14th, for every two kits that you purchase from the Mochimochi Shop, you’ll receive an exciting Mystery Preview Kit: a new, never-before-seen kit that will allow you to knit something cute and small! (The kit will AUTOMATICALLY come with your order—no need to add it to your cart.)
There are three different mysteries, so if you buy four kits, you get TWO mystery kits; buy six, and get ALL THREE new mystery kits for free! You can also purchase the three mystery kits on their own as a collection.

WHAT COULD THEY BE??? 👀

Each Mystery Preview Kit includes a pattern and enough yarn (including beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Hand Dyed Diva!) and stuffing to knit one or two cute new creatures. You’ll need to supply a set of size 1 US (2.25mm) double-pointed needles and a small tapestry needle.

Techniques in the new kits include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, I-cord, mattress stitch, picking up stitches, and other fun stuff!

Mysteries from previous years include Tiny Narwhal, Ice Cream Doggie, Tiny Hedgehog, and Cat in a Box. You can find these kits and many more (including new designs!) in the Mochimochi Shop.

As for this year’s mysteries, they’re inspired by cuddly and crawly creatures, but not quite found in nature… 🌱

(We’d love your help keeping the mystery going all this month! Please keep photos to yourself until mid-June. Thank you!)

Watch out for this account impersonating me on Facebook

Posted on by Anna

It was brought to my attention over the weekend that someone’s set up an account on Facebook that’s impersonating me, sending out friend requests and even asking for personal information. This is more than annoying—I’m so upset thinking that someone could have their money or identity stolen through this scam.

Mochimochi Land is a Facebook page, not a personal account, so you would never receive a friend request from me on Facebook using that name. The Mochimochi Land page is administered by me using my real name, Anna Hrachovec. (I don’t encourage people to friend me on FB, just because I rarely post anything on my personal account.)

I’m so sorry to anyone who is getting spammed by this scammer. It would be a favor to me if you would report them—apparently the more people who do so, the more attention it my get from FB admins and hopefully that will help get it taken down sooner. But I’m reluctant to link to the scam page from here—I don’t want them to target my website next. So please just beware if you come across it and watch out for these kinds of scams in general!

Knit gnomes and dinosaurs with me in May!

Posted on by Anna

A year into our Zoom-ified culture, I’ve gotten fully on board with virtual classes—they’re so fun! Sure, connecting via screens isn’t a complete substitute for in-person learning, but it has some real advantages. Participants can join from all over! You get a first-person perspective of what my hands are doing! I can show animations while everyone’s knitting stockinette rows!

So I’m excited to teach my Tiny Gnome class with Virtual Knitting LIVE again in May, and also in May I’ll be teaching my Tina the Tiny T-rex class once more with Knitrino!

May 15: Knit a Tiny Gnome

In this two-hour class, we’ll cover intermediate techniques used in my tiny gnome pattern: joining I-cord legs, knitting with 2, 3, and 4 double-pointed needles, switching colors, attaching I-cord arms, and embroidery tips. Your gnome can be clothed or gnaked—your choice!

Visit the Vogue Knitting LIVE website to register. Soupy the cat has agreed to consider making a special guest appearance.

May 22: Tina the Tiny T-Rex

This is a one-hour class covering the basic techniques that go into this fun, intermediate-level pattern, which is available in the Knitrino app. Techniques include a special seamless cast on, short rows (wrap & turn), and attaching tiny arms and legs! You can sign up within the Knitrino app—click on this link on your phone to get the app and sign up.

There’s also an option to get the class along with a kit, which includes lovely yarn from Hand Dyed Diva!

Virtual Knitting LIVE classes in April

Posted on by Anna

I’m very excited to be teaching two project-based classes at Virtual Knitting LIVE in April!

❤️ Intro to Toy Knitting: Sweet Little Stuffed Hearts
If you’re kind of a beginner (you can knit and purl), this one’s for you! We’ll ease into using double-pointed needles and cover all the basic stuff that you need to know for knitting toys, specifically cute little hearts!

🌱 Knit a Tiny Gnome
We’ll cover intermediate techniques used in my tiny gnome pattern: joining I-cord legs, attaching I-cord arms, and embroidery tips. Your gnome can be clothed or gnaked—your choice!

See the Vogue Knitting LIVE website for registration!

New Bitty Bathroom pattern collection

Posted on by Anna

Knit up some GOOD CLEAN FUN: the new Bitty Bathroom Suite is here!
🚽 🛁 🧼

Lil Flushie, Tiny Tubby, and Dinky Sink will be your soothing companions as we enter year two of the pandemic. Knit them for yourself, for your dollhouse, or for your friend who has everything! The PDF download is now available in my shop and on Ravelry.


Each friendly fixture comes with a little bonus detail: water in Lil Flushie’s bowl (to be embellished according to your own sensibilities), a toy boat for Tiny Tubby, and a stream of water plus sudsy soap for Dinky Sink. The patterns are brimming with fun, intermediate-level techniques, and videos showing each step of Lil Flushie’s assembly are included.

via GIPHY

Half a skein of the main color will be more than enough to knit all three, plus bits of other colors for the water, fixtures, and accessories. I used fingering-weight yarn and size 1 US (2.25mm) double-pointed needles for these guys, but they would also be super cute scaled up!

I had so much fun designing and knitting these guys, I can’t even tell you. My favorite parts were learning how to do I-cord bind-off for Lil Flushie’s seat and Tiny Tubby’s rim, and refreshing my French knot skills for all those bubbles. I hope you enjoy them too!

via GIPHY

❤️ Big thank-yous to my tech editor Marilyn Passmore, and testers Linda, Brian, Amanda, and Shama ❤️

Sharing the luv(bots)

Posted on by Anna

Thanks to your Luvbots and Bluebirds of Crappiness pattern purchases, we raised $306 for the Greater Chicago Food Depository in February. Luv it!

And since February has been one of the crappiest months in the crappiest pandemic, especially for people in TX and neighboring states, we just matched that total with a donation to the San Antonio Food Bank. I chose San Antonio because it was already one of the cities with the most financial distress in the nation during the pandemic.

Thank you, knitters!

Let’s Get Digital… for a good cause!

Posted on by Anna

It’s that time of year when 1s and 0s turn into Xs and Os!
These amorous androids can’t contain their passion in their 2013-era disk space, so they’re sharing the love: all proceeds from Luvbots pattern sales this month will go to Chicago area food banks and community services.

If you haven’t knitted them before, Luvbots (also available on Ravelry) is a squeezable project that incorporates colorwork and a bit of mattress stitch—and heart antennas! 😍 The pattern also comes with a bonus sheet of printable valentines for all the people who don’t get romantic knitted robots from you this year.