Category: Mochimochi Land News

Tiny Leprechaun and Friends

Posted on by Anna

The best way to catch a leprechaun is to knit one yourself!

Make March magical by knitting a tiny leprechaun, tiny pot o’ gold, tiny rainbow, and a rather normal-sized four-leaf clover for St. Patricks Day or just for a little luck! So gather your scraps of green yarn and celebrate the imminent-ness of spring!

The pattern collection is available as a $5 download in the Mochimochi Shop and also via Ravelry.

There are no rules in Mochimochi Land, so clothing is optional!

(If your personal pot of gold isn’t quite full, you can always find the clover pattern for free. And if you have a copy of my book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, there’s an earlier version of the tiny rainbow pattern in there!)

Thanks to Marilyn for tech editing and Amanda for testing!

Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi Sugarplum Fairies

Posted on by Anna

Pa rum plum plum plum 🎶
The 2018 holiday pattern is here!

Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi Sugarplum Fairies are ready to be knitted by you for all the darlings on your list. 💜

This pattern automatically comes FREE with any purchase worth $5 or more from the Mochimochi Shop through January 1st!
No need to add it to your cart—a link to download the pattern will be emailed to you within 24 hours of your purchase.


This is a seamless, intermediate-level pattern that incorporates I-cord, a little simple embroidery, and simple stitching. The fairies knit up fast for ornaments, garlands, and more, for perfect little last-minute hand-knitted gifts!

Psst! Sugarplum Fairies would make excellent Knit Ball Pit balls if made with worsted-weight yarn!

Knit Ball Pit Update

Posted on by Anna

We’re up to 305 balls in the Knit Ball Pit!


That’s a lot of hand knitted and crocheted balls!

I’m hoping we can amass 1,000 balls by January 1st. Will you help us? Check out the Ravelry page for the pattern and a flyer that you can print and post in your LYS and/or hand out to your fiber-friendly friends.

If you’ll be at Vogue Knitting LIVE in NYC this January, you can bring your balls directly to the ball pit party. Then take a dip yourself! After VK LIVE, the balls will be donated to the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, who will send them to kids in Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

Thank you to Cheers To Ewe! for sponsoring this project!

Tiny Scarecrow is Terrible at This Job

Posted on by Anna

At least he shares his treats! 🎃

The Tiny Scarecrow pattern (with micro crows!) is now available as a PDF download from the Mochimochi Shop.

Take $1 off the pattern with the code SCARYNOTSCARY through November 1st!

If you want the pattern in your Ravelry account, just leave me a note when checking out with your Ravelry name.
(You can also buy it directly from Ravelry, although the discount doesn’t apply there.)

New Starter Owl Pattern is Here!

Posted on by Anna

These little owls are ready to be knit by you!

The newest pattern in the Starter series, the Starter Owl comes with instructions written for both flat and circular knitting. Depending on your knitting speed, they can be made in a couple of hours or in a matter in minutes!

You’ll need basic knitting skills like casting on, knit and purl stitches, increase and decrease stitches, and then some simple embroidery will take care of the rest.

The pattern is now available as a download for $5 from the Mochimochi Shop and from Ravelry, and also as a kit (which includes yarn to make one lovely lavender owl and one minty fresh owl)!

Creating this pattern was a big process—it underwent several versions before I arrived at the final owl.

And then I wanted to make sure that it was a good project for knitters at an advanced-beginner level, so I recruited some new testers. They really delivered with the cuteness!

Thank you to Danielle Holke, Andrea BuzsĂĄky, Sally Costello, Kelly Westlund, Stacy Warner, and Sandra Horne!

If you’re interested in more patterns at this level, check out the other Starter patterns in the shop.

Happy knitting!

The Knit Ball Pit will be Donated to AFCAids!

Posted on by Anna

We have some exciting Knit Ball Pit developments this week!


Contribution made by Paula in Georgia

Thanks to Ladianne Henderson of Cheers To Ewe! (the lovely yarn shop in Huntersville, NC), we have connected with the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, who will receive all of the mochimochi balls after Vogue Knitting LIVE and will send them to children in Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe!

I am always conscious of how important it is that charity knitting projects actually be beneficial to the causes they are meant to help, so I was very happy to read these words from Tanya Weaver, the founder of AFCA:

We can give [the balls] to children after a medical exam or blood test; we can give to babies born to abused girls whom we are helping with new lives; we can gift to students who have no one to encourage them along the way, and we can give to the hurting, needy child who will see this as a symbol of love.

As if Tanya’s words don’t melt your heart enough, she was also kind enough to send me some photos of the children her organization works with. Here are Joseph, Abraham, Samuel, and Precious.

I want to knit them all the things, and I’m sure you do too!

Whether or not you are planning to knit balls with us, I encourage you to visit the AFCA website and learn about their work and how you can help.

And to help make this project possible, Cheers To Ewe! has also signed on to be our sponsor, yay! Thank you to Ladianne and Cheers To Ewe!

Also, since I originally posted about the knit ball pit, I’ve added the pattern as a free download on Ravelry, so now it’s easier to print and share it.

Follow the developments here and with the #knitballpit hashtag!

Let’s Knit a Ball Pit!

Posted on by Anna

FINAL BALL COUNT: 2,383!!! PROJECT RECAP HERE!

JANUARY UPDATE! We have 1650 balls in the knit ball pit and it’s still growing! If you’d like to contribute, at this point I’d like to encourage you to donate funds directly to the American Foundation for Children with AIDS if you are able. And any future group projects will be announced here, on the newsletter, and on Instagram! Thank you for the balls, everyone!

UPDATE! Check out a chat with me and Tanya Weaver of AFCAids with the ladies of Cheers to Ewe on their Facebook Live show!

I said in my last post that it would be fun to do a big crazy group project, so…

Mochimochi Land is going to Vogue Knitting LIVE in NYC this January, and we want to make a splash with a whole ball pit full of knitted mochimochi balls!

After Vogue Knitting LIVE, the balls will be donated to the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, who will send them to kids in Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. (More on that here!)

To make this squishy cuddly fun possible, we need YOUR help: Please join us in knitting hundreds of colorful character balls! Follow the pattern below (there’s a circular and a flat version) to make as many balls as you can contribute, and mail them to this address by January 3rd, 2019:

[I’ve removed the address to avoid confusion—this project is complete!]

If your package comes from somewhere outside the US, we want to thank you for your extra effort, so please include your email address for a discount code to the Mochimochi Shop!

(If you’re coming to Vogue Knitting LIVE NYC in person, you can also just bring your character balls with you!)

A big thank-you to our sponsor, Cheers To Ewe!

Things you’ll need

Yarn: Use any weight of colorful yarn! It can be variegated or have a funky texture or whatever, but we do want to keep it bright and happy. You’ll need less than 10 yards of yarn for one ball. (This is a great project for using up yarn scraps!) You’ll also need a small amount of contrasting-color yarn for eyes.

Needles: Use a needle that is small enough so that stuffing won’t show through the gaps between the stitches. (We recommend using size 5 US (3.75mm) needles with worsted-weight yarn, for example.)

Stuffing: We recommend polyester fiberfill, but stuffing can be anything lightweight, including yarn scraps.

You’ll also need a tapestry needle and scissors.

Please read!

• We want characters! Please make your ball into a character by embroidering eyes onto it! Don’t worry about doing it perfectly—wonky stitching just adds to your ball’s uniqueness and specialness.
• You can add details like arms, legs, hair, ears, etc by adding embellishments like I-cords. Make sure this is all attached—characters should have no loose parts, and nothing so big or dangly that it would tangle up our ball-pit fun.
• We want the ball pit to be totally soft, so no hard components, please. (No plastic eyes.)
• Crocheters are welcome to participate! There are several free ball patterns on Ravelry, like this one.
• We’re unable to return submissions once they’re incorporated into the ball pit, so your characters will be taking up permanent residence in Mochimochi Land. Make sure you say a proper goodbye before sending them off!
• Please tag your character balls with #knitballpit —I’ll also be sharing submissions and updates and other fun stuff using that hashtag.

Continue reading “Let’s Knit a Ball Pit!” →