Update: The winners have been announced: see them here!

I’m thrilled to announce this year’s springtime photo contest, this time sponsored by Spud & Chloë!

Springtime is for the birds: they’re hatching, they’re singing songs, they’re building nests. But the birds in Mochimochi Land do way more. For this Fine Feathered Photo Contest, we want to see what surprising things YOUR mochimochi birds are doing.

Choose one or more of these feathered mochis to knit: Tiny Chickens, Tiny Hatchlings, or Tiny Perching Pigeons.

These itty-bity projects all knit up really quickly, so that allows lots time for them to get into all sorts of strange and funny situations: maybe your little birds are learning to fly an airplane, or are putting on a Broadway musical, or are relaxing in the most luxurious birdbath ever—let your imagination take flight! Show us what your little guys are doing with a single photo or a series of photos uploaded to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr with the photos tagged feathercontest13.

The top three winners will each receive a selection of soft and beautiful Spud & Chloë Fine yarn. It’s perfect for knitting all sorts of teeny-tiny mochis!

The deadline for entries is April 29th.

CONTEST DETAILS

Eligibility

Knitters from all countries are welcome to enter! To be eligible, your photo(s) must contain at least one Tiny Chicken, Tiny Hatchling, or Tiny Perching Pigeon made from the Mochimochi Land pattern. The pattern may be modified, but not beyond recognition from the original design.

How to enter

Simply add your photo(s) to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group, and tag them with feathercontest13. If you don’t have a Flickr account, it is free and easy to register (though we recommend signing up as soon as possible, because it takes a little time for your account to be approved for sharing photos in a group).

Your entry can be a single photo or a series of photos, but please limit the total number of photos to 6. (In the case of a series, please number the titles.) Photos entered in this contest will not be eligible for the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest this fall.

Judging

Winners will be picked by us at Mochimochi Land, but the Flickr pool is open to be seen by everyone. We will be focusing on creativity in this contest, and not just looking for pretty images.

Deadline

The last day to enter the contest is April 29, 2013. We’ll announce the winners shortly thereafter!

Prizes!

The top three winners each receive a selection of Fine yarn provided by Spud & Chloë: third place gets three skeins, second place gets five skeins, and first place gets ten skeins! Thank you Spud & Chloë!

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners!

The FINAL VOTE is finally here! After much deliberation and lots of help from all of you, we’ve managed to narrow down our 20 semifinalist photos to 11 finalists in the 2012 Mochimochi Photo Contest. We usually have only 10 finalists, but this year there was a virtual tie for that last spot, and John and I just couldn’t eliminate one of them.

Presenting your very worthy candidates!

Which of these, in your opinion, are the cutest, funniest, most original photos of mochimochi toys? Cast your official ballot below! Don’t worry if you can’t pick a single favorite: You can vote for as many photos as you like. The poll will be open through the weekend, and we’ll announce the top three winners on Monday. Stay tuned for the results!

The time has come to reveal the first 10 semifinalists in the 2012 Mochimochi Photo Contest! These knitters blew us away with their mad knitting skills and crazy-original ideas.

Now that we’re onto the semifinals, we need your help to narrow them down into our finals group. Please ROOT FOR YOUR FAVORITES in the comments to this post. We rely on all of you to make our decision, so it’s important! Just leave a comment saying which photo or photos you would really like to see make the big final vote.

Teamwork by amyh1979

Snowmen working together! We love all their little limbs clamoring over each other.

Tiny Swedish Chef by ohdeerlette

This is a simple mod that really shines. Fantastic background, too!

Cavemen living the prehistoric life Stephanie_055

These are really some posh cavemen with their fancy prehistoric TV. And the improvised cave walls are genius!

Tiny Texas Zombiedillo says Hola by withmyneedles

Hola zombiedillo! You are cute and hilarious.

Angry Birds! by joanna.sammis

An awesome tribute to one of our favorite games! The score at the top really completes this image.

Tiny Knit Sushi by Bitter-Sweet-

Gorgeous food photography here—that tiny sushi looks good enough to eat (and then gag on).

Thriller by knitjvf

We love a good MJ homage! You can just picture these guys breaking out into a lurching Thriller dance.

Big Mistake by kawaiihunter

How is tiny gnome going to get out of this sticky situation?? Such drama and suspense!

Gertrude the Mermaid on her inland vacation by Starparty2000

Gertrude is simply ravishing! The combination of leaf, water ripples, and tiled swimming pool is really cool.

Mama called the Dr and he said NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED! by Snickerdoodleloves

Poor mama monkey has her hands full! You can see the entire adorable story on the knitter’s Flickr page.

Now that you’ve been dazzled by these awesome photos, please ROOT FOR YOUR FAVORITES in the comments to this post! We’ll reveal then second batch of semifinalists on Monday, so stay tuned for more mochi adorableness!

John and I have just gone through all 700+ photos entered in the 2012 Mochimochi Photo Contest last night—it was a late night, as you can imagine! I can honestly say that this was the best overall batch in Mochimochi Land history. The photos were bursting with creativity in the form of fun pattern mods, hilarious stories, and imaginative concepts. It sounds cliché, but we love them all and they are all winners to us!

After much hand-wringing and a few tears, we managed to narrow down the photos to 20 honorable mentions and 20 semifinalists. Today and tomorrow we will feature our honorable mentions, in no particular order.

Without further ado, here is our first group of awesome honorable mentions—after the jump!

Continue reading “Honorable Mentions ’12, Group One” →