Knitting

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Giveaway: Huge Huggable Mochimochi

by

mochimochi

Congratulations to Anne!

Sometimes I get jealous of crocheters because it’s seemingly so much easier to make dolls and characters and food and all sorts of really interesting creations out of crochet than it is out of knitting. Maybe that’s not really true and I’m just not creative enough to translate fanciful designs or ideas into knitting the way some people are with crochet.

Anna Hrachovec is one of those knitters who can turn wacky ideas into great knitting projects, and she has a whole series of books filled with what she calls mochimochi and what others might call knit amigurumi, to borrow a term from crochet.

Her 2013 book, Huge & Huggable Mochimochi, is full of 20 larger-than-life projects for fun knit items like the giant piece of birthday cake on the cover, big birdies, a giant hamburger with all the fixin’s, even a toy monster truck. (Huge in this case is still not all that huge; most of the projects are two feet long/tall or smaller.)

There’s a sweet pair of teddy bears, a capybara caravan, a stuffed submarine. Knit a giant pencil, or a huge toothbrush and tube of toothpaste.

No, I don’t know why you’d want to, either, but they’re still pretty darn cute, I have to say.

And as a writer, I may actually need a novelty knit pencil.

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of this book, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, May 3. If you could knit any novelty shape, what would you knit? I’d kind of love a plush sewing machine.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

Comments

  2. I think I would knit a garden full of flowers with faces! I am starting to knit more. I am a crocheter first 🙂
    Thank you for this giveaway.
    Deb

  8. What a great giveaway! I would probably knit FOOD and/or trucks. Thanks for the chance to win!!

  9. I love knitting odd things! It’s so much fun! I really want to make a cupcake and some parakeets next!

  18. Wouldn’t some of these items be great to give to a day care center for fun or for teaching tools (like the pencil or toothpaste and toothbrush)? So much stockinette perfect for TV knitting and maybe stash busting?

  19. I would love a chane to win the book I don’t know what I would knit first love the big cupcake Louise

Have you read?

Learn a Flower Bobble Technique to Knit a Fun Shawl

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier. 

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project. 

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible. 

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge. 

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects. 

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy. 

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project. 

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Xandy Peters]