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?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.