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Giveaway! Knitting MochiMochi…

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This is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I’d like to put pictures of every single project in this blog, but that just wouldn’t work. But, I know where you can see them. (HERE!)

But first….What on earth is a MochiMochi?

Gotta admit, I had no clue! Apparantly it is a form of sticky, sweet rice that has come to give a sort of “adorableness” to meal times. Ok. Must lose something in translation.

This book, Knitting Mochimochi: 20 Super-Cute Strange Designs for Knitted Amigurumi by Anna Hrachovec, however, and the projects in it, lose nothing. They are just cute. Adorable even.  And guess what? If the project you just have to create isn’t in here, Anna gives you instructions on how to create your own original “thing”. Awesome!!

And guess what else? I’m giving this book away to someone next Friday.  All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me all about your adventures in Amigurumi-land! Ready….Set….Go!

Comments

  2. i once made sardines in a can, but i never finished it because the sardines were too big to fit in the can, so it sits in pieces, never to become sardines. I also made amigurumi ornaments for my family for christmas last year, santa, a mouse, angel, and a snowman. all of the above were crochet, i would love to try my hand at knitted amigurumi.

  3. Another giveaway, count me in! I want to make the feet eaters…FUN and FUNctional.

  4. This is sooo cuuuute! I’ve been tempted by the crochet, held back only by the fact that I don’t know how to crochet well. I’d love to win the knit book. And thanks for the link to the site.

  5. I love amigurumi! I’ve made tons of Ana Paula Rimoli stuff and other projects off Ravelry. This book looks like one I definitely NEED!

  7. i love mochimochiland. her tiny amis are so cute. i started making amigurumis with ana paula’s amigurumi books. they’re really fun to make.

  8. I just downloaded a pattern for one – my first – so cute! Can’t wait to get started!

  9. i have so loved the little characters but am not a crocheter! Love this book! (gotta get one, lol, or win one) Mochi is wonderful (some in the fridge as i type) made out of rice flour and coconut milk (for the basic mochi). Think jello jiggler but sticky creamy, delicious!

  11. I’d love a chance to enter and try to knit my first amigurumi 🙂
    Thanks so much!

  12. I am a newbie knitter and so have zero experience knitting mochimochi but I’d love to learn how! The book looks fun – I’d love to win it!

  14. First time I have made a comment. And I am an old lady learning new tricks and just learning about amigurumi. My grandchildren love them. I have 13 grandchildren. The book looks great!I have knitted for over 50 years and crocheted about 25 years and still learning something new. No Alhemizers for me!!!
    Thanks for craft gossip, I explore it every weekend from the week before. Bonnie

  15. I LOVE MochiMochi Land! I’ve been wanting to make the Tubby Pattern for ages and these new patterns look amazing! As for what I have already made, a lamb & kitten for my niece, sushi, a golden snitch and a couple of others, all here.

  16. I love to crochet little amigurumi critters.I recently made 2 little piggies for my grandaughter.I would love to win this book to have some other patterns for things to make her 🙂

  17. I am addicted to making ami’s! I just learned to crochet and knit last fall…now my house if burried in yarn…needles hooks and idea books! When I am not crocheting and creating I am searching the web for all things ami related! I would love to win this book…it looks adorable 🙂

  18. I’ve never made amigurumi but I have 2 little nieces that probably wouldn’t mind if i did! I’ve heard such great things about this book.

  19. I have always loved amigurumi patterns, especially because of the gratifying results 🙂 My first attempt at it was when i made a crochet penguin. I think the pattern was at LionBrand and it looked super cute! Since then I have made many crocheted toys for friends and their kids. I would love to try out the patterns in this amazing book 🙂

  20. I would like to visit Amigurumi-land, the style is so cute and colorful. I just need to perfect excuse to visit. Like winning a book all about it 😉

  21. I am a mochimochi virgin. Just discovered this on Anna Hrachovec’s blog Mochimochiland. Love it. want to knit the snake eating mouse!

  23. My experiences with amigurumi are zero but I did buy the Tubby pattern from Mochi Mochi with hopes of giving it a try. I just know this book would be full of inspiration! Thanks for the chance to win a copy.

  24. My sister has been making the cutest amigurumi fruit and animals. She crocheted the cutest blue bird mobile for my daughter’s room. So cute! Since I’m a knitter, it’s time to try some knit amigurumi.

  27. I enjoyed the snake that eats the mouse, and the egg that turns into a chicken by the author! I would love to make more!

  28. I started amigurumi as a way to use up left over yarn to make toys for the grand kids. I tell you the things are so cute everyone has to pick up the latest project and play. I just finished my third, a turtle and got requests to do another. I have definitely found a new addiction!

  30. Two Christmases ago I dove into Animal Land to make a few amigurumi for my grandkids. Let me tell you…13 grandchildren normally get 13 sweaters and that was giving me the heebie jeebies about getting them all done. So, look, these are cute, and look fun to make, so give it a try, right?? Reached the magic number of 13 much too early and I hadn’t suffered enough. These really were fun to make, and there seemed to be an ever growing pile of appealing patterns all over. Had to make more! Each kid ended up with at least 2-3, and (knitted in as many hours as I usually do)carried in nearly 45 animals in a great big bag. Handed them out like a real Santa, and I had a ball. Even the 16 year old had to take one —I convinced her they would be good to take with her when babysitting.

    I highly recommend the fun you’ll have making animals, especially if you do it while you teach those kids how to crochet at the same time!!

  31. Ahhh! I love Mochi-Mochi land stuff! I actually have knitted the “Woodin” pattern that she posted on Knitty for free. They were SO cute

  32. Aliens from mars,
    Dinosaurs from the prehistoric age,
    a computer, oh what else,
    the chicken or the egg,
    I explore Arigumi land every week,
    knitting is what I love and
    Anna makes it all so much fun!

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]