Review + Giveaway: Adventures in Mochimochi Land

Adventures in Mochimochi Land

After working with Anna Hrachovec and the organizers of YarnCon on the Project Gnome Diplomacy project earlier this year, my enthusiasm for knitting tiny toys came out of hibernation. So I couldn't say no when Anna offered to have a few copies of her newest book, Adventures in Mochimochi Land, sent my way for a review and giveaway.  It was a pretty exciting day when the package arrived, and that night, I sat down at my kitchen table to page through the book while I waited for dinner to cook.

The book contains 3 short stories set in Mochimochi Land, "a magical place where everything, from the trees to the microwaves, is alive and squishy," as the book's introduction notes. These colorful, whimsical knitted creations have a propensity to get into silly predicaments, and each of the three tales are an entertaining read which you can enjoy in under a half an hour - unless, of course, you can spare a little extra time to pore over all of the accompanying images, which have a lot of clever and amusing details for the astute observer.

Image © 2015 Anna Hrachovec

The last section of the book contains patterns to make many of the inhabitants who starred in the stories which make up the first two-thirds of the book. There are 25 patterns in all, most of which call for fingering weight yarn and US 1 needles - but a few patterns, such as the Muffin Mountains or larger sizes of the Growing Donut (shown above), call for heavier weights and bigger needles to make not-as-tiny toy.

Image © 2015 Brandi Simons

There is a so much cute going on, it's kind of hard to decide where to start first! Eventually, I decided to let my yarn stash dictate which patterns I'd make for the purpose of this post. Since I don't keep a lot of odds and ends of fingering weight yarn around these days, I made my tiny toys with worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles (I think I'd classify them as "midi" rather than "mini). The yarn I had in my destash bin seemed perfect for making the critters from the second tale, "The Underwater Election." In the last week, I knit Bubbles the Dolphin, Gary the Crab, a Tiny Puffer Fish, a Tiny Octopus, and a Soggy Sea Sand Castle (although I forgot to add the final embellishment last night, oops!). Aren't they adorable?

They were fun to knit and easy enough to make whilst reading subtitles as I watched my favorite anime series. Best of all, each one only takes a couple of hours from start to finish - I think the most time-consuming critter was the Octopus since there were a lot of yarn ends to weave in. However, each pattern does a good job of minimizing fussiness and I can tell that there are instructions aimed at speeding up the process overall - for example, a lot of the appendages were knit directly onto the body of the critter, and the purl stitches of the Soggy Sea Sand Castle are achieved by knitting (rather than purling), then turning the piece inside out. So clever!

Giveaway
Here's where things get fun - you can enter to win this copy of Adventures in Mochimochiland for your very own! I am also throwing in some fun underwater-themed stickers and a mini-skein of Dragonfly Fibers' Pixie yarn in the Kelpie colorway from my TNNA Designer Dinner Swag Bag.

To be eligible, simply leave a comment on this blog post telling me what pattern you'd make first from Adventures in Mochimochiland. Be sure to also mention your Ravelry ID or email address so that I can contact you if you win.

 If you would like a bonus entry, please like my Facebook Page or follow me on Instagram, then leave another comment telling me you did so - just be sure to mention your Facebook or Instagram name so that I can verify everything!

I will randomly select one lucky winner to be announced next Monday, July 20, 2015 right here on this blog. Good luck!