Nickelodeon Holiday IDs

I’ve been getting emails all month from knitters who think they’ve spotted knitted gnomes, snowmen, and other Mochimochi Land creatures on TV. It's true! Last month I had the opportunity to work with Nick on a series of animated holiday IDs featuring a variety of wintry mochis making mischief in the snow. If you tune in right now, you’ll probably see them airing between commercials.

Here are the full animations. 

Anna Hrachovec for Nickelodeon: Holiday 2013 IDs from Anna Hrachovec on Vimeo.

I worked together with the Nick promotions team to concept and animate the first six IDs, with all the post-production work, including the sound and the flat animations, handled by Nick. The last four animations starring mochi-fied Nick characters were done by the Nick team themselves using materials I had made.

It was an incredible experience to get to work on these ambitiously-conceived animations with such a talented and enthusiastic team. I had a blast with this project, and I learned so much! The project has made me more excited about all the possibilities for mochis in motion.

Big thank-yous go to Matthew Duntemann at Nick and to my agent Koko at CWC International for making this happen!

Tiny Mochis Featured in Martha Stewart Living

A certain tiny gnome and Santa are featured in this month's Martha Stewart Living magazine!

My tiny kits are featured in the December 2013 issue's gift guide—these are kits that contain a pattern, yarn and stuffing for knitters to make the little inch-tall guys themselves, available in my shop.

The finished gnomes (and a few other creatures) are also available in my shop for those who don't knit. 

Thank you to Martha Stewart Living for this early Christmas present! 

Hello Chicago

Afte eight wonderful years in NYC, this month my husband and I and the cats and all of Mochimochi Land packed up and moved halfway across the country to Chicago! 

The gnomes are excited about the colder weather. And I'm excited about getting to know my new city, with a more relaxed pace and a bit more space. Our move was prompted by my husband John's new job as Senior Editor of The A.V. Club. I'm so proud of him! 

We've just finished settling in to our new apartment, which will double as Mochimochi headquarters. It's so cozy and quiet and I'm in love. 

My office is no longer in my bedroom... 

And I even have a place to put all my knickknacks now! 

The cats were initially against all this change, but they've found their usual spots now and they're all tucked in for a long Chicago winter. 

Huge & Huggable Mochimochi is Here

My fourth book of knitting patterns is now availabe in bookstores everywhere! 

Huge & Huggable Mochimochi contains patterns for 20+ of the biggest squishiest mochis ever! 

These projects took up a significant chunk of 2012 for me. It was a ton of work to knit these guys, but the huge toys gave me a kind of bigger canvas in which to incorporate lots of fun knitting techniques, like cables, bobbles, unusual shaping, and colorwork. 

Some of my favorite projects include Roland the Roly Poly... 

a Capybara Caravan... 

and this handy guy, Totes Adorbs! 

As with my other books, the wonderful photography is by Brandi Simons. We had just as much fun with the shoots as it looks! 

Signed copies of the book are available from Mochimochiland.com. I'll also be doing a few book signings this fall: 

October 24th: Lion Brand Yarn Studio, NYC
November 1st-3rd: Vogue Knitting Live Chicago
December 7th: Looped Yarn Works, Washington D.C.
December 8th: Loop, Philadelphia

Big thank-yous go to Brandi, to Nora, my adorable niece and cover model, to all my testers, to Cascade Yarns, Lion Brand, Knit Picks, and Spud & Chloë, to my tech editor Marilyn Passmore, to my editor Betty Wong and her assistant Caitlin Harpin, and to everyone else who helped make this book happen!

Interview on bettery magazine

A short interview that I did with bettery magazine went online last month. The occasion was the 2013 Pictoplasma Festival, and so the questions were about urban art and characters! 

Thank you to Laure at Pictoplasma for arranging the interview. 

Mochis Take Ann Arbor

My visit to Ann Arbor last month was a blast! It was such a beautiful town, and the Ann Arbor District Library gave me a warm welcome.

 On July 13th I got to set up a robot-themed Mochimochi display in the window of the Robot Supply & Repair Shop, which supports the nonprofit writing center 826MI.

 

It was fun to gather up toys that I'd made over the past few years (most are samples for patterns) and put them in a scene with a bunch of curious robots. 

The display will be up until the end of August or so, so plenty of people will get to see it! 

Right now there are also several scenes from Gnomes vs Snowmen scattered around town—participants in the library's summer game can spot them to win virtual badges.

I also gave a slideshow talk at the library on July 14th, which I'm happy to report was well attended. There's a video of it that may go online at some point. I'll post that when it happens. 

Big thank-yous to Erin Helmrich and the Ann Arbor District Library, to Amy at 826MI and the other shops who are hosting the Gnomes and Snowmen, and to everyone who came to the talk! I truly hope to return to Ann Arbor very soon.  

Talk at Ann Arbor Downtown Library July 14th

My squishy friends and I will be visiting Ann Arbor next month! 

I'll be giving a talk with slideshow and signing books at the downtown library on July 14th, from 2-4 pm. Come learn about how Mochimochi Land came to be and meet some of the characters who live there! (There may even be some super-sneak previews of Huge & Huggable Mochimochi, along with other surprises...)

In addition, I'll have some of my artwork and other characters on display around town that weekend, so keep your eyes peeled, Ann Arborites! 

This will be my first visit to the area, so I hope to see you there if you live nearby. I can't wait!

Please visit the Ann Arbor District Library website for all the info. 

More Wooly Woods Now Online

The Wooly Woods is now online!

More photos from my April solo show are now up in the Installations section of this website—most of them were taken by my sister-in-law Jenna, who was my awsome travel companion to Berlin for this show. (Check out her beautiful photography website, especially if you live in the NYC or New England area.)

I've also listed the eight available pieces from the show in my shop. Here's a bigger look at each of them. 

 He Loves Me... 

Hush, Little Twiggins

 

Panda Play

Crabby Apple Harvest

 

Ready or Not

C'mere, Stinkbug

That Tickles

Wish I Had a Tail

For more information or to purchase a piece, please contact me at anna@annahrachovec.com.

New Animation: Tiny Cavemen Adventures

The tiny cavemen of Mochimochi Land have been making all kinds of discoveries about their world, and undercover anthropologists have captured it all on video. 

This is my first multi-part stop-motion animation. More to come soon, I hope! 

Photos from The Wooly Woods

I'm barely over my jet lag from a return flight from Germany, but I just couldn't wait to share photos from The Wooly Woods!

Even though it was only up for a few days at smallspace gallery, the Pictoplasma Festival (along with some nice local news coverage) brought lots of happy visitors. I couldn't be happier with how the show went, although it's bittersweet that I've had to part with more than half of the pieces. (Yay for sales though!)

The show is an imaginary woods from a small corner of Mochimochi Land, inhabited by curious creatures called twiggins, who are discovering their environment and playing wit hthe other animals who live in it.

Magic apple harvest!

Who's afraid of snails and slugs?

 Let's conga!

Shhh...

Here, wormy worm!

Monkeys love this game!

All the couples go to this branch to make out. 

Tails have all kinds of uses! 

The Wooly Woods turned out to be one of my favorite projects ever, and I hope to continue its life in a few more places in the future. My sister-in-law Jenna Leigh Teti accompanied me on this trip, and she took some more professional photos that I'll be sharing later. 

Thank you to Anna at smallspace and everyone at Pictoplasma for making The Wooly Woods happen!