Anna Hrachovec, the creator of the website Mochi Mochi Land is one of my favourite designers of knitted toys. Her knitted creatures are are both wacky and adorable. Best of all, for me, are her tiny Mochi Mochi - a collection of people, creatures and objects all knitted in miniature! I decided to buy the book about thirty seconds after discovering it and it's one of my favourites, proving very useful for last minutes presents or speedy knitting gratification.
The first pattern I tried was this little gnome. He lives in my pencil tin at work and has made me feel better about life many times!
Here are a trio of monkeys, another pattern found in Teeny-Tiny Mochi Mochi. Although I do have a habit of knitting animals in unnatural colours, these guys were always intended to be blue, like the monkeys in a barrel toy.
My favourite pattern from the book are the bride and groom. I've given these as presents to two couples recently. While the pattern itself is very quick and easy, I had a lot of trouble making the faces cute. I initially tried the black, beady eyes but decided they were too creepy. Googly eyes were hilarious, but not really flattering for the bridal couple. In the end I decided to draw eyes on paper and coat them in clear glue before sticking them on.
Overall the patterns in this book are simple and fun to knit. I recommend it for intermediate knitters, primarily because tiny knitting can be fiddly and it could be nightmarish if you were not confident with increasing or decreasing or knitting in the round. I highly recommend Teeny-Tiny Mochi Mochi and any of the patterns from the Mochi Mochi Land website. It's even worth a look if you've never picked up a pair of knitting needles in your life! Have a look a her gnome vs snowman exhibition, it's great (go on :-P).
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