Knit Trip
Take a journey to Mochimochiland, home to delightfully strange stitches
By Sara Graham
Published: April 15th, 2008 | 3:40pm
You know you’ve made it in the craft world when Martha Stewart plucks you from her studio audience to discuss the knitted creations you brought (true story: I watched with envy as a fellow audience member on a recent knitting-themed episode made the cut. My sad scarf did not garner any attention, needless to say).
This lucky audience member was New York's Anna Hrachovec, and such a surreal experience seems fitting for the woman behind Mochimochiland (mochimochiland.com/weblog), a weird and wonderful place where knitted snails crawl on plushy logs, stitched veggie patches sprout tiny carrots, and pillowy bathtubs overflow with eyeballed bubbles.
Hrachovec’s knitted plushies have a cartoonish sensibility, inspired in part by Japan, the homeland of all things cute. “Kawaii,” the Japanese concept that celebrates anything that makes you go “awww,” was first introduced to Hrachovec during a foreign exchange trip.
“When I wasn't in class or doing cultural activities, I spent a lot of time in stationery and toy stores, studying the bizarre characters I found there,” Hrachovec says. “Some of my favorites were dancing pills, and little green hippos that ate each other. To me, kawaii is imaginative anthropomorphism with a vaguely sinister side.”
This idea of adorable-meets-insane is certainly evident in Mochimochiland; a plush gun is there as well as a snake eating a removable mouse. Though some seem devious, Hrachovec has a peaceful relationship with the inhabitants of this strange land she gives life to.
“The feeling I get from a lot of the toys that I make is that they get along with me OK, but they don't particularly like me,” she says. “They tolerate me.”
Though she has the corner market on cute, she’s willing to spread the wealth. Her blog includes cheap and free patterns as well as how-to’s, so you too can whip up your own knitted toilet paper roll (complete with pensive expression).
Like many crafters, Hrachovec works a day job. However, with a job at SOHO gallery Hanahou, which currently hosts an exhibit based on a fantasy world of Blythe Dolls, it seems she is living the crafty girl’s dream. And she’s only 26. So what advice does this big city crafter and Jenny Hart fan have for aspiring creators?
“Presentation is important. If you make something awesome, take good photos, and put yourself out there online,” she says. “Use Flickr, Etsy, or other networking sites; people will start to notice and demand your work.”
Issue #34
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