by Melissa Seymour
April 2012
Hand knitting has become more popular than ever in recent years. Knit toys have become popular recently because of they are small and quick to knit. Members of Ravelry.com have added more than 25,000 toy patterns to the website since it began in 2007
Anna Hrachovec, a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., designed her first toy six years ago.
“ I wanted to make handmade gifts for my coworkers to commemorate a new gallery that we were opening. The gallery's logo happened to have a monster-like shape (it was basically a blob), and so I used what I knew about knitting and shaping to design a toy based on the logo.” Hrachovec said.
In 2007, Hrachovec launched her website, Mochimochi Land “as a place where knitted toys and people can live together in a spirit of tolerance.” She blogs about her new designs, shares photos of her designs knit by others, and interviews other artists. She also holds contests where participants can make up captions for her creative photos.
Hrachovec said her designs are inspired by strange and mysterious fictional worlds, like those created by Dr. Seuss and Pee-Wee Herman.
“I love the idea of taking something very familiar to everyone, like a dog or a toilet, and turning it into a character with an unexpected twist. Some of my ideas come from rhymes or other word play, and I also love working with urban myths and cliche,” Hrachovec said.
One of her most popular toy designs is a play on the question, “which came first, the chicken orr the egg?” The design Which Came First is a reversible toy chick and egg. The toy has been knit 224 times by members of Ravelry.com.
“Anna bring a sense of whimsy into a world that is sometimes too serious,” Jan Hamby, of Quarryville, Pa. said.
Hrachovec has published two books. Her first book, Knitting Mochimochi, was published in 2010 and features 20 patterns for toys and accessories. Her second book, Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, was published in 2011 and is filled with Hrachovec’s popular tiny toys.
These inch-tall toys can take Hrachovec as little as two hours to design and another two hours to write the pattern.
“ I do like to take more time than that to think about the right way to present it and come up with photography concepts instead of just throwing it up on my website right away. Right now I'm working on some larger designs that feel like they're taking forever - but it's probably more like two weeks for each,” Hrachovec said.
Fans of the Mochimochi Land patterns enjoy the whimsy and attention to detail in Hrachovec’s patterns.
“I learn something new every time I knit a Mochimochi Land pattern. The designs are incredibly creative, fascinating, and unique; I never get that ‘hey, haven’t I seen this before?’ feeling when I’m working with one of Anna’s patterns,” said Marilyn Passmore, Vienna, Va.
Hrachovec also sells individual patterns and offers free patterns on her website. “For the past year or so, I've been spending lots of my time designing for my website and designing for my books, and when I'm not doing that I'm working on more elaborate knitted art projects,” Hrachovec said.
Hrachovec has exhibited her work in the US, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan. In Nov. 2011 she created an art installation at gallery hanahou in New York. The installation was titled Gnomes VS Snowmen and featured the battles of tiny gnomes against tiny snowmen.
“I never imagined that I would have my own gallery shows - one last year had me traveling to be a part of a character art festival in Berlin,” she said.
Her knitted toys have also been featured on the Martha Stewart Show and in a commercial for a Japanese TV network in the US.
“As of last summer, I'm designing full time. Sometimes I can't believe how fortunate I am to get to do what I love as a job. I don't pretend to have it all figured out as a career, though - I'm interested to see where it goes from here,” Hrachovec said.
Her fans want to see where Hrachovec’s designs take her as well.
Vicky Corrao, Garfield Heights, Ohio, said, “I hope Anna continues designing for years and years. I look forward to more books, more patterns and more blog posts. Now I have to find some dpns and some yarn scraps, I feel the need to knit myself a donut.” ###
Copyright © 2012, Melissa Seymour. All rights reserved.