Staying Crafty with Mini Knits

A lot has been going on since my last post in January! There hasn't been too much crafting happening here during the COVID-19 pandemic & shutdown -- I cast on a number of knitting projects, sewed some masks, and finished one crochet cardigan -- but it's been hard to focus so not too much to share. One project I took on & finished was an entry for Anna Hrachovec's 2020 Mochimochi Photo + Video Contest & I won a Bonus award for "BEST BIRDS IN FLIGHT"! This was really uplifting and a great thing to experience in September.

 

If you're not familiar with Anna's Mochimochi Land you're missing out - check her out at https://mochimochiland.com.

When I saw the contest this summer, I decided that a tiny project would be a great motivation for me to start & finish something within a reasonable amount of time. I chose her Bluebirds of Crappiness pattern as inspiration and started knitting....   

Eight birds later (one isn't pictured), I had to come up with a video theme! Of course I left this for the last minute so looking up at a decorative birdhouse on my wall, I came up with a plan for "The Great Escape".

 

When I say last-minute, I mean last minute!!! The day the contest was ending, I was needle-felting the tufts of color to my birds and thinking up a video plan. I set up outside, and realizing I couldn't do it alone, enlisted my husband to hold a stick with all the birds attached to it with fishing wire.

 

As the day progressed while I was taking photos, I caught the shadows changing and darkening at some point and realized I had to rotate the setup on my back porch, you can definitely tell in the video though I tried to minimize by editing out the darkest. I took over 700 photos!

 

After deleting and narrowing the selection down to about 300, I imported them all into the Stop Motion Studio app on my Android phone and began to finesse the look of it. It was nerve-wracking to go through, learn the app, do the editing, choose an intro, music, etc. I ended up purchasing the app to use some advanced features & it was well worth it! I'd never done anything like this before and without the app and the editing features, it would never have been completed.

 

Just in time, I was able to post the video to Instagram.

 

 

There were so many great entries! You can see them all at https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mochiphotocontest20/

 

I was so honored to have been selected as one of the bonus winners, it truly made the ending of summer special.

 

Did I learn any lessons about procrastinating from the panic I felt and trying to get this all done within one day? Of course not. If I had done it even one day ahead, I would have been sweating and agonizing the entire next day about the lighting, crookedness, and lack of closeups, I think it would have been a disaster trying to re-take photos and edit, and become even more stressful. That's what I tell myself anyway. I will try to get things done sooner next time I have a deadline, or at least practice with some other videos before I enter one in a contest again!

 

This isn't the first time I've made a Mochimochi pattern & it won't be my last! There were the snails back in 2008, I've made the Grouchy Couch, featured in her book Knitting Mochmochi (affiliate link), and Tiny Gnomes (kit link). Next I'll be working on some Tiny Pirates (kit link) -- I really love the kits, it makes it so easy having all the yarn selected and portioned out ahead of time.

 

Have you ever knit a Mochimochi pattern or other mini? created a stop motion film?

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