Meet Anna Hrachovec, the Creator of Mochimochi Land

Even if you don’t know Anna Hrachovec, you’ve seen her work. Anna is the creator of Love Gnome, the Top GIF of 2017.

Her Instagram reels always make me pause my scroll. Tiny knitted characters engage in all sorts of hijinks thanks to Anna’s stop-motion animations.

Through her website, Mochimochi Land, Anna invites knitters into her whimsical world. You can buy patterns and kits for many of Anna’s characters, and she has published five pattern collection books. Her newest book, Catside Up, Catside Down: A Book of Prepositions (Feiwel & Friends, 2023), is a children’s book illustrated with Anna’s knitted cats.

Anna’s work has been commissioned by Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, and The Washington Post.

I wanted to find out more about the woman behind all the whimsy!

Meet Anna

Anna Hrachovec began knitting in 2000 when she was an exchange student living in Japan, and the influence of simple, enigmatic characters such as Hello Kitty is evident in her work. Anna credits her mother-in-law with encouraging her to continue knitting when she returned to the US.

Her first characters were sized more like common stuffed toys, but as she started creating composite scenes with multiple characters, the scale got smaller and smaller. When Anna posted photos of her creations on Flickr, knitters got in touch asking for the patterns. Designer Angela Tong coached her in pattern writing, and Anna began to publish her designs on Ravelry.

Sandi Had Questions, and Anna Answered

Which comes first: the story or the characters? Do your characters inspire your stories, or do you create characters to populate the stories in your head?

Anna: Usually, it’s the characters who come first. I start with something I’d like to knit (and ideally, something that other knitters would like to join me in knitting), then once I have the finished character in front of me, I let its physicality and its innate traits tell me what it wants to do in the world. A couch and a television would probably like to hang out and stare at each other, for example. As far as stories go, I prefer simple themes that are recognizable and incorporate a little humorous twist—what if the couch and television are quarantining and have to stay home together? Most important to me is that it feels like I’m using play and experimentation to arrive at something that makes me laugh.

What we’ve seen of your work is generally so sweet and joyful. Have you ever explored darker themes? If so, tell us about it. If not, can you tell us why?

Anna: There’s an innate sweetness and silliness that comes with hand-knitted characters. About the darkest I’ve gotten is my GIF of a crying cat. He’s really crying his eyes out! But because of the nature of the materials and my simple designs, it’s cute and also silly. Myself, I enjoy sad music and serious literature, and I like that the stuff I make isn’t that.

Sandi: Your Love Gnome GIF was a subtle response to the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, but your work became overtly political with the Fumin’ Womb. How did that project come about?

Anna: It’s possible that I would have come up with a tiny, angry uterus on my own, but it was so much better as an idea that came from the cool people at Knitty Magazine, as a project in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Knitting is by its nature collaborative, but when it’s done in conjunction with an important cause uniting us, it’s a powerful thing. It’s still an infuriating situation we’re in with reproductive rights in this country, but I do take comfort in being a part of people’s expression of their feelings and their stance around it. It’s energizing to see knitters continue to make and distribute Fumin’ Wombs in their communities.

Do you ever knit garments and accessories to wear, or is all your knitting small toys these days?

Anna: Sometimes I’m tempted by the exciting designs I see out there—there are SO many talented knitwear designers—but I have been making all toys all the time for many years now. Sometimes my toys are not so small, actually—Omelet, my giant gnome, can sit at my desk and type emails for me! (His spelling is terrible, though.) One of the many things that’s fantastic about knitting toys is that you can incorporate all kinds of techniques into their construction and design, in a very small package. I’m certain there’s still much in the world of knitting that I have yet to learn, and all kinds of possibilities I haven’t explored yet.

What would you like to do with your art that you haven’t done yet?

Anna: I want to do so many things! I like the idea of using my characters to make interactive animations somehow. I also like the idea of scaling them WAY up, like parade-balloon size. I’m also slowly in the process of creating knitted characters of all kinds of furniture and appliances that could populate an entire house, which could take shape as a dollhouse, or an animated series perhaps. And I want to do more projects that are especially for beginners, because the raw creativity of someone who is just starting to explore new materials and techniques is exciting to me.

Do you have a favorite yarn to use for your characters? Any can’t-live-without tools?

Anna: I like to say that I’ve never encountered a yarn that couldn’t be turned into a cool character. I love the fingering-weight Palette yarn from Knit Picks for my tiniest little friends, and for my slightly larger “fun size” guys I often use Cascade 220. I’ve also been using lots of hand-dyed yarn lately, particularly for animals, like the cats that appear in my new picture book, Catside Up, Catside Down. For tools, I don’t use anything fancy, but I recommend using double-pointed needles that are on the short side and have nice pointy tips. For needle material I personally prefer bamboo, which is light weight and keeps a nice grip on your stitches.

What are you working on now that has you excited?

Anna: I’m just now wrapping up the photography for my second picture book! This one will follow up my cat book of prepositions with dogs demonstrating opposite words, from the basics, like “short” and “long,” to some sillier opposites, like “soaking in the bath” and “scrubbing in the shower. “I absolutely loved knitting all the dogs for this book—there are just so many variations of dog out there, which makes them the perfect animal for talking about opposites!

What else would you like our readers to know?

Anna: I’m sure you have lots of readers who wouldn’t think to knit toys, but I know they all have yarn scraps, and toys are perfect low-waste projects to use those up! When you’re knitting little toys, the ratio of labor and materials cost to happiness is higher than any other knitting project I can think of. Really, I dare you to knit a toy and not end up falling in love. So that’s my elevator pitch!

If I had small grandchildren, you can bet I’d be knitting tiny cats to wrap up with a copy of Anna’s book for the coming holiday season.

Do you like to knit toys? Are you feeling inspired to give it a try? Let us know in the comments!

Sandi Rosner is the technical content editor for all things yarn at Interweave. When she isn’t knitting, she usually has her nose in a book. You’ll find new technical content from Sandi nearly every week at www.interweave.com.

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