My talented 12-year-old niece Phoebe is a champion knitter. After her sister’s birthday party last weekend, she showed us the aliens she’s been clicketty-clacking for a local craft fair.
She’s hoping to sell the aliens as wacky Christmas decorations at The Olive Tree market in Newcastle on December 1. I’ll send a bloggy reminder if it comes off, so any Novocastrian readers can pop along and stock up.
Phoebe also introduced me to the most awesome blog called MochiMochiLand. I will leave the “about” part of the site to the author to explain: “Mochimochi Land was launched in 2007 as a place where knitted toys and people can live together in a spirit of tolerance. You too can advance human-toy understanding by knitting a new friend!
“The characters that inhabit Mochimochi Land are original designs by Anna Hrachovec, a knitter who lives in Brooklyn. Anna finds inspiration in Hello Kitty, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, and illustrators like Dr Seuss and Mary Blair. Anna’s knitted toys have been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, all around the web, and in print.”
In non-knitter language, this means Anna Hrachovec knits tiny little creatures and poses them in elaborate tableaus. It’s really quite something.
One of the most recent blogs, Snowmen Win, Free Snowcones For All, features snowmen winning a battle against gnomes to “determine which tiny mochi will represent Mochimochi Land for the next four years”, which at one point involved two gnomes spit-roasting a snowman.
Delightfully out-there and well worth a look.
Have you visited any great blogs lately? I’m also hunting for laugh-out-loud blog posts by Aussie women who are pregnant or have babies/toddlers – send me a link if you come across one.


Your niece sounds like one cute kid.
She’s definitely no ordinary pre-teen!
http://frommumtome.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/brutal-truth-about-third-child.html
This was from last year but it was definitely laugh out loud for me.
It’s about a mum’s attitude to each baby and how the third one is loved but never coddled!
Have been back since but her life seemed too perfect to be funny … hope this is useful.
That’s hilarious, Jemma!