Kid Knit

By Julie Duffin
July 2025 View more Books

Sometimes a children’s book can be just as fun for adults to read as it is for the kids listening. That’s what Chicago author Anna Hrachovec hopes people experience with her latest book, Short Dog, Long Dog: A Book of Opposites. This playful picture book uses fun rhymes and whimsical knitted creatures (that she created) to introduce the concept of opposites.

Hrachovec began knitting when she was an exchange student in Japan. Her hobby quickly grew into a career once she’d knitted her first toy. “I had so many ideas that I started a blog,” she says. “The timing was perfect because a lot of knitters were looking online for patterns and ideas.”

Her characters inhabit an imaginary world called Mochimochi Land (check out mochimochiland.com) and have come to life through animation, knitting patterns, kits, social media, and now children’s books. “I’ve always loved playing with words and rhyming,” she says. “It’s been so fun to combine my words with my knitted creatures. I love conveying how our language works in a really playful way that doesn’t feel like a lesson.”

Of course, Hrachovec includes knitting patterns for the short and long dogs featured on the cover so readers can make their own cuddly pups.

Photos: Anna Hrachovec