Crochet Characters: Soft & Snuggly Cacti Kit - Review
By: Megan
QUICK FACTS:
Level: Beginner
Format: Complete kit; instruction booklet, materials for two projects
Available at: Indigo, Amazon
Though I already have most of the hobbies of a senior citizen, I hadn’t ever successfully added crocheting to the list, and had honestly never really tried to add it. I’m so used to knitting that having a hook instead of two needles just didn’t quite make sense to my brain. But then the other day, we were in Chapters (I know, I know: technically it’s Indigo now but like the SkyDome/Rogers Centre, I’m refusing to adjust) and we came across this kit, and it was so cute I figured what the hell, I’ll give it a shot.
I thought a true test of how beginner of a kit this actually is would be to truly try to learn just based off the instructions in booklet provided. I feel like I should preface this with the fact that I have pretty awful spacial sense (rotating shapes was always a nemesis in math class) and so that may have played a part in the initial learning.
And so, I gave it a shot the other night when no one else was home so that I was truly on my own with this - and I made a pact to not google how-to videos until I was in dire straights, which is my usual go-to when I’m trying to figure out something knitting related. But this time, I wanted to see how effective the booklet instructions were at teaching me how to do the most basic crocheting stitches. Mixed results.
Again, some of this could also be my fault: I advise you to actually read the entire booklet from the beginning, because through sheer dumb luck I ended up selecting one of the two cacti that materials were provided for, just on the basis that I liked it the best of the first few projects. Basically, I started on Project 4, instead of Project 1, which all things considered could have been more disastrous than it was! It did mean that I had all the appropriate materials, so that was a bonus - I only discovered all of this when I went to start another cactus and was confused about why I couldn’t find the colour they were suggesting in my little box.
On that note, the kit says that it provides the materials for two cacti, and at first glance it definitely seemed that way. I realized (again while deciding on my second project) that I was in fact missing one of the yarns that is supposed to be in the kit - I don’t know if this was just luck of the draw that I got an incomplete kit from the factory, or if for some very strange reason someone went into the kit on the shelf at Chapters and took out that specific colour? I can’t imagine why but who knows. I’d be interested to know if anyone else was missing one of the light green coloured yarns (or any of the other supposedly provided colours) out of this kit, so if you had this issue too, shoot us an email to let us know!
The kit is (supposed) to contain:
- Instruction booklet
- 3.25mm crochet hook
- Sewing needle
- Embroidery thread
- Two sets of eyes
- Yarn in seven different colours
- Stuffing
In any case, with all the materials on hand to start the first cactus, I dutifully opened the booklet and began the near constant flipping between the pattern and the instructions section. This was a combination of a) not knowing how to do any crochet stitches, and b) not knowing what the short-forms in the pattern meant! So if you have crocheted before, this most likely won’t be something you have to do… But like I said, complete crochet rookie.
And being a rookie, I started and restarted the first part of this cactus FOURTEEN times. I really wish that was an exaggeration but I was actually keeping track because after the fifth time it just started to be funny, in the most aggravating way possible. But I was determined!
Part of the reason I restarted it so very many times is that I found when I was following the instructions on how to do the different crochet stitches - even the most basic ones - I would get to a certain point and not be clear what to do next. I was on around attempt ten when a more experienced crocheter (is that a word? In any case, shout-out to Lorelei!) stepped in (out of pity) and showed me where I was going wrong! It hadn’t been clear to me where exactly I was supposed to insert my hook, plus then didn’t know what to do when I finished the first row of stitches or “chain”. So once that was cleared up, I finally managed to consistently do a crochet stitch properly, but then realized it wasn’t THE right crochet stitch for the pattern, or at least wasn’t in the right place… so had to restart that, and then I was somehow losing stitches so what was supposed to be a rectangle started to turn into a triangle… but after about three hours of frustration I finally got it figured out and by the next day, had completed the first piece of my little cactus! The way that the patterns work is that you crochet the separate pieces and then sew them all together - those instructions were far clearer, possibly because they felt a little more common sense to me.
Thankfully, I did find that each time I started a new section of the cactus, I didn’t have to restart it quite so many times - and all things considered, I ended up completing the little guy in about three days, working on it a few hours here or there. Because of that I think this kit was actually pretty successful in teaching an absolute beginner how to crochet - though if I were to do it again, I would definitely get rid of my no googling rule because that would have speeded the process up a heck of a lot when I was finding that the instructions in the booklet weren’t as clear as I’d like them to be. That being said, the pattern was easy to follow once I did have more of a handle on the basics, so I’m expecting the second cactus to go a lot smoother!
Though the instructions weren’t always as clear as I’d like them to be, I would definitely recommend this kit to anyone who has just started crocheting and has a decent handle on the basics - if you’re like me and a complete and utter beginner, just be ready to supplement with outside help if/when you get confused in the booklet! At the same time, I’d recommend this kit to even an experienced crocheter just on the basis of how cute the patterns are - and you’d probably be able to knock out a bunch of them very quickly if you had enough extra material on hand!
In the end, I’d say it was definitely worth the frustration: I love the finished product and am actually looking forward to crocheting him some friends from some of the other patterns in the booklet. Til then, I would like you to meet Bernard Judas Ruhig III (many thanks to the naming committee!). He’s quite the gentleman, and he likes to hang out by the books as the apple apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree!
