While there are a lot of really good mass market crochet kits out there, some of my favorite kits tend to be those handmade by individual artists. These kits often have more unique/niche subjects and pattern styles, or they have a better curation of materials than store-bought ones. Sometimes, they even both!
One of my goals for this blog is post a good mix of reviews on both mass-market and individually made and curated art and crafts-related items, so I am excited to bring you my first review of a handmade crochet kit: the Anatomical Heart and Treasure/Mimic kits from LouiesLoops on Etsy!
...yes, I know the box is upside down, but I wanted to both show the writing at the bottom and cover-up the shipping label (even though I could have easily covered it during editing, as I did with the links on the info cards...hmm). I was a little surprised when I first received this kit as the box and included info cards are labelled as being from 'Club Crochet' and not LouiesLoops.
Club Crochet is a subscription-based crochet website/community, which I think is owned and operated by the same person who runs the LouiesLoops shop on Etsy (or they are otherwise heavily involved with the site), as the kits offered in the Club Crochet shop are the same as those in the Etsy shop (and the same price). Plus, the person who created the tutorial videos for the patterns I purchased mentions the name of the Etsy shop in their videos.
Even before I started to think about creating an art and crafts-focused blog and reviewing crochet kits, I wanted to purchased the Treasure/Mimic kit from LouiesLoops. It's such a unique and cute design, and I really liked how it appeared to be functional. This kit was $14.99 with $5.00 shipping.
When I first opened this kit, I was admittedly a bit disappointed. The included yarn was not as vibrant as that used for the examples (I don't think this is due to differences in monitors, however, as the samples on the included card appear to be more saturated, as does the item being crocheted in the tutorial video), and is a yarn I am not a fan of, Lily Sugar'n Cream. It's not a bad yarn, it's very affordable and is 100% cotton, but I don't like how it feels and the colors always look desaturated or otherwise 'off' to me. You also don't get enough yarn to crochet both a regular treasure chest and a Mimic, only one or the other. I was expecting to be able to make both due to the sample image. The listing doesn't say you will be able to make both (it does say 'Have your own crocheted treasure chest sitting on your desk or turn it into a vicious mimic!', emphasis mine), so I assumed incorrectly, but it was still a little disappointing.
The included pair of safety eyes also differed from the eyes in the sample (which are pearlescent) and were not of the quality that I prefer in safety eyes. This is somewhat nitpicky, but I don't like safety eyes with super soft plastic snap disks as I don't think they hold as well as those with thicker, more ridged disks. I've also found that eyes with off-colored disks tend to be of lower quality. The best safety eyes I've found are those made by Darice, which can be found on Amazon and are the standard that I compare all other safety eyes to. Finally, the included gold buttons, which are a very cute addition and are used as part of the 'treasure' you can put in your chests, also included some defects.
The crinkly, uneven finish is understandable and I don't really mind it, but the weird blotches were a little off-putting.
The included information card, however, was extremely useful and a great addition! It has the link for the pattern and video tutorial (I blurred it out since I'm not sure if it's a public link or not) and lists all the required materials, including the sizes of the safety eyes and crochet hook you need.
As alluded to above and in the title, I also purchased the Anatomical Heart kit. This kit was also $14.99 and shipped in the same box as the Treasure/Mimic kit (so shipping seems to be a flat $5.00).
The yarn included is Lily Sugar'n Cream as was also an unexpected choice, but I didn't mind it so much since the color was much more accurate to sample and listing. The eyes were a similar quality, but you get a really good amount of stuffing. The card included with this kit is also very informative.
The biggest strength of these kits, and what I think makes them worth it, regardless of the quality of the materials included, are their patterns. Both patterns are well-written and easy to follow, and I especially love the inclusion of the detailed Youtube tutorial videos. I watched the video of the anatomical heart so I could see what they were like, and I was very impressed. The patterns both state that they are of medium difficulty, which I would agree with, but if you are an advanced beginner, you should be able to make both of these projects easily due to the tutorial videos.
Both patterns are also extremely cute and I love the uniqueness and functionality of the Treasure/Mimic!
Given the choice, I'm obviously going to go for the Mimic since it's such a cutie! I do like his overall look and I thought using the same stitches to add the surface detail and construct the Mimic was very clever. This is 100% a me-problem, so I don't hold this against the pattern, but I prefer a much cleaner-look to my finished items. If you open the chest, you can see a lot of the stitches and it looks messy to me. So...I modified the pattern slightly and made another Mimic using my own yarn and safety eyes.
While it's also a cutie and more in a style I prefer, I don't think it's 'better' than the original, which had a more delicate, actually-a-treasure-chest shape.
The pattern for both is exactly the same, except I didn't use the yellow detail stitches to attach any pieces and I doubled up certain layers to hide stitches and knots.
You also got the pattern for the little key shown in the sample and a bunch of coins for your chests (which I didn't make because I was lazy).
I had more than enough yarn to complete my Mimic (the excess of yellow is because I didn't make the coins...), but I do wish that enough yarn had been included to make both a treasure chest and a Mimic.
I didn't expect to like this little anatomically-correct heart as much as I do! I thought it was cute, which is why I bought it, but it's like the perfect size for amigurumi and it's weirdly adorable. I don't normally like to put faces on things that don't have faces (like donuts), but it just...feels right?
Honestly, this only thing I would change would be the yarn and maybe the size of the hook used to help prevent the stuffing showing through the gaps in the stitches quite so much. This is also more of a me-problem, though, than a problem of the pattern/kit itself.
I really love how detailed the heart is, while still looking cute and cartoony!
Like the Treasure/Mimic kit, I had plenty of yarn to complete the project. As I stated before, I am especially impressed that I had stuffing left over! I feel like stuffing is the one material in a kit that you're almost always guaranteed to run out of, regardless of how good the kit is. I did end up using all of the blue yarn, but that's because I ended up re-doing some of the vein embroidery.
Overall, I think both kits are great, even after my initial disappointment with the materials. The patterns are well-written and though-out, and a lot of time and effort clearly went into the tutorial videos. The end products you get are adorable and very unique, and I would be happy to display them or give them as gifts.
$14.99 for each kit is very reasonable, though I don't think calculating the value of a handmade kit based on included materials and items is useful most of the time as you are paying for the pattern and the curation of the materials; they are more than the sum of their parts.
Thank you for reading! <3
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