Lalylala - Autumn Trio Crochet Kit - Review

 As usual, in my quest to post seasonal/holiday-themed reviews in a timely manner, I am cutting it extremely close. In fact, depending on your time-zone, I'm already late posting this review of the Lalylala Autumn Trio crochet kit (it's 9:35pm on December 20th where I live right now, so I have just under two and a half hours to get this posted).

Lalylala kits are some of my favorites; they contain high quality materials, the patterns are well-thought out, and the designs are super cute! Unfortunately, Lalylaland (the Etsy shop that sells physical items like kits and supplies) is closed for the holidays, but you can still purchase the PDF pattern for the amigurumi in this kit from Lalylala (the Etsy shop that sells digital goods, like patterns; also, Lalylala is the name of the studio).

This kit is the Autumn Trio, and it includes materials and PDF pattern to make Peter the Mushroom, Henry the Rosehip, and Erwin the Acorn.

This kit cost me $35.77, and I purchased the 'standard' version. You can buy a 'basic' version of the kit that includes all the materials but not the pattern, or you can chose to add crochet hooks for a little extra (you can add them to basic or standard kits). I purchased this kit as part of a very large order (it's my goal to purchase every single kit that Lalylala makes and to collect all the amigurumi), so I don't have an exact shipping/taxes calculation, but these kits ship from Germany so you may have to pay more for shipping if you live in the U.S. (like me).

All of the kits include stuffing, but since my order was so large, in order to save on shipping costs, it was not included this time (Lalylala checked with me first to make sure I was okay with that; they also refunded me the approximate cost of the stuffing, which was very kind of them).

Also because my order was so large, I got a bunch of these cute postcards! I think you do get postcards that correspond with whatever kits you order, but it seems like I got some extras since I didn't order the Snail kit. It looked very autumn-y, so I thought it would be fitting to include with this kit.

As with all Lalylala kits, you get a ton of yarn! I love that they use Scheepjes yarn, as it's excellent quality, very vibrant, and unfortunately not that easy to find in the U.S. I also like how they include the pink yarn for embroidering the cheeks, even though all the sample plushies have them painted on. I'm experimenting with different techniques for adding cheek color, but I love the simplicity of embroidering them.

First up is Peter the Mushroom! My mushroom ended up being a little more puffy and round than the sample plush, even though I did add the cardboard circle as directed (I did try to use plastic canvas, but it didn't work very well). I kind of struggled to get the shape of the mushroom cap right, though I do like the changes in texture from the frill to the embroidery on the cap. He turned out much cuter than I expected, even if he is a little chubby (puffy/chubby/round things seem to be my style, no matter what. Drawing, crocheting, embroidering...everything also turns out so...round).

Next is Henry the Rosehip! I think he looks like a ketchup bottle. I knew what a rosehip was (sort of; I knew that it was part of a rose bush that you can make tea out of) but I had no idea what one looked like. Henry's pretty close, though it looks like rosehips come in a bunch of different shapes/sizes.

Finally, we have Erwin the Acorn! Erwin is by far my favorite of this trio, not only because acorns are cute in general but...

His cap comes off! I thought his design was so detailed and thoughtful, while still being simple and...round.

I have so much yarn left over that it looks like I didn't even use some of the skeins/balls! And I am always happy to have leftover Scheepjes yarn to use for other projects.

As always, Lalylala amigurumi crochet kits are amazing and totally worth the cost, even with international shipping/taxes. If you don't want to purchase a kit (either due to cost or because you don't want to wait for shipping), you can get all (or almost all, I haven't actually checked) their patterns digitally. If these designs appeal to you, I highly, highly recommend checking out both the Lalylaland and Lalylala shops on Etsy!

Thanks for reading! <3