Continuing with the theme of seasonal crochet kits (and Lalylala kits), this next review is for the Lalylala Christmas Trio kit!
I love these kits/patterns, and have already reviewed a few, so I will try not to repeat myself too much. If you're interested in learning more about Lalylala/Lalylaland (the former Etsy store sells PDF patterns, the latter the physical kits/items), please check out my other reviews.
This is one of two Christmas crochet kits that Lalylala offers, and I believe this is the older one as the other is called the Christmas Vol. 2 trio. I have both kits, so I will be posting a review of Vol. 2 shortly.
Lalylala kits included a substantial amount of high quality materials, and this kit is no exception. These kits also include stuffing but again, since this was part of a larger order, the stuffing was included separately (it comes in measured bags, but all the bags were shipped as one layer, and all the kits as another, so I'm not sure what stuffing goes with what kit). This kit includes the little beads, already attached to head pins, for the Christmas tree amigurumi, along with the standard bag of safety eyes, stitch markers, and yarn needle. Unfortunately, I managed to lose this bag at some point between taking this picture and starting this kit, so I had to use my own safety eyes. The eyes included were 5mm, but the eyes I had were 6mm, so they look slightly different.
First up is Claus the Candle. I struggled with the top of his head and the drips since they didn't look right while I was crocheting them, but after everything was put together, Claus turned out to be quite cute! Lalylala suggests sewing the arms on their amigurumi down to keep them closer to the body of the plushies, but I prefer how they look not sewn down.
Xaver is next, and he is by far my favorite out of all the Christmas amigurumi (including the Vol. 2 kit). I did modify his design slightly by using two different brown yarns for his body/arms and legs instead of the included cream since I wanted him to look more tree-like (I used Scheepjes Catona in 162 for the feet and 157 for the body/arms). The cream color is fine and makes the trio look more unified as a whole, but I thought the browns were cuter. The beads really add to this design, and add a lot of complexity and visual interest. This amigurumi has even inspired me to find ways to include beads in my own designs!
And finally, on the other end of things, is Anton, my least favorite amigurumi between the two Christmas kits. His design is fine, and I really liked the clever way the hair was done (it's a bunch of bobbles, but looks like curls), but I really struggled with him. He ended up looking really...long, even though I didn't make any modifications to the pattern, and his eyes are placed as instructed (though they are slightly bigger due to the difference in eye sizes). I changed the color of his halo since I didn't want his wings to be the same color, but the metallic yarn I used (along with the yellow yarn that was the same as was used for Claus' flame) caused it to bend in a weird way (you can't see if from the front, but it's obvious from the back). I do like how the halo appears to float above his head, though, due to how it's sewed on, and the rigidity cause by the metallic yarns helps with this (though I think it works just fine without it, since the sample plushie looks the same and only uses the included yarn).
After making all three amigurumi, I still have plenty of high quality yarn left over for other projects (those please note that this isn't entirely accurate since I substituted my own yarn for Xaver's legs and body/arms). Hopefully, I'll eventually find my lost bag of eyes and can use those, too, for another project...
At risk of repeating myself (and by 'risk' I mean that I totally am), Lalylala/Lalylaland kits and patterns are amazing and I highly recommend them to anyone who is interested in their designs/aesthetic, and I encourage you to check out their Etsy shops (as of this post, though, Lalylaland is closed for vacation/holiday, but it should hopefully reopen soon)!
Thanks for reading! <3
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