KnitCrate Stitch Starter Crochet Review
Way back in the way back, KnitCrate* had KnitCrate Newbies. I went through the process because while I was excellent at knitting and purling, I wanted to know more. It was honestly one of the best, most comprehensive courses and I’m sad that they got rid of it. So, you can imagine my happiness when they announced they were bringing it back… sort of. They’re putting out three-month classes in knitting, crochet, and dyeing. Naturally, I signed up to all of them. This is crochet.
*I’m using affiliate links throughout this post. You can find out more about that in my Affiliate Link and Sponsorship Disclaimer.
You get a hank of worsted yarn, embroidery scissors, three stitch markers, a measuring tape, two darning needles, a 5mm crochet hook, and an instruction booklet. All up, it’s not a bad offering and I’m all about craft kits that include scissors.
Scissors are life.
Winding a Ball
The first lesson is winding a ball. The instruction booklet is really detailed, but there are also videos so, in the interest of being fair I watched a video on how to wind yarn into a ball. It was good. I mean, it’s winding yarn into a ball. Not exactly top exciting content. I did notice that I got an Ella Rae superwash wool yarn, which is fine, It’s wool. It’s a bit greener than it’s showing up on camera but it’s reasonably pretty. The issue is that in the video they’re using a very beautiful, hand-dyed looking wool. They did this a couple of times when I did the newbies as well. I know it’s nitpicky, but it’s just a lot of yarn envy this early in the morning.
Learning the Stitches
We start with single crochet and double crochet.
I really like that we’re not being overwhelmed with stitches. Just two is manageable. The videos are good. It’s a bit disheartening pulling out all my work though. I’m trying not to compare this to the old KnitCrate Newbies, but it’s hard not to. The old system gave extra yarn just for swatching so we could keep those glorious starter stitches.
This isn’t the first time I’ve crocheted so I know it’s not as big a deal… but I still get a bit sad pulling them out.
Gauge Swatches
I hate doing gauge swatches.
I did it because even though it said it was optional I want to get this whole crochet thing off on the right foot.
I’m on gauge. I hated it.
The Pattern
So, first off: the things I like about this pattern:
Cowls are great to have around. Seriously, on cold days you can never have enough wool cowls.
It stuck to two stitches so you can really build the stitches into your muscle memory. This makes you actually learn the craft as opposed to doing it but having to check every five seconds.
The kit included the booklet with written and picture instructions so if you forgot how to do a stitch, you could just look back at the pictures to jog your memory instead of having to rewatch the video.
The things I did not like, featuring the most important con of all cons:
I found that three stitches to set up the double crochet rows was too many. I found they looked neater with only two chain stitches.
The pattern called for 21 repeats, and before I even finished my eighteenth I ran out of yarn. That’s a difference of 12 rows.
Basically, I was a little bit devastated. I mean, it’s not as bad for me since this isn’t my first go-round with crochet, but imagine if this was the first thing you ever made and you couldn’t even finish it because there wasn’t enough yarn.
I emailed KnitCrate’s customer service explaining that hey, they might want to check up on that and I got a reply that basically told me my gauge was wrong and that I should try blocking it. I mean… I did check my gauge and it was right on track… and blocking is magic. I’m not denying that, but twelve rows? I feel like if they had had a few pattern testers- or possibly tested the pattern in the yarn they sent that is 100% not the yarn in the pictures- they might have predicted this result.
I don’t know what I expected KnitCrate to do, but it certainly wasn’t too pretty much say, well, it’s your fault, too bad. All through the time I kept wondering if maybe that beautiful hand-dyed skein they were using throughout the videos might have had a bit more meterage…
I think the thing I found the most disappointing is that I really love KnitCrate. I’m chalking this one up to someone having a bad day and them getting a really good deal on the yarn and thinking it should be fine- I ended up getting the exact same skein in the same colour in my knitting Stitch Starter. I’m thinking I’m not going to bind either off and if I have the same problems I might just take this and the other skein and make something else- maybe mitts and a hat? They’re the same colour but not the same dye lot so I want stuff that’s kind of far away from each other.
If you want to see a live-action version of this post, I’ve also made a video!
I really wanted to love this, but I can’t. The worst bit is it’s really soured me on next month’s, as well as the knitting one that uses the same yarn.
Let’s see what we get next month…
