Disney Winnie the Pooh Crochet Kit
By: Megan Kreiner
Rating: 5 of 5
Overall, I am impressed by the quality of this kit. The kit includes enough yarn to finish two Winnie the Pooh projects, specifically one each of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and after that, you will need to purchase additional yarn, fiberfill, floss, and felt to finish more characters. The kit does not say exactly what size the yarn is but it seems to be at 4 worsted weight and it appears to be acrylic and/or wool rather than cotton. The colors of yarn included are: light gold (yellow), black, dark red, light pink, medium pink, and dark pink. The red in the kit seems much darker than that shown in the photo on the front of the box while the light gold (yellow) is much more drab than the modern Winnie the Pooh. It looks like a great color if you were crocheting a Classic Winnie the Pooh. The felt included is black. The floss is black and appears to be cotton. Also included is a tapestry needle (for the floss), an inexpensive crochet hook in size 4.00 (US G/6) and fiberfill. There are also fairly detailed instructions including many diagrams.
While the yarn in this kit is very nice, I will be using my own stash to be sure that the sizes, colors, look, and feel of my characters are consistent. The instructions are detailed but I don’t think that this is a project for most beginners. It uses techniques that crocheters with a bit more experience would feel comfortable with. If you are a beginner, just be sure you have access to someone or a website that can give you answers if you have any questions about the instructions.
The book includes instructions for 12 modern Winnie the Pooh characters which is outstanding. These include: Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Hunny Pot, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Gopher, Little Black Rain Cloud Set, and Christopher Robin. I really like the characters in this set and could only wish that the designer would come out with the Classic Pooh characters, too. Otherwise, I think I it is a comprehensive set and is very well done.
The hook is okay but I prefer to use my own for ergonomic reasons. The characters look to be fairly small – if you want to make them larger, use thicker yarn and larger hooks. The instructions should work well no matter the size; however, the templates for the felt may need to be enlarged, too. The tapestry needle is decent and works well for the embroidery purposes in the instructions. There are templates for the felt – which seems to be how the eyes and some other details are made. I will probably figure out how to embroider the eyes as I prefer that over felt whether it is glued or sewn on.
The kit includes instructions for all of the embroidery stitches included in the book. There are photos of all except the long stitch, but that might be difficult to give an example of as it really depends on where you start and where you wish to end the stitch on each project. The names of the embroidery stitches you will use: long stitch, running stitch, back stitch, overcast stitch, and whip stitch and french knot. It should be fairly easy for you to find more detailed instructions on the Internet. I am already familiar with these stitches so the lack of great detail in this area is not an issue for me. There are also instructions and photographs showing how to add fringe and twisted cord.
On the whole, I really like the kit and the instructions and recommend it to an intermediate or above crocheter without hesitation. There are a number of other crochet Disney character kits out there but they have been released by another company. This kit seems to be comparable to those and in fact look like they were originally created by the same group but released through a different publisher and are boxed in a slightly different manner.
