Tag Archives: subscription box

Little Box of Crochet – Peacock Pincushion

Good morning everyone!  Hope you’re having a relaxing Saturday so far.  It’s a pretty cozy morning; I’ve got a cup of coffee next to me, my planner open, and Fiancé and Apollo are snoozing next to me on the couch.  I’m going to watch a little TV and work on a project before diving back into studying.

I’m all finished with the Little Box of Crochet Peacock Pincushion and fob!  This is the July 2016 box but when I received it, I was very intimidated by the project.  I’m glad I finally decided to do it, as it’s a pretty approachable project for beginners.

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With this box you get lovely pins, a stitch marker, stickers for labeling your boxes should you decide to reuse them, and 5 balls of Scheepje Catona yarns.  I have already squee’d in a previous post over this yarn, and I am continuing to squee here.  It is such a treat to be able to work with Scheepje yarn since I can’t find that brand here in the States.  This yarn was so yummy and was a breeze to work with.  Amanda Bloom notes in her booklet that she couldn’t bear to break down the balls so she blew the month’s budget by keeping all the balls intact -Amanda, I’m so glad you did!  You should have extra yarn when you finish this project; I haven’t decided what to do with mine yet!

The pincushion and fob worked up pretty quickly and I actually didn’t lose any stitches while working in the round.  I had the most difficulty with the peacock feathers – and even those weren’t “hard,” I just was unsure of what to do with one step in the pattern.  This is probably more of my inexperience than any issue with the pattern.  Other than those minor issues, the pattern was pretty easy to follow and there are lots of pictures to guide you.

What do you think?

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I’m quite pleased with how this project has turned out. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

 

 

 

Knit-Wise: Month 1 Review

Confession – I love subscription boxes, especially for crafty goodies.  I already subscribe to the very lovely Little Box of Crochet.  Since I learned how to knit this year, I wanted to find a decently priced subscription box to receive knitting goodies every month as well.  I tried one earlier this year that was decent, but the customer service left much to be desired.  It was time to find a new knitting subscription box!

After doing some research, I found Knit-Wise.  For $29 a month, you can receive some curated knitting goodies right to your front door.  You can choose between Beginner or Intermediate/Advanced projects.  I selected Beginner since, well, I only know how to knit and purl (or some combination of the two) and that’s it.

When my first box arrived, I opened it excitedly.

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The box came with everything you need for a starter project – yarn, needles, a latch hook, and an instruction booklet.  It also came with a cute tote bag.  The first kit was for making coasters.  The instruction booklet linked to a website where you could watch tutorials.  I watched tutorials on the jersey stitch and adding fringe.  The tutorials were short but effective, and I was able to make some pretty coasters immediately.

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I really liked this project because you can knit something pretty and practical, but not boring.  And it’s something you can display proudly in your home and not just, say, your bathroom.

My one quibble with the kit is I struggled with the needles.  I tend to be a very tight knitter, and the texture of the needles is very coarse.  Again, this is probably more related to my tight knitting than anything else, but it was the only part of the kit that I struggled with (my dog ended up munching on one of the needles, so I guess he inadvertently solved that problem.)

All in all, Knit-Wise offers up cute knitting projects for an affordable price.  I can’t wait to try the second box!