Not what the kit intended...

[PBLKNP]

Do you ever find that someone gives you a kit, say from Herrschners or Mary Maxim, for a crocheted item, but you look at the yarn and find that you'd MUCH rather make something else with it?

 

For Christmas last year, I got a Herrschners kit to make the "Bright Squares Blanket" (from the Patons "Home Front" booklet). Looking at the blanket, it looks like a complete knock-off of the Babette Blanket. It's nice, but not really what I want to make. I'd rather make this:

 

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2010/07/granny-stripe-the-end.html

 

So, do any of you have this issue, of having yarn that's intended for one thing, but you really want to make something else?

[craftconnie1]

I often pick up kits from thrift shops and the yarn becomes a totally different creation. I bought an afghan kit,and the yarn ended up as slippers. Sometimes the yarn has a will of its own....lol

[Feederofthepack]

MIL gave ma an old (probably '70's) kit she was never going to get around to making. It was an afghan made with a Catherine Wheel type stitch. The yarn was thin and scratchy and I had trouble doing the stitch so I turned it into a totally cool round ripple with those retro colors and gave it to her. I later saw that same kit afghan in a second hand store. Must have been a popular kit.

[jezzabell]

me too, I get a kit and it happens that i see the yarn in different way, so make different thing

[annmcc1976]

NEVER had a kit before so I'd not know.. but I do know I buy yarn for a Intended Project.. and End up using it for something else beacuse i find a diffrent pattern that i fall in love with lol.

[FootballMom]

My sister, a fabulous knitter, ordered a kit from Mary Maxim for a knitted baby afghan. Once she got it, she HATED the pattern. The yarn it contained was Bernat Satin (one of my faves), in pastels. She shipped it off to me, and by adding only one additional skein, I was able to make it into 2 pastel rainbow, Round Ripple afghans, which I sent back to her. They were hits at the baby showers where she gave them as gifts!

[RaggedyAnn]

Yup - got 2 Herrschner's round ripple afghan kits for gifts two years ago for holiday gifts. I looked at the yarn included with the kit and thought - No way am I using this to make the afghan. It was self striping 100% wool. Lots of felted things can be made with that. I still have to dive into my stash to get the yarn to finish the other afghan. lol

[imanurse55]

Do you ever find that someone gives you a kit, say from Herrschners or Mary Maxim, for a crocheted item, but you look at the yarn and find that you'd MUCH rather make something else with it?

 

For Christmas last year, I got a Herrschners kit to make the "Bright Squares Blanket" (from the Patons "Home Front" booklet). Looking at the blanket, it looks like a complete knock-off of the Babette Blanket. It's nice, but not really what I want to make. I'd rather make this:

 

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2010/07/granny-stripe-the-end.html

 

So, do any of you have this issue, of having yarn that's intended for one thing, but you really want to make something else?

Happens to me all the time- I see yarn on sale, buy it for something, then find something else I want to make with it.

 

And you should make that granny stripe afghan. I made one and it is so easy and I love how it turned out. I didn't make mine as large as Lucy did- I chained 150 in the beginning and did 54 stripes (102 rows).

[PBLKNP]

And you should make that granny stripe afghan. I made one and it is so easy and I love how it turned out. I didn't make mine as large as Lucy did- I chained 150 in the beginning and did 54 stripes (102 rows).

 

I wonder if Lucy made it with as many chains as she did because she was using a DK weight yarn...that could be the reason. It looks like as long as I have a multiple of 3, I should be okay.

[DebraKay]

NEVER had a kit before so I'd not know.. but I do know I buy yarn for a Intended Project.. and End up using it for something else beacuse i find a diffrent pattern that i fall in love with lol.

 

I was going to reply with the same thing but glad I decided to read through first. Now I can just type -- DITTO!

[LegalWoman17]

Definitely !! When the yarn speaks, you MUST listen.

[Finnbar]

Wouldn't have this problem because no one that knows me would ever buy me a kit unless they were going to pay me to make it for them. And if I didn't like the colors or the pattern, it would cost them double!

 

For me, part of the creative process is picking out the pattern, yarn and colors. I haven't ever made the exact same item twice - even a baby blanket or shawl that I donate. For the ghans I'm making for each of my nieces and nephews, I will ask for their color preferences; ie blues, greys, browns, greens, etc, and will accomodate them on that matter, but that's as far as it goes. My sister made the mistake of buying the yarn for my nephews ghan. It was awful and nothing an 18 year old young man would like. I re-purposed that god-awful yarn and made him something completely different which he loved.

 

Crocheting is a relaxing, pleasurable creative process for me. Why do or work with anything you don't like, if it's for pleasure?

[Ellie 13]

I bought a bag of yarn at a rummage sale, which included a kit. I liked the pattern and yarn, but didn't think they went together. I made the pattern with some of the other yarn and put the "kit" yarn in my stash . I've never been big on kits. My family just gives me yarn or buys me a pattern book I put on my list. Money/gift cards I get sometimes.

Ellie 13

[LI Roe]

I have never bought a kit for crochet because 1) I would rather select my own colors, 2) some kits do not have the yarn I like to use and 3) often I buy extra yarn since at times I crochet a bit looser and need more yarn but not always.

 

I sometimes buy yarn with one project in mind, then turn around and use it for something else.

 

However, I will admit if I ever see a kit in a thrift store, I may look at it in a different way and see what other project it could be used for.

 

Oh, the one time I did buy a kit was actually a counted cross stitch with a printed racing newsstory background of a jockey on a thoroughbred and I actually had to buy more thread since I didn't have enough to finish it. It was a gift for my boyfriend who later became my husband. So, that's why I prefer no kits, this was just thread and I still didn't have enough.

 

LI Roe

[draydev1]

I've never received a kit but I've looked at them in the Herrschners and Mary Maxim catalogs. I don't look at them for the actual pattern but for the colors and amount of yarn in them. I've looked at them to see if it was cheaper to buy the kit just for the yarn or if it would be cheaper to buy the yarn by the skein. Unfortunately, the kits don't tell you how many skeins of each color there are so it's hard to know if it's a good deal or not.