The WooblesReviews of thewoobles.com

The Woobles is a wonderful first experience in the world of crochet! THE PROS - Variety: At the time of writing, there are 273 Woobles. I've looked at about 100 and they're all absolutely adorable so there's definitely a pattern out there for you. - All-in-one kit: The kits literally have EVERYTHING you need other than scissors/a knife. I was worried I would buy one and it would expect me to have the crochet basics like markers and hooks, but these were provided! - Great Branding: If you get one of the branded patterns like Harry Potter or Hello Kitty, your crochet hook WILL MATCH. This was an adorably welcome surprise when I bought the Gryffindor lion Wooble. - Clear Instructions: The Woobles was my introduction to crochet and I completed my first project without a hitch EXCEPT for starting the magic circle, which The Woobles does not recommend trying until you have a lot more experience anyway. If you're stubborn and can't resist a challenge (like me), there are better methods to starting the magic circle online. THE CONS - Pricey: There are comparable kits out there for 1/3 of the price, though The Woobles has the best designs - Redundant Purchase: There are multiple parts of the kit that you only need to purchase once, like the crochet hook and the tapestry needle. Without a means to purchase only the patterns (which are the best part) or patterns + yarn, you're wasting a lot of what you're paying for, so I'd only get one and try just buying patterns and yarn from there. - False Labeling: The label on the back said that Felix the Fox would take 8 hours max. I'm not sure if I'm just REALLY slow or if it's because I messed up my magic circle 3 times, but it took me TWICE that amount of time to complete the first project. This lined up with my friend who also tried crocheting a Wooble as their first project. My guess is that they don't want to intimidate you with a project that takes a full waking day, but I would prefer honesty. - Buggy Instructions Website: The instructions website would regularly glitch out in frustrating ways. Videos didn't load until I tapped them and took quite a while to load (I have gigabit internet so it wasn't my bandwidth). Sometimes there would be no audio and I'd have to rely on closed captions that covered half of the visual instructions. Hitting the back arrow on the website would refresh the current set of instructions instead of going back a step. SUMMARY The Woobles is the ideal way to start crocheting for most beginners, but at $30-$40 a kit, it's hard to ask for users to come back after their first project.

The yarn itself is not worth it, but getting the patterns alone is. I do wish they gave you a way to simply purchase the patterns, instead of the whole kit.

Sam the Sloth was the second Wooble I’ve ever crocheted. My first was Kiki. Huge difference between the two. Sam the Sloth is rated as a beginner, but I feel it should be rated at least as good intermediate. It is very intricate, and the instructions were extremely confusing at times, especially the face, and embroidering the claws, on the hands and legs. I ended up embroidering my own design for the hands as I am skilled with embroidery (not so much with crocheting which is why I want to learn). I did give Sam a four star rating because he is cute, but the person that was giving instructions I would given a much lower rating. She went too fast, and her instructions in several parts were extremely confusing. I almost gave up several times, but my daughter bought this one for me and I am not one to quit, when things are difficult. My finished sloth is flawed, but he has character, I’ll say that much. I think many of the woobles should be reviewed as when I look at them I can tell they are more intermediate when they are listed for beginners/beginners+ (which I think the beginners plus is confusing in itself), have it be beginners, intermediate and advanced. I do appreciate learning different techniques, even this early on, but I’d prefer to be able to master a couple different techniques before moving onto multiple techniques, especially in one wooble. Also, it was more advanced layering and embroidering multiple pieces on top of one another.

The string broke… But… The videos were amazing! In feel like an expert now.

Thanks to The Woobles, I have learnt to crochet and I was a complete beginner who had tried but failed to learn from other YouTube videos. The video tutorials have been very helpful and the easy peasy yarn in some of their beginner kits is easy to work with (no fraying and easy to pull through). One is primed for success to make amigurumi with The Woobles kits. My only concerns are the long shipping times from the US to Canada and the price when converting to Canadian dollars. It is a good thing that they are selling some of their kits for a limited time at an affordable price at the Real Canadian Superstores across Canada.