If you’re into any sort of crafting, you have probably come across an advertisement for Woobles. If you haven’t, then Woobles are little kits that are supposed to be able to teach complete beginners how to crochet. Each kit comes with everything you need to make a cute amigurumi figure and includes a code to access the instructions as well as videos that walk you through each step. Each kit runs about $30 with hookless kits being at $25, accessory kits at $5 and intermediate kits or licensed kits being a touch higher than the typical $30 kit. Of course, the first question a lot of people want answered is if you can actually learn to crochet from a Woobles kit.
I was exposed to crochet when I was a kid, but I really only consistently knew how to hold the hook, do a chain stitch, and sort of how to make a single crochet stitch. That was also like three decades ago, and I couldn’t really do anything with decent accuracy including read a pattern, so I really do qualify as a beginner. I love cute little things like amigurumi and plushies that I’ve seen people make. I’ve honestly wanted to learn how to do it myself, but had no idea where to start. The idea of a kit that had all the materials I would need and would teach me how was really tempting, so I bought my first Woobles kit from Joann Fabrics to see if I could learn (I’ll detail that experience more later) and it wasn’t long at all before I was hooked and came up with a series of goals:
- Graduate from Beginner to Beginner+ kits
- Graduate to an Intermediate kit
- Make a Wooble with non-Wooble yarn
- Make a non-Wooble pattern with Wooble yarn
- Make a non-Wooble pattern with non-Wooble yarn
These goals will not all happen at once, so I want to note that there will be a series of articles about the progress I am making. I would also like to note that while GeekMom Jenny did receive an Advent Calendar last year from Woobles to review, none of the kits I described in this article were provided by Woobles.
Lola the Polar Bear, Beginner
My first kit was last November and I selected one of the limited edition seasonal kits, Lola the Polar Bear. I completed Lola over Thanksgiving weekend and probably spent 5-6 hours crafting time on her. The first thing I realized was how helpful the videos and included materials are. The first section you crochet has a magic circle already created and marked with a few stitch counters. The yarn included is called Easy Peasy yarn and is a smoother texture that your typical yarn. This makes it easier to count stitches and avoids issues if splitting that can happen with a lot of regular yarn.
The videos really broke things down little step by little step. If you missed something you could replay a section and as you got more comfortable with things, you were kind of set loose to do more and more on your own. It was absolutely addicting when I realized I was getting the hang of things and stopping for the night was really, really hard. Were mistakes made? A few, yeah, that’s part of the learning process though. My own circles with the chain were a little challenging, but I got it sorted out. My tension was okay, I think it could have been a touch tighter, but it wasn’t too bad. I could have probably lined the earns up a little better, but my finished piece looked like a cute little polar bear with a scarf and I had a lot of confidence in my ability to learn crochet. Here’s the skills the kit taught that seem to be common among Beginner kits:
- How to Hold a Hook
- How to Read a Pattern
- How to Count Stitches
- How to Undo Stitches
- How to Yarn Over
- How to Make a Single Stitch
- How to Use Stitch Markers
- How to Make an Increasing Stitch
- How to Make an Invisible Decreasing Stitch
- How to Use Safety Eyes or Embroider Eyes
- How to Stuff Amigurumi
- How to Close Amigurumi
- How to Fasten Off
- How to Make a Circle with a Chain Stitch or How to Make a Magic Circle
Skills this kit taught that may or may not be taught in all similarly leveled kits:
- How to do an Invisible Fasten Off
- How to Sew on a 3D piece
- How to Make a Chain Stitch
- How to Chain 1 and Turn
- How to Crochet Rows
- How to Weave in Ends
- How to Make and Attach a Pom Pom
Pierre the Penguin, Beginner
Due to the holidays and having the discipline making myself finish a few other in-progress projects before I picked up crochet again, it wasn’t until April that I picked up another kit. I was sort of curious to see how much I remembered. While I did need a quick touch up on a few steps, I found myself relying far less on the videos than I did the first time. I also really worked hard on making a tighter circle with a chain stitch. You can see the one on Pierre’s stomach isn’t as tight as possible, but the wings and the nose show big improvement. In some ways he took me less time, in others more. I was really trying to master certain skills and one of my kids kept coming to ask questions about what I was doing. The stitches on him may have been too tight, but this is a learning process.
The skills the Pierre kit taught that may or may not be taught in all similarly leveled kits include:
- How to do an Invisible Fasten Off
- How to Sew on a 3D piece
- How to Sew on a Flat Piece
When I started posting my creations, people did ask me how hard it was. I said I was able to learn, but I do recommend sticking to kits the website labels as Beginner versus Beginner+ (the difference appears to be some more advanced techniques than the Beginner kits). Generally, Woobles fans note that the Kiki the Chick is generally accepted as the easiest kit followed by Pierre the Penguin. These two kits have definitely increased my confidence enough that next up will be the Beginner+ kits. I’ve also joined a few Woobles related Facebook Groups and it’s really cool to see people talk about the progress they’ve made in learning crochet, and it makes me believe that I can do it too. Next time, I’ll let you know how the Beginner+ kits went.
