Kristen's New Plant Baby

As a plant parent, when I heard we would be carrying the Toft UK plant crochet kit, I couldn't wait to make a crocheted Thistle for our store! I have heard amazing things about these kits from Toft and was ready to test it out!

First, these kits are maker-ready with all that you could need right in the cute burlap bag. Each kit includes all the yarn you need, instructions, and even a crochet hook. The only things I needed in addition was a darning needle and stuffing. I used yarn scraps to stuff this sample.

The next amazing thing with Toft is their extensive online support. Overall, making this crocheted Thistle was quite easy. The legs and body use techniques that are pretty common in crochet. However, there were some new to me techniques as well. To make the thorns on his hands, was called branching. This was a term unfamiliar to me and I was struggling to conceptualize what it meant. Toft has online videos covering almost every technique they mention. So, when I ran into trouble understanding what branching meant in the instructions, I was able to go to their website and find the tutorial on how to do it. Problem solved!

Another technique that was new to me was slip stitch spines; this is used to make the hair on my Thistle's head. I also looked online for this technique, but misunderstood and thought I was going to have to break the yarn after every piece of hair, spoiler - you don't! With my confusion, I emailed Toft support before I went to bed asking for some clarification on how to do this technique. Their customer service team was amazing because by the time I woke up the next morning, I had an answer and explanation in my inbox!

Overall, this crochet kit was so much fun and fast to make. It's so fun to see all the pieces come together, and every time I finished one, I was ready to pick up and start the next. Airlie, my Thistle, is low maintenance and needs no watering now that he is all crocheted up, and I hope your own crocheted plant can bring you as much joy into your home as Airlie brought me.