In the Fall of 2018 Jimmy Beans Wool had the option to buy a three month set of their knitting subscription for $30 so that you could knit up some little cacti.  I don’t need any more junk in my house, but I wanted to know if I was capable of knitting a cactus.  Now I have a pair of cacti sitting on my shelf in front of my mother’s religious statues, and I have the parts of the third waiting to be stuffed and added to the collection.  It might be a bit of a wait since I purchased a year subscription to the knitting and crochet clubs that Jimmy Beans offers.

TIP: If you want to order more than one of their subscription boxes, make each one into a separate order.  They don’t say that anywhere that I can find on their website but it really does save a bit of hassle.  That being said, though I have contacted their help about 3 times so far this year, they are quite quick to respond to my concerns.

My knitting skills are a bit rudimentary, to be kind, and so I was not sure if I would be able to follow the instructions to create the shawl that is the first project for this quarter.  Fortunately the instructions are very clear allowing me to expand my skills very quickly and obtain beautiful results.  I am only on the first third of the first set of instructions but the pattern is time consuming and fascinating.  It takes me about 90 minutes to complete the 4 rows that go into one repeat of the pattern.  As of the writing of this I have completed 3 repeats and have 2.5 left to go (the piece leading into the next pattern is only 1/2 of the pattern, the hard half.).  I believe that learning the stitches took me longer than the 90 minutes mentioned above, however, even if it did not I have already accumulated 4.5 hours of enjoyment out of this $20 and I have not even finished the first section.  This club also came with a little knit notebook, which I do not know what I am going to do with it, and a beautiful bag with snaps called the Oh Snap bag.  When I get the first third of the shawl completed I will attempt to post a picture.

I decided to try the crochet kit of the month club simply because Mom loved to crochet and I didn’t want my skills in that area to get rusty.  The first project is an ottoman, crocheted and stuffed with whatever blankets etc you would like.    I love the concept and mildly resent having to purchase the extra equipment to stuff the sucker with.  I contemplated getting a storage ottoman and trying to find a way to create a slit of some sort in the cover, however Wal-Mart had fuzzy pillows on sale so hopefully the four I purchased will be enough to stuff this thing.  If not I am certain I will think of something.  Right now the pattern is a simple single crochet starting in the magic loop and gaining stitches every row.  There is a little hitch where you reach down a row for one of the single crochets to form a cute spike.  We are also working with doubled up yarn, two strands at a time, which I have never done before.

Really, if you enjoy crafting and need some external motivation (which I am realizing is my problem) then these are a great way to expand your skill set and get neat projects to boot.

Happy crafting!