Are Toft crochet kits worth the money?

[MollyHuaCha]

I'm fairly new to crochet and love my new hobby. I like the look of the Toft amigurumi kits. But they seem quite pricey at £30 each. Anyone have any experience of them?

The Toft yarn is gorgeous and really that is most of what you are paying for in the kit. I have bought a few kits as often are reduced at John Lewis in the sales and the kits become better value than buying the yarn.
You can buy a book of Toft designs (if you buy stuff from Toft they often throw in bonus pattern packs) a 3mm hook or other size (depending on the size of toy you want to make) and yarn from elsewhere and make your own, but the tactile feel of Toft or any Alpaca yarn is lovely.

I have a couple of the Toft books and I think the patterns are fantastic. However I can't justify the cost of the yarn to make toys. Ive made them in acrylic yarn, cotton and wool and they all look great. The only issue can be that if you are using different yarn you need to find your own way when it comes to hook sizes, but that's often the case to get the right gauge for your personal tension anyway. I would highly recommend the books, especially the first one (Eds Animals).

Toft alpaca yarn is lovely but the amigurumi kits come with wool yarn and honestly it's not much better than other pure wool yarn. I've splurged on some of their alpaca kits in the past and they're gorgeous.

For the amigurumi, I'd buy the pattern book and then buy Drops Alpaca 4 ply yarn.

Thanks Everyone! I appreciate your replies.

Incywincy I found one half price in John Lewis yesterday so I treated myself. Comes complete with hook. Can't wait to start it.

The Toft patterns can be quite fiddly so you may need to concentrate if you’re a beginner.

I treated myself to a Edwards Menagerie subscription for Christmas so I'll be getting yarn and a pattern every month for 6 months :)

Which kit did you buy?
Don't forget Kerry does some really good Youtube videos for the Toft instructions
www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/Article_Pages_EDWARDSMENAGERIECROCHETVIDEOTUITION.aspx

There is a toft group on facebook and a lady on there had put some dupes on from the drops range for the wool.
The toft wool is lovely though I am currently making an alpaca; I have made a unicorn previously.

I am making a caribou.

Not something I ever thought I would say!

I used to love the Toft website…. But so disappointed when I ordered a crochet kit to make the Tithe hat for £37 all it consists of is a ball of wool which is a 100g and a second ball of wool 25g in a contrasting colour; a Pom Pom and a pattern - so disappointing when you can get a similar pattern for free and cheaper wool which is still 100% pure wool for the fraction of the price. For £37 In my opinion it would be much cheaper to buy a wool hat from a shop sadly I really don’t know how they stay in business