TOFT's Ed's Advent 2019 Final Review

If you read my previous post in this series then you'll know that I was getting quite behind on Elden and had basically given up on Estella. Well I did a lot of catching up in the days before Christmas and I did manage to complete Elden by Christmas Eve. Since my last post I made his head, other ear, horns, tail, the bell around his neck and put him together. Elden turned out to be a Yule Goat, which is a Scandinavian symbol of Christmas.

I definitely had a tricky time with his horns, which I found quite difficult to understand. I ended up being pretty frustrated and nearly stopped working on him altogether, as I wasn't really finding it fun anymore, I think if I wasn't so close to the end of advent I wouldn't have continued.

I didn't end up completing Estella, her body and the remaining yarn have been put away in the advent box now for me to continue working on in future. Estella turned out to be a Clockwork Nightingale from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale ‘The Nightingale'. When I do next continue with Estella I will be posting about my progress in further blog posts, I think Estella does look very interesting and I do definitely want to complete her.

My Overall Review

To be totally honest I'm a bit disappointed with what Elden and Estella turned out to be. In previous years the animals for advent included Gloria the Red Panda, Noel the Chipmunk and Rory the Northern Cardinal, compared to these neither of the 2019 animals are based on real animals and Elden of course has more of a Christmas theme. This meant that they weren't really what I was expecting; I think that if I had known they weren't going to be real animals I probably wouldn't have purchased it. In particular I would've preferred if Elden wasn't Christmas themed, as I've been debating whether to leave him on my desk or whether he should be put away with the rest of the Christmas decorations. The designs and crochet-along were of course very well done, I did find it enjoyable overall and I'm also sure that many people will have been glad that this year's animals were something a bit more unique, but I think it would have been better if it had been communicated clearly that this year's advent animals would be themed differently to previous years.

As for my review of the crochet-along as a whole, I think the amount of pattern you get each day is split quite evenly, I don't think there were any days that felt like they had massively more to do than others and I think the descriptions of Elden as a more beginner friendly animal and Estella as a more intermediate animal were accurate. The pattern snippets for Estella were significantly larger than for Elden, so if you're a busy person and not a very quick crocheter I would recommend just doing the easier animal and saving the other for when you have the time, which is what I did.

I think if you already have made some of TOFT's animals and have a more intermediate or advanced knowledge of crochet it wouldn't take a huge amount of time each day to work on the animals and you would probably find this very enjoyable. I have very little experience with amigurumi and hadn't done a TOFT kit before, so was quite slow and some days would fall behind, even just working on the easier animal. As I mentioned earlier I did enjoy the crochet-along overall, but it did take up a lot of my time and trying to catch up was a bit stressful. Some days the pattern snippet was more difficult, for example when working on Elden's horns I did get quite stressed out because I really wanted to catch up but was having a hard time.

Personally, I don't think I'll be taking part in Ed's Advent next year, as I just don't think the format is right for me. I started off with the crochet-along very excited and I was keeping up and really enjoying seeing the animals slowly be revealed, but I think towards the end it was taking up a lot of my time and I wanted it to be over and done with. I think if you're someone with more advanced skills, you'll have no trouble with getting the pattern snippets done each day, or alternatively if you're more of a beginner but have enough free time to learn as you go, a project like this would probably be ideal. Aside from the change to the theme of the animals (I do like both of the animals, they're just not what I was expecting), all of the problems I had with this crochet-along just came down to it not being the right kind of project for me. I am glad that I took part in it, I definitely improved my crochet skills and learnt a lot about what kinds of projects I enjoy. I will be making more of TOFT's animals in future, just at my own pace instead of as part of a crochet-along and I think if I ever took part in a crochet-along like this again I wouldn't try so hard to keep up as it really doesn't matter if you finish it on time.