Atlas Insider
Atlas Insider: Kit People
Between the run-up to (and subsequent wake of) Knitpocalypse on Atlas Drive a couple of weeks ago and now the lead-in to Holiday Hell on Earth whoops, I mean The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, we’re elbow deep in building yarn kits here in the warehouse.
Building kits elicits mixed feelings among the lowly yarn polloi around here. From a shipping standpoint, we love them—it’s a single item that gets plucked from a neatly stocked shelf and placed in a box instead of twenty-five different-every-time items. From a prepping perspective, it’s more complicated: we spend a lot of time chasing down the individual components of each kit and then neatly packaging them (you try and stack a two dozen loose balls of static-electrically charged Felted Tweed in a cello bag without them falling over; it should be an Olympic sport) and stickering them and barcoding (BARCODING YOU ARE STILL MY SWORN ENEMY!) them.
I think we all feel that it’s worth it to do in advance, though we probably admit it through gritted teeth because it’s impossible to multi-task during Kit Time. We just have to sit in front of the massive mounds of yarn and shove place them in the bag until several decades have passed and Ann and Kay unchain the doors.
I used to work at a different knitting-related enterprise and we once posed the question to our shoppers, “Do you prefer a pre-made kit with all the colors selected or do you prefer to build your own?” The response was really revealing: close to 90% of the responses were along the lines of, “Oh, I love to do it myself”—but we sold out of every single kit we had in about ten minutes. So there’s a 75% guarantee that either the other 10% were sitting on a pile of ready-to-spend money, or the 90% was 80% made up of 100% fibbers.
As I have previously noted, I am pretty dang color blind, so of course, I always go for the kit. You could sell me a dozen balls of brown yarn and call it “Rainbows and Leprechauns Eating Skittles” and I would say, “Oh yes, mmm hmmm, quite the colorful combination!” and just cast on. You should keep that in mind when you think about me making up your kit. You just might get “Rhapsody in Beige” and I will only shrug my shoulders and say “See, I told you!” But I will say it politely and send you a return label. PRINTED IN BLACK AND WHITE.
Conversely, I’ve been fascinated by the rise of meal kits over the past few years. It’s something I would never consider because I practically use a jeweler’s loupe to inspect all the produce I buy; I could never trust someone else to choose it for me. So maybe there are just different kinds of Kit People.
Anyway. It’s About to be Kit Time, y’all. Get your caboodles ready.
A Giveaway
Well … Do you prefer a pre-made kit with all the colors selected or do you prefer to build your own? The prize? Our Baggu Also Full of Yarn Bag in black denim—capacious enough for a kit!
How to enter?
Two steps:
Step 1: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Snippets, right here. If you’re already subscribed, you’re set.
Step 2: In the comments, declare whether you’re #teamkit or #teambuildmyown.
Deadline for entries: Sunday, October 24, 11:59 PM Central time. We’ll draw a random winner from the entries. Winner will be notified by email.
Come Shop With Us
I am defnitely #teambuildmyown. I really enjoy sorting and swapping colors to get just the right color-invoked emotion from my intended object. Sometimes I want a happy sweater; othertimes Iwant a calming or soothing sweater or hat or scarf…
Build my own for me but premade as a gift.
I’m both. I lean more toward build your own but enjoy not having to work so hard to figure everything out and just pick up the kit and get to the knitting.
i love a good kit when I can find one! #teamkit
#teambuildmyown
Me too! #teambuildmyown Dreaming up combos is a lot of the fun in knitting.
I am #teamkit that inspires to be a build your own. I don’t fully trust my eye for color combos.
I’m a #teamkit!! Love, love this!!!
Team kit! I don’t quite trust my newb judgment with more complicated color schemes yet.
I’m a #teambuildmyown kinda knitter. My color combo’s tend to be mood related, dark, like or very unusual. Also depends on the particular project
Build my own. Usually admire kits, then ignore them.
#Teamkit, if left to my own devices nothing would be complimentary.
I think I’m #team kit but then again I love trying my hand at choosing colors…basically I just love yarn!
Are you kidding? #teambuildmyown for sure — I’m way too pig-headed to want another person’s choices!
#team kit
I am #teambuildmyown. Whenever I have purchased a kit I have used different yarn for pattern and different patterns for the yarn
#teamkit. If forced to choose more than one color for a project, I’m likely to obsess for hours when choosing and then again before beginning to knit.
#teamkit for me. I’ve been known to spend what-feels-like-years just picking one color for a project. Multiple colors that go together? They’d find me covered in cobwebs, needles in hand, still trying to decide!
Thanks, DG, for the out-loud laugh I needed today!!
Usually #teambuildmyown. I’m a diy-er my nature in almost all respects, although an occasional fabulous sample and kit could win me over.
Build my own! I will forever need to follow a pattern so this is my opportunity to be part of the creative process. Having having said that I will treat myself to a kit a few times a year.
Depends on the project. Sometimes I know what I want, and sometimes I’d like someone else to just make all the decisions for me.
I’m #teamkit. I like seeing what others come up with.
Definitely a #teamknit since I am often delightfully surprised to see what color combos my teammate comes up with
#teambuildmyown
#teambuildmyown. It just seems like it will be more fun to figure it out myself.
I change sides regularly. It also depends on the project.
Me too! Sometimes a kit just speaks to me and sometimes I choose my own adventure.
I have never even considered buying a kit. Choosing colors is part of the pleasure for me.
I am firmly on #teambuildmyown
#teambuildmyown. Although I have been known to take the lazy way and let someone else take the wheel occasionally.
Are you kitting me?! Both of course, I live all my knitting and kitting equally!
#team kit – I admit it
I have not yet purchased a kit, but it on my list. I think it would be a nice change to let someone else pick my colors.
Both 🙂
#teamkit maybe some kits with no Alpaca and/or mohair?
Never yet bought a kit, but I really want to. Someday. Maybe.
I love the idea of kits but I have only ever purchased one.
I’m teamkit.
Wishy-washy. I do both. Stay safe everyone.
#teamkit for me. Let the pros pick ‘em!
I don’t usually buy kits, but that’s partly because I mostly knit things too small to require a kit (hats).
#teamkit all the way!
I am so much of a kit girl that when I wanted to put colors together recently I went and looked at a kit. I would have just bought a kit but I wanted worsted weight and the kit was sport.
Love a kit!
As much as I love to play with all the colors all by myself, #teamkit will win the day nearly every time.
I love kits, but when there aren’t combinations to be inspire me, I build my own. Of course that has lead to me making shawls in almost identical color combinations. Once I ordered out of my comfort zone and the resulting yarns still occupy a very inaccessible yarn bin. Though to be fair that was because the yarns didn’t really look anything like the photos on the site.
#teambuildmyown
Teamkit! I’ve seen so many with color combinations I wouldn’t think to put together on my own, but love once I see them together.
Team kit! Only buy a kit if I see a sample and like it.
I’ve never purchased a kit.
Def tbyo. But then again, I have so many random skeins at home just waiting to be placed in a special project bag and assigned their very own pattern. I have no prob mixing colors!
Kits for me.
#teambuildmyown
#teamboth! I love a carefully selected set of colors because I don’t trust my color judgment too much but sometimes the urge to pick my own takes over.
I’m a pick your own colours gal (Sorry, DJ!). Pre-made kits only make me wish this or that colour combo was also available.
#teambuildyourown
#teamkit all the way… It takes me long enough to chose which kit I’d be there for weeks costing my own colours etc.
Definitely #teamkit. I always like other peoples colour combos best!!!
#teambuildmyown
When buying on the internet kits are much safer. Colors are not always what they seem to be on the screen.
Build my own, although it takes forever to choose!
Oh gee, I bet I am your worst nightmare, because it all depends. (100% of the time) I am #team kit, when colors appeal, like the Cityscape scarf, and Garter Stripe Shawl Bundle, and #teambuildmy own for something like the Color Explosion Throw. Maybe 20% of those 80% fibbers of 90% of #teamkit just loved the kits that were made up!
#teamkit!
#teamkit, in theory. I am colorblind (a bit), and so have trouble selecting yarn. But a lot of time I end up picking my own colors, with the help of my husband. Poor man gets dragged to our LYS. Now he is knitting, too!
Loaded question. So the long answer is if I can go in person to a shop I love to choose the colors myself. It’s part of the fun process for me. If I’m ordering yarn from online I will tend to go with the kit because I know those colors will work together.
Build my own! Color theory always came naturally for me, since my childhood art school days!!! And I use white and beige not at all, purple/grey/black heavily!
I am #teamkit. I always feel the professionals have a better sense of than me.
A kit is so organized! And coordinated! And has all the colors!
Do it myself is fun, but invariably there isn’t enough of a color so have to sub then have to change something else and before you know it hours of knitting time has been spent squinting at yarn.
I am usually #teambuildmyown
#teambuildmyown, meow meow meow!
#teamkit all the way. I have decision paralysis , maybe because I’m new to knitting but I’m just exploring colors and find most kits to have great color choices.
I usually enjoy building my own but I have bought kits a couple of times. I find it easier to get a kit when I’m ordering online
Kitted…maybe-it depends on the colors in the kit!
When it comes to MDK #teamkit. Why? Because they never fail to put something unexpected together. It is an adventure
I’m a #teamkit!
Truth be told, I enjoy both build my own and kit knitting. They both haves their spot in my knitting world:)
I think I want to pick my own… but then others sometimes pick something unexpected that would never have occurred to me and that can be a very good thing.
Sometimes I am #teamkit and sometimes I am not. It all depends
Both! Basically I am #teamYARN in any form – and I have the stash to prove it…
I’m firmly on that team too!
Me, too!
i dont know if i have ever purchased a whole kit. i have done some editing on some. if i see a project i love just the way it is, i will buy the kit of yarn. i dont always buy the darning needles. frequently i will buy the circular needles because i am something of a needle hoarder.
#teambuildmyown for sure- then the color result has only my blame if it is goofy – or love if it truly appeals to me!
Most of the time #teamkit. If I love the pattern and not the colors in the kit then I will pick my own colors.
Team kit, please. I live in a household of varying degrees of color blindness -even the women. We have others pick for us.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a kit. #teambuildmyown! I did just subscribe to a meal kit, received my first delivery, and haven’t felt like cooking so it’s all just sitting unused. And I had a cat once that I named Kit-n-Kaboodle! Also, I wish that bag still came in denim
#teamkit
I’m a teambuildmyown knitter.
I am so #buildmyown that I can’t even be on a “team.” I am #I’llbuildmyowndamnit.
It depends on the project! I enjoy both! I didn’t help much, uh!
I do both, but mostly my own unless there is a kit with fabulous colors I would never think to put together
Temam kit with online purchasing – but build my own in person when the screen isn’t making me believe the colours will work together…
Thinking back to the Hadley Sweater Kit MDK put together January 2016 for the February Knock Out a Sweater KAL using Brooklyn Tweed yarn, I am in the #teamkit. I had just learned to knit 6 months prior making socks for each of my three sons and husband so learned lots of techniques in spite of the short time. I was admiring MDK photos of the Fair Isle sweater in the beautiful colors and the gorgeous rustic looking yarn. With great excitement and anticipation, I impulsively joined the KAL, Ordered the Kit and field guide book #2, then I hustled over to the library to checked out a stack of books on sweater construction for reference if I needed them.
The yarn was my first experience with the finer natural wool yarns. It seemed so exotic and rustic with occasional bits of vegetative matter caught in the plies and was fun to how each new color enhanced the design. I was determined to stay up with the others in the KAL and was pleasantly surprised to finish such a beautiful first sweater in 3.5 weeks!
#teambuildmyown and I don’t even know why. I have never bought a kit. I’ve been given two, and used the yarn for other projects. Pie containers, I guess.
That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read! Pie containers. I really tried to figure out what you were knitting yo hold pies and was most intrigued. PS I also appreciate anyone who will use the word “contrariness.”
Lol, autocorrect. Plain contrariness.
I was intrigued by the pie containers!
I mostly prefer to choose my own. If I can find color substitutes for something that I’m fairly confident will work together I’ll go for it on my own. If, based on my options, I just can’t seem to make it work, that’s when I’ll resort to a pre-made kit.
Team kir
Unless it’s a highly complicated color combo, like a Bohus or highly pattered stranded, I’m TPMO. And sometimes I mess up in this. All good!
I’m team kit unless I’m trying to stash bust, then I’m team “sit in a pile of mismatches stash until something makes sense.” I am particularly pro-kit when it comes to patterns that only use a small amount of yarn, so I don’t end up with a mass of leftovers after using the required 25 yards of 18 different colors, hypothetically speaking (and totally not from experience, of course).
#teamkit is it’s four or more colors! #teambuildmyown for the lesser numbers of colors!
I don’t ordinarily enjoy being told what to do; I make an exception when yarn colors can be chosen for me. DG, this column made me LOL – your turns of phrase crack me up!
#teamkit all the way!
Definitely a BYOP type (build your own project), so #teambuildyourown for me.
I am definitely #teamkit. Life is hard I like to keep my yarn obsession simple. And they ass so nicely to the stash!
#teamkit for me.
I probably would have be in the #foolingmyselfcamp (or fibbers camp), said #teambuildmyown, but then gone with #teamkit . so yes, #teamkit
I like to build my own….so now my yarn is mostly black…ok, 95% black with a hint of pink and blue.
#teamkit for sure and certain!
I like the idea of kits, though I’ve never actually bought one. Kit color combinations inspire me to think of color pairing in a new way and branch out from my comfort zone. Self-striping sock yarn works the same way, though it’s a little harder to substitute the one color that you just can’t get excited about.
I prefer to obtain the pattern separately from the kit. If I must pay for the pattern, fine, but please don’t offer the pattern only with the kit. #teambuildmyown
I do both. Sometimes the colors in a kit speak to me and other times I have specific colors in my mind as I consider a pattern. I have a strong color sense but when I shop on line I certainly study the kits. It can be hard to appreciate the subtleties when you are looking at colors online.
#teamkit! I have too many other decisions to make
I most definitely prefer a #teambuildyourown kit! I tried one of those surprise kits ONCE and nearly fainted when I opened the package. There it sat, my least favorite color and in a shade too dreadful to describe with several other equally icky complimentary colors.
I’m #teambuildmyown but I’d never pass up a beautiful kit
#teamkit for me!
I love choosing my own colors when I can see all the choices in person. I like buying a kit when I’m shopping online.
#TeamBuildMyOwn bc selecting the selection of yarn & colors is fun & creative! It’s the time of hope & mystery.
Build my own!! Colors are such a personal thing – a kit would be like having somebody else choose my clothes, or what color I paint my walls.
I lean toward #teamkit. I am your typical “fall in love with the sample” knitter.
I am usually a select my own but I did buy the lettlopi kit of colors or the scarf, which I might add is currently misplaced..ummm too much stash. Anyway I will find it soon….loved the black cat.
For some reason I have yet to buy a kit. I choose my own colors for the pattern. However, after seeing some of the preassembled kits at MDK I feel a kit will be in my future.
#team kit. Whenever I try to pick yarn. I get a headache from too many choices. So I have made too many things in beige. When I received my first kit, I knew there was a yarn Goddess.
Absolutely team kit
Both, how’s that for a decision however with that stated, if the colrs speak to me in the kit – their mine 100%!
Both! #teamkit and #teambuildmyown! It always depends!!
#teamkit. I’d like to be a #teambuildmyown but I’m commitment-phobic and could never decide on which colors to choose . . .
Also prefer to build my own kit. I think many knitters don’t trust their color senses when picking color combinations and therefore rely on prepackaged kits. (Totally agree with DG also on picking one’s own produce :D)
I will buy a kit, because I love that particular grouping of colors in that particular yarn, but then I will ignore the pattern entirely and make something different. So I am #teamboth, but not in the way you think.
I bought a kit once and, like Victoria, promptly dismantled it for use in a different project. One reason I’m #teambuildmyown is because I love to jump up at 5:45am every Saturday to rummage through my stash, eagerly pulling out possible combinations for potential projects, followed by a few hours of random swatching. That’s the appetizer before the main event: the rotation of my one of a kind WIPS.
I’ve never bought a kit, so add me to the build-my-own contingent.
If I like all the colors, then team kit. But I may exchange one or two colors to make it my own.
If it’s more than 3 colors then I love the kit. If I’m buying online the I prefer the kit since colors can be deceptive on the screen. Your Rowan felted tweed kits are wonderful!!! So thank you for persevering and getting it so neatly into the cellophane bag.
Well it all depends on whether I like the colors that have been selected for the kit by someone else. I prefer #teamkit but if necessary, I’ll switch to #teambuildmyown.
Sometimes kit, most of the time my own selection. Buying yarn is fun either way.
#teambuildmyown
#teamkit ♥️
This A very difficult question! If I see A kit with gorgeous yarn I want it! On the other hand if it has options I’m buying the colors I want!
I build, I kit, just let me knit!!
Definitely #teambuildyourown.
#teamkit
I am both, but over the past two years have become more #team kit. Having the yarn delivered to my house from all over the world in beautiful colors has both kept me sane and let me experience yarns that I can’t buy from any of my LYS in the area. I also like kits that have different color choices available and have been known on the instance of Lettlopi to buy multiple kits and not knot the project but use the colors to design my own sweater. Have also done this with the felted tweed kits, and added colors from my stash.
#teamkit
#teambuildmyown unless of course I love the colors offered in the kit. In which case I join #teamkit
Teamkit, let someone else do the work.
Build my own
I love putting my own colors together. I actually don’t think I have ever bought a kit. Although years ago I saw a kit to make mermaid socks (a mermaid was on the heel) and I didn’t think I would ever make socks so I didn’t buy it. The next day I regretted it, but it was at an event and I was never able to track it down. Now I make socks all the time, almost always vanilla.
#teambuildyourown is my favorite mental starting place, but I have been known to cave to the confidence of those who already know what will give delightful results.
I’m team kit (when I’m not choosing/ putting together colors of my own!)
I’m definitely a “Build My Own Kit”. It takes forever to decide because I need to feel the yarn too. Brace yourself, after seeing the felted tweed colors and feeling the Organic Studio yarn I’m getting ready to order components for Christmas gifts.
Depends. If I have exactly what I want in my stash I use that. But I’ve Also succumbed to some gorgeous kits.
Lynn W.
I bought a kit once back in the Stone Age. I didn’t care for the results. I’m sure they are much improved now but since I knit primarily for my grand sons, they get to choose the colors, sometimes quite ‘creatively’.
At times, when I walk into a clothing store and see an outfit on a model, I think I’ve got to have that and buy it. Other times I see an outfit and think “how can anyone wear that color and style?” So kits are the same way with me. It depends!!
I love choosing my own!
I like kits, but I want color options.
Team kit. Can’t put more than 3 colors together on my own
Both! I love to see what #teamkit creates. And may swap for my own. Chuckled at kit n caboodles.
Teambuildyourown# ALL THE WAY!
#teamkit I have no faith in my own ability to match colors and am in complete and appreciation of those who can.
DG, we are NOT fibbers, we just perhaps lack a little self awareness? I am mostly team build your own but enjoy the occasional allure of a kit!
#teamkit but don’t be surprised if it gets edited once it’s in my little hands.
#teamkit
Big ol’ fence sitter here. I prefer to choose my own colors, but choosing the yarn itself- the “correct” yarn- oh I definitely need help.
I am #teamkit. I usually am dragged in to the color combinations of a pre made kit. That being said I search all the options to find just the right one.
I’ve only bought one kit. Ever. I love to look at it (through the beautiful cello package—thank you wrapping/packing person), but I’ve yet to open it.
I’m sitting squarely on the fence in the middle! I appreciate and some times welcome the creative combinations the designer has come up with but sometimes I have my own vision.
#teamkit here
Sometimes I want a Kat to go with my Kit and sometimes I want a caboodle. I agree with those who say “when I’m in my LYS I tend to pick my own and when ordering on line I’m more likely to choose a kit.” I still like kits that offer choices of colors.
I prefer to choose my own colors; unless, of course, the kit is based on the color blue!!
#teamkit. It’s like a special gift someone made just for me.
Sometimes, I love the luxury of someone else deciding on colors from the start instead of grouping yarn from the stash.
#teamconflicted! I love to choose my own colours, but I have a tiny yarn budget, so the savings that come from kits are extremely attractive. When there’s no price difference though? #teambuildmyown
#teamkit all the way
Depending on the project… maybe a kit but mostly build my own.
Thanks.
I’m in both camps! Sometimes I like to experiment with color and other times I want exactly what the sample is. It works for me.
I have to say I am a bit of both I love a kit because I get overwhelmed by choice and can’t decide on a color way! As for produce I have been ordering groceries online and it’s hit or miss they pick terrible avocados that were ripe for yesterday I got furry carrots and considerably brown white mushrooms and visibly green potatoes so I keep trying because I like the convenience of it but some things are better left being done by oneself!
I always think I would love a kit, but the only one I have ever purchased is still in the bag six years later. Guess I’m really team build your own!
I’ve also had that experience where you ask the question, get the responses, manage expectation accordingly, and then have the complete opposite result. I find it fascinating (and a little maddening)! Did the buyers not answer the original question? Was the offering simply too good for everyone to resist? Did the folks who said “never kit” think “maybe there’s something to a kit and I should try it before I poopoo it thoroughly”?
Oh and I’m #teamboth ‘cuz sometimes I want to play and sometimes I just want to knit.
Kit, please. Ordering colors off a computer screen gives disappointing results. And there will be enough of a given color. No plotting the perfect color combination to find that your favorite shade is out, or on delay.
#teankit. Trying to choose more than three colors is overwhelming.
Well, it’s complicated. I do like to pick my own, but there is something about a kit (or box of colored pencils or paint box or anything with lots of colors) that is so appealing.
I prefer #teamkit! Seems I never get the combo just right when I build my own. But that doesn’t stop me from trying – lol.
#teamkit rules the day!
#Teamkit are fun and very helpful when indecision for what colors to use. It will often open my mind to new color combinations. Sometimes, however it does not fit what I had in mind for the project so #Teambuildmyown kicks in. So I suppose I am both!
It depends on the mood I’m in! Sometimes I like to bake a fancy cake from scratch (or make my own version of the colorwork cardigan but with nine colors instead of the pattern’s six), and other times I just want a cupcake from the cafe down the road (a cute premade kit for that adorable hat I’d been admiring). So for me it’s definitely both.
I’m on the fence, I love a kit, but NEVER stick to the plan exclusively
I’ve never purchased a pre-made kit but if you offer The Unicorn and Fruit Loop/ Lucky Charm Rainbow Leprechaun Explosion kit I am 1000000% in.
I’ve gone both ways. I think I am happier with the end result when I choose kitted projects.
build my own if I can do it in person. You build it if I’m buying online
I am #team build my own almost all the time. I am in the middle of a Kafe Fasset thing and I have already bought a bunch of Rowan Felted Tweed for a scarf last year. I am very slow to get around to some of the patterns, too. I would actually buy a kit for the marled blanket Cast Away Throw in blues and greens in case you don’t have enough to do.
I’ve done both and loved both!
If I’m trying out a new yarn, definitely a kit – that way you just get what you need for a project. But if it’s a yarn I love (looking at you, Freia and Jill Draper!) then I’d rather pick my own, and of course get extra in case I need it…..
#teamkits!
#teamkit all the way here! If said kit has a limited edition colorway or has notions or other extras, I will 100% give you all of my monies. I love a well curated kit.
#teamkit without doubt or hesitation. I trust in others to pick colors and fibers that would work well for a project.
#teambuildmyown
Team Build-My-Own every single time. Also I own a small flock of sheep with to die for wool, and 4 spinning wheels. So I regularly go off-script with patterns. (Sorry, I’m just here for the patterns)
I’m 50/50 on kits. #teamkit #buildmyown
I am #teambuildmyown, worth a little help from my own personal yarn guru at my LYS
I am #teamkit and when I’m not – I should be….. also — I read the prize as a bag full of black denim yarn. 🙂 chalk that up to some very literal and parsed letter writing I am doing with my 5 year old grand daughter – talking about Bat and Pumpkin ravioli — but needing to add the disclaimer — not made with real bats….
I love the idea of a kit, but haven’t purchased one, yet. That said, I have asked my LYS to pull colors together for me bc that is not in my ministry as they say.
Team kit!!
I just worked with your company to change the colors of a kit to match my taste so I guess it I am team build my own with help.
I’m #teamkit when I like the combination, i.e., it’s already in my favorite palette of the moment. Otherwise, I’m #teampickmyown. But if it’s yarn we’re talking, I’m very accommodating.
I’m team build your own, buy a kit and use your stash!
Team kit. Do the hard part for me please.
#teamkit for me. I like discovering new color combinations.
Giveaway
I like both, i buy both
I often get inspired by stephen west’s shawl choices, ir casapinka.
Both i say
I am absolutely #teambuildmyown! I am a ridiculously loose knitter and a kit will never, ever have enough yarn to finish, no matter how tiny my needle choice to compensat.
I like kits and I like to select my own colors. No kidding! Love it all but if I had to pick just one answer, select my own would win!
Happy Sunday!
#teambuildmyown when it’s yarn. I have become #teammealkitvthough. If I don’t have to plan dinner, I have more time and energy for knitting!
100% #teamkit so long as there’s a few variations offered. I’m sure to find one I like as long as they aren’t all shades of pink. I’d probably even take a “rainbow of beige” over that…
Right now, Team kit — it’s stressful times and I don’t have the bandwidth and get stuck in analysis paralysis!
#teamkit
#teamkit for me. It’s completely stress free!
#teambuildmyown
I’m #teamkit. I always pick at least one color that doesn’t quite work with the others.
Well, I’ve never bought a kit. So I’m in the 10%
Team pick my own I think, it depends on the sellers aesthetic really.
#teamkit While I love buying yarn, I have discovered that I tend to actually complete more projects if I buy a kit. I think that I lose interest in the yarn or get distracted by another, before I find that perfect pattern.
Well, sadly, I think that I may be in the fibber category. (Unintentionally, of course.) I say that I want to build my own but my color combos are never as interesting or vibrant as the kits. The kits just look so good! I like it when there are kits in different color combos—the blue kit, the earth tone kit, etc. Does that count as choosing your own color?
My eye can be quickly drawn to a beautiful kit. Otherwise, I often stay in my comfort zone! It’s fun to try something new and exciting—but no purple, please,
Definitely building my own…choosing colours is one of the best opportunities for creativity!
Build my own — it’s at least half the fun.
Team kit. I just look for one with the colors I like and cast on!
I like to build my own. By that I mean that I will look at the kits you assemble, for *ideas*, and then choose the one I like best. Voila! I’ve built my own.
#teamkit for sure!
#teamkit for me always.
I had never bought a kit until 2 years ago, now I am loving #team kit!
#teambuildmyowm
I can’t remember buying a kit. I once received a kit as a gift, but never made the intended item; instead it was cannibalized to make whatever were my whims of the moment. I tend to fall in love with the yarn first, and buy what I love without a goal for it. When I see a project that i love, I turn to my stash and see if I can make it with what I have. If I can’t pull that off (and I usually can), I buy what I need to fill in the gaps.
I like to think I’m build your own but the reality is I’m terrible with color and actually love when someone does it for me.
I secretly think this is everyone. Ssshhhh, just between you and me.
I love kits! Usually, when I try to build my own, one color or more is always out of stock!
I am definitely #teamkit. I’m an engineer – so while I can do a great job with the knitting, not so much with the color selections. In fact my husband is a big help – he’s a writer. Must be a left brain – right brain thing!
I am a “Bulld Your Own”, but also a very poor decision-maker. This is apparent at my frantic toggling back and forth trying to decide which TWO colors of the Ombré Merino Lace to select for the Marlogram. My index fingers are screaming “Just decide already!”
#teamkit
I make life altering decisions all week at work. I want someone else to decide when it’s knitting time.
Live and in person, I am definitely #teambuildmyown. When shopping on line, I will often, but not always, jump to the other side.
Love a kit.
So I’m going to throw a monkey wrench in your survey and say I’m #teamitdepends. Sometimes I feel like a kit; sometimes I don’t. (If I was really a kit person I wouldn’t have so much lovely yarn in my stash BEGGING for the right project, because I would have a kit at the ready. And wouldn’t spend so much time hunting for the perfect pattern for said yarn.)
Me too! I have been known to buy a kit and then use the yarn for something totally different. I have bought kits and had to search online for more yarn because my gauge was different. I buy kits because they have bonus extras in them, or patterns included. I buy kits because they are lower in price than buying skeins separately. I guess I buy a lot of kits. Well, I buy a lot of yarn in general, but those kits call to me………
#teamkit
#teamkit
#team build my own although I tend to buy a kit and a few other colors to substitute.
I like to build my own but I have bought kits!
#teambuildmyown
My aesthetic tends to be at odds with that of the cool kids. Doesn’t matter what year it is.
#teamkit I like using kits to try colors and combinations I would not normally consider.
Since I’ve been knitting for many years, I have build-my-own experiences with stash-busting projects. I tend to be more conservative than I want to be. Kits are my way try something new.
#teamkit here! Why stress over colors when somebody else can do it for you?
#teamkit all the way! (Basically I like for others to do the work)
I would be part of #teamkit. When I had a significantly smaller stash (decades ago) I was a lot more creative. This was when my yarn budget had to fit into my small allover budget.
#team kit—especially if there’s a discount.
Besides, just because it’s a kit doesn’t mean you have to follow the directions.
Team build my own- because I usually can’t even begin to afford a kit. This is because, in addition to being a retired teacher, I have managed to build an enormous stash of wonderful, scrumptious yarn. It’s All carefully organized and moth protected, with photos and yardage,so I can either create my own palette,or move on to finishing 40 WIPs.
Both
Sometimes kit, sometimes build my own!
#Teambuildmyown. Then I ponder, decide one of the purchased elements is not quite right, purchase something more. That is how stashes are built.
These days I’m absolutely #teamkit.
#teamkit all the way
If there are a few colorway choices, at least one of which I like, and there usually are, then I much prefer a premade kit.
I would far rather choose my own colors. And actually, I rarely stick to a pattern but make up my own.
#teamkit but then I always love what others pick themselves and wish I had been brave enough to do so.
Kits! Although there is usually one color I disagree vehemently with!
I’m #teambuildmyown.
Build my own always. For unknown reasons…..preselected kits usually run short for me. Either way, much of my stash is yarn leftovers….l.
I prefer a kit when I see a display of the knitted item.
#teambuildmyown.
Kit? What is this kit you speak of! I will never ask you to build or premake anything. I’m Auntie Kit, Ms Doityerselfordie. I’m just stopping in to say hi to a fave writer.
I love the idea of the kit… I’m not good at following rules so I’m actually “build your own”
#teamkit! I love the elegance and ease and I have the joy of knitting a beautifully curated project.
I’m a #Teamkit knitter. I love color, but I have no color sense. If I see the completed project or swatch, I can decide “Oh that is so me!” Kits are wonderful.
Build my own. Sometimes kits for projects I want to make have colors I love — other times I just need to impose my own will on the color choices.
I usually prefer to pick my own colors but have been known to purchase a kit when I want to recreate the exact item.
Give me a Kit!! I have to order all my yarn and don’t know if the computer is giving an accurate color.
Definitely teambuildmyown. You should see today with my tub of Rowan Felted a tweed for the Color Explosion Throw!
Kit, please!
#teambuildmyown
Absolutely do both because I love yarn of all weights and colors, but if I see a kit in colors I like, I will almost always gravitate toward it even if the pattern looks hard or difficult. It just feels so special, like a goodie bag or gift when it is all ready to go! #teamkit when there’s one available however also #teambuildmyown because that’s super fun, too.
#Teamkit. Because colour combinations are often ones I love but wouldn’t have considered if left to choose myself
Some days one, the next day the other…but never any indecisiveness about how great it is to wake up to DG Strong.
#teamkit all the way.
#teamkit
I love it when I find a kit that has colors I love, but I will often build my own. Especially if I’m knitting it a second time!
I bought two cowl kits once because they were on sale, but otherwise I prefer to choose my own colors. If I don’t like something, I have only myself to blame!
Kit. Don’t trust my own color sense. Maybe I am colorblind too.
Both! It depends what I am making. For a MKAL I like kits, but I have enough stash for a long time!
I’m #teambuildmyown because I love playing with colour, but I always swoon over kits. I’ve bought a few over the years, but not many. However, I do have my eye on the Color Explosion Throw because the palette is breathtaking!
I’m an equal opportunity knitter. Sometimes I fall in love with a kit, other times I stash dive and purchase as necessary. The best of both worlds!
I’m bi. Sometimes a kit will strike my fancy and I join #teamkit, but other times, especially when making Icelandic-style sweaters, I’m definitely #teambuildmyown.
Sometimes I like the kits, then I don’t have left over yarn. However, I really enjoy creating my own colors and designs. This is more exciting to me
I buy both but I love kits because you just don’t have to think about it as much. You know how it will turn out
Both? Most of the time, I’m #teambuildmyown, but I use kits to stretch my skills. If there’s a particular skill I want to learn, I sometimes buy a kit as an easier entrance to the technique. That way, no worries about whether I’ve picked the right yarn or the right quantity.
Presorted with more than one choice if ordering by mail. In a hands-on yarn shop, I would try building my own.
I just bought my first kit for Shawlography and love it. I may be a convert to knit camp. Suffice it to say, in my 60ish years of knitting, I’ve been pretty successful in choosing my own colors.
I like a good kit. #teamkit
I am #teambuildmyown all the way.
I flip flop back and forth but usually it is the color combination in an advertised kit that attracts me to the project so I go with the kit most of the time.
I like them both. Sometimes it is easier to get a kit, especially now since our LYS has closed in the face of Covid…. 🙁 Miss being able to go squishing
I’m a teamkit person most of the time. It takes me forever to decide on a set of colors for a project.
I am both. I have been known to use the yarn from a kit, along with stash yarn, and make a different garment.
#teamkit as a new knitter I like kits because I know everything will be there to make the project. when I go on my own who knows
I’m on team build your own. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a kit.(I may be wrong, my memory isn’t what it use to be) I do like a good bundle, though. Those preselected colors let’s my imagination run wild with ideas for projects. I’d probably buy a kit and make something entirely different with the yarn.(I’m looking at you Cityscape scarf kit)
I prefer #teamkit 90% of the time. I tend to get overwhelmed by all the color choices. Especially if I’m ordering online I trust those that put the kit together with the color selection.
I think it just depends on what the kit colors are, so with that being said, I guess I’m both a kit buyer and I like to pick my own colors.
Hopefully you will give the results of your little #teamkit or #teambuildyourown
I have ever bought a kit. MaybeI should try it.
ordinarily i’m a solid #teambuildmyown, but i’ve definitely been tempted by some of the kaffe fassett felted tweed kits.
I’m so #teamkit. Although I do like a choice of color schemes in kits.
Oh gosh, Today I like a kit. I may try colors I don’t usually use. Tomorrow may be different. As long as it’s not superwash – I really don’t like superwah.
Howdy! I’m #teambuildyourown!! I will either not like the kit’s colors, or the type of yarn chosen, or the kits are sold out. I usually can’t afford the kits anyway so it’s all ok in the end!
Absolutely pick my own. I just love colour, including the names of colour, so I prefer to explore that world, for myself. But that doesn’t mean I would reject one pre-picked – the selector may have put together something perfect and amazing!
#teamkit here. Choosing my own colors makes me anxious!
I usually play on #teambuildmyown, but sometimes I see a kit that is just too beautiful to pass up.
Definitely (mostly) build my own. I do buy kits occasionally if I really love the colors in a certain kit.
I love a kit. I love to shop for yarn. I will take it either way I can get it!
#team buildmyown!
I am definitely #teambuildmyown ! love all the different colors!
#teambuildmy own!
I’m team build my own. I totally feel the same way anout meal kits !
It depends! Usually #teamkit because I just want to start knitting but sometimes I find it fun to experiment and play with the colors so I dip my toe into #teambuildmyown
I have thought about buying a kit, but then I do it myself!
#teambuildmyown
kit person
#teamkit although I try to build my own. They never seem to stack up to the kits!
Prefer to choose my own.
100% #Teamkit…
#teamkit for sure, especially if the Amazing DG builds it.
Be careful what you wish for… unless you wish for something made in thirty-seven shades of grey. Then: no problem.
If you asked me in a survey I would say #teambuildmyown. But if I were visiting World Headquarters, or even shopping on line, I would be much more likely to impulsively snatch up the fabulous kit. If I stop to take the time to dither around and build my own I can easily talk myself out of the purchase. #teamkit
Definitely build-your-own, but I have been known to buy pre made kits and just as often makes adjustments to the colours once bought.
#teambuildmyown – while I love looking at kits for inspiration, I try to build from my stash when I can.
I’m totally for premade kits, except when I’m not!
#teambuildmyown
Build my own
Teambuildmyown I have never bought a kit, although I have seen some beautiful ones. I usually can’t buy the yarn all at one time so I pull a little from stash, buy a little of some affordable alternatives and buy a tiny bit of splurge yarn to make it pop and look like the original.
#teamkit
Since I can never make up my mind I’m a #teamkit player.
I’m definitely #teamkit. I have a terrible time understanding hues, tones, etc so premade kits are what I generally go for.
I do really love picking out my own colors…but I always love seeing the results others get when they buy a kit.
#teambyo that’s because I knit small hats scarves cowls. I was so hoping that you’d have a Rhapsody in Beige kit!
I will admit to being somewhat “color impaired”. If I have to pick more than four colors, I start getting confused and second guessing myself and then saying “The heck with it, I’ll do it next year” and then of course, not doing at all. So I guess I am Team Kit.
I am a build my own kinda gal. That is really part of the fun. It always takes me quite a long time to decide/select/alter/select again, etc. before I get to what really makes me smile! This way the money I spend buys way more entertainment!
#teamkit all the way! I love kits! I collect kits. Occasionally I even complete a kit.
Nothing will seduce me into making a purchase for yarn I do not need like a beautifully packaged kit.
#teambuildmyown mostly, haha. I do love a good kit but I already have more than enough project bags and stitch markers.
Definitely #teambuildyourown – nothing gets me more motivated to knit then picking colours!
#teamkit- why not? It’s easy and ready to go!
I am firmly and forever on #teamitdepends! If I stumble on a pattern that says, “Wow, that is perfect for that luscious hand-dyed BFL I’ve been hoarding,” then I’m #teambuildmyown. However, if I’m totally taken with a sample because I love the item and THOSE colors, then I’m #teamkit! Flexibility in my middle name!
#teamkit. Especially if I’m using the pattern yarn. Different story if I’m subbing
Kit it up for me, your choice…if I am picking my own colours I am probably going to my stash.
I prefer to make my own kit because my color palate is usually different from those in kits! But love having assistance when choosing .
Team kit for me please
I’m #teambuildmyown. Though I’m tempted by the original colors of the Color Explosion throw. Yummy
Thank you for the laugh!
I’m a build your own when I have the money to spend! What can I say: the kits are bought up by people who have money burning a hole in their pocket? The rest of us are dreamers?
I have done both but lately have been purchasing kits . #teamkit.
Team kit
#teambuildmyown unless a kit can’t be improved
Love Rowan felted tweed
I have a few kits and yarn bundles in my stash but mostly start with the pattern and choose my own yarn.
#teamkit. I always struggle to put colors together.
I am #teambuildmyown. Honest.
#teamkit
#teamkit!
#teamkit always and forever.
team kit
I’m on both – sometimes a kit really catches my eye and I’ve gotta have it
I love kits!
Not gonna lie. I go with #teamkit. I tend to get overwhelmed and overthink my choices when I have too much to choose from. I like having kits with a few colorways to choose from. Also, I’ve been frustrated when choosing colors that apparently EVERYBODY wants and I can’t get them.
Definitely #teamkit! I know what I like in colors but have a tough time putting them together. So a kit where someone has done the color lifting is ideal for me.
#teamkit I tend to do very muted colors and greys when I pick my own. The kits are the only way to bring color into my life 🙂
I’m definitely a #teamkit person because I could spend hours, days, or weeks (maybe longer!) picking out color combos. It’s so much easier and faster when someone else makes the decision!
#teamkit for me. Let the pros do their thing!
#teambuildmyown
I bought a kit. Looked at yarn. Said no, that is a vest, not a sweater. Does that make me a build your own?
#teamkit
Definitely a “build my own”….unless of course it’s a kit full of jewel tones that transforms me into a kit person!
#teamboth! Sometimes I will fall in love with pattern and have to have it in the original colors and yarns and other times I love a design but not the colors of the original so end up building my own. I love that I have the option to choose!
Team swing both ways!! I love the ease of trusting a kit but also the fun of mixing and matching my own colors.
I’m team kits .
#teambuildmyown and #teamkit. I love all the yarn!
Team Kit
I love a kit
I’m #teamkit. Mainly because it’s so difficult for me to decide on colors, I want them all!
Build your own! Thanks for this week’s giveaway!
Today I’m # Team Build Your Own, but by tomorrow, who knows? The building of my own occupies my sleepless midnight hours for a week before I place my order. How many family members and knit sisters can look at my screen shots of colors? My answer is time sensitive.
I admit to being happy to have someone put the kit together for me. It’s hard to choose.
Build my own…with a little help from my sister!
Yes! DG Strong special kit, please!
I am 100 percent #teamkit. I know I’m a follower, not a visionary 🙂
#teambuildmyown then deal with the consequences
I love to pick my own colors but purchase kits when the colors are just what I want.
#teambuildmyown
Team kit, unless I don’t like the colors, and then I build my own. It easy for my hubs to grab a yarn kit before he tells me he bought another tractor to break the news. I trust kit colors more than his colors.
You should start choosing his tractors for him to head off the secret kit you might have just bought!
#teamkit, they’re irresistible to me!
There’s a place for both in my life! I
#teambuildmyown and have the random stash to back up that claim. Do not think I’ve ever purchased a kit. I did finally break down and actually follow Kaffe Fassetts color choices for the Garter Stripe Wrap but that was really unusual for me
I hem and haw every time. Kit or no kit, the photos make the WIPs and FOs look so gorgeous I am always tempted to duplicate. Somehow it feels like cheating. Could really use some more color-choosing-confidence!
#teamkit if there is one available. Especially if it is a master color work designer like Kaffe Fasset.
Team kit
I will have to go with #teambuildmyown.
#teambuildyourown
#teamkit. No. Wait a minute. #teambuildmyown. No no. What colors are those you are knitting?.
#teamkit All the way every day! I like choices in colors in my kits, but much prefer someone else does the calculations of yardage, etc. (This May make me #teamlazy too…lol)
#teamkit! I love kits – hoard them with the pattern no need to worry about what goes with what!
#teamkit only when I buy online because it’s so hard to know the color combos from a computer screen. In person I switch teams!
I love to put yarn together so I am definitely not a kit knitter.
#teamkit
#teamkit sure is doggone convenient when faced with endless possibilities .
#teambuythekit. If I’m building my own, there’s always that one color that I HAVE to have that’s either out of stock or just doesn’t look right with whatever else I picked out. Sometimes I like most of the colors in the kit except one, so I try to cheat and copy most of the kit colors and sub out my least favorite. That has not always gone as expected.
I am #teambuildmyown. Only occasionally do I ever see a kit that makes my heart sing, but I love to play with colors myself.
I am mostly #teamkit but at some point will try #buildmyown.
Gotta love a kit! Knitting made easy!
It depends. Sometimes I love what someone else chose! Other times, half the fun is figuring out the right combination!
I’m actually a depends kind of girl, I’m #teamkit if the kit really speaks to me or I haven’t thought it out, I’m #teambuildmyown if I have had time and I found my perfect combo!
#teamkit!
Have never bought a kit so I guess that says it all!
I like kits! I fell in love with the colors used for the color explosion throw and ordered the kit. God bless the person who put it all together. It was lovely to receive!
Both!
#teambuildmyown
#teamkit
I’ll admit to being #teamkit. Having too many choices is stressful for me. I love seeing what others have put together and choosing my favorite.
Build my own. But the kits look so enticing. Maybe I could become a kit person.
Mostly #TeamBuildMyOwn because I’m very firmly SABLE, but sometimes a kit really speaks to me.
I am definitely part of #teamkit and #teambuildmyown. See I struggle . Sometimes the kit color combo just sings my song and sometimes I love to choose my own. Sadly any purple in the kit discourages me and yellow encourages me to snap it up.
#teamkit, I love kits! It must be the lazy person in me. Just send me that yarn and I’m happy when I have needles in my hands.
#team kit if its put together by a yarn brand or designer I love. Otherwise, #teambuildmyown
#team kit of course. I trust team MDK’s expert colorists.
#teamkit I can’t trust my color choices
Depends on the project and how I feel about the colors. For sweaters I’m usually team #diy but for a blanket I might throw caution to the wind and take a kit.
I’ve never purchased a kit but I’m game for anything
Team kit!
I’ve never bought a kit. Who’s kitty got to model with the bag?
#teamkit All.The.Way! I have major analysis paralysis. I could (and have) walked into my LYS looking and squishing yarn for hours for a specific project that they did not have my exact yarn choices for (of course) and eventually walked out empty handed. I learned to let my LYS just create a kit for me after we discussed color. Sadly, no more LYS stores in the big city of St. Louis, but I still seek KITS!
Definitely build my own!
#teambuildmyown
#teambuildmyown The heart wants what the heart wants.
I have done both, of course. I would like to think I can choose my own colors competently, but don’t seem to have the “gene” that can choose colors which bring out all the best in their neighbors in a given project. So sad. But thank goodness for kits!
I’m #teamkit – if I see one I like! I’m not good at picking out color combinations, especially since I have no LYS. Online colors are never quite the same in real life as they are on the screen.
The exception is if I can work from stash. Now that is fun.
I do both, depends on the project.
It really does depend on the project. Thanks to all for putting the kits together for us!
I’m all in when choosing a single yarn for a project on my own. Not hard at all. I am terrible at combining colors and would love a kit to guide me in the right direction.
#teamkit
I am a team switcher. No rhyme or reason. By the way, does this giveaway extend to Canada? Some haven’t.
I almost always choose the make my own option. Usually because I like different colors.
I like the pre-made kits… until I want to build my own! I actually have several pre-made kits waiting to be knit into FO’s, and I have a build-it-yourself kit waiting to be knit as well. I just need more than 24 hours in a day, that’s all.
Since Magenta and Fuschia are neutral colors to me, I always think kits are beige and brown heavy and I am not a kit person or agonize over how to trade in my versions of neutral!!
Team build my own
I am definitely a build my own girl ! Have to admit I love to touch every skein and enjoy the color decision process so much !
I am multi culture on this one. I like a kit when thinking about Fair Isle but with an artist background I love to find an antique rug or picture at a museum and think those colors would make an amazing sweater, scarf etc. Then love the challenge of finding those colors in the right yarn. Knitting is such an amazing gift.
I’m riding the fence on this one! If I see a kit that has the colors yelling out to me, I will get it. Other times, I love picking out my own colors for the project.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a kit. So I must be a build your own. I do however like to look at the kits to see what they’ve put together- it’s a place to start then it’s on to swapping out colors to make it my own.
#teamkit since I always have yarn envy when other people pick out colors. I can pick my own but I can justify buying kits since it’s not just adding to my stash and has a distinct purpose. (Not that it hasn’t stopped my from buying all the yarn anyway).
TeamBuildMyOwn! Every project requires an extended musing about color and texture—part of the process for me.
#Teamkit, though I am sorry for all the shoving(placing) of yarn and such into bags when I buy them. Kits are harder to forget why I bought them vs loose balls of yarn…
#teambuildmyown.
I seldom purchase kits because nearly every time I am short of something!
Team build your own. Though I do drool over pre-made kits.
I believe I am #teabuildmyown. But that said, I have bought several kits over the years and have enjoyed them.
I prefer kits with color scheme choices. I do not want the SAME colors as everyone else, but it is fun to see how a few with the same color scheme can look so different! If that makes sense.
I had to really think about this. It depends on the project. I like both options, but, usually I build my own. #teambuildmyown
Oh, DG, you really hit the mark here! I like to think I would prefer to choose all my own colors for a project, but all too often I am either (a) too busy to take the time, or (b) think “Oh, they’ve done such a great job of selecting the five (or seven or fifteen) colors for this knit!” It’s a kit most of the time, I’m ashamed to say.
Don’t be ashamed! I think it takes guts to let someone else do the choosing, honestly, because it frequently involves something you would have NEVER chosen. “Guts” is relative, I guess — it’s just yarn. But you should never apply this way of thinking to SOME things, like getting a tattoo.
Ready made kit! I can’t match colors.
If you saw the size of my stash you wouldn’t ask such a silly question …. I prefer to select …..every single color
Sometimes the allure of the kit is the curated colors.
And for the color challenged, an assumption that the colors will play well
I’ve bought one or two on occasion to get me out of my usual palette.
Another vote for Team Both! If a kit has colors I love, then I’ll buy it, otherwise I will build my own. I enjoy the convenience of a good kit that has everything together, waiting for me, so that I can cast on without delay when the mood strikes.
Kit or not depends sometimes on the project but mostly I like the fun of color play and finding my own mix.
Always a build my own shopper!
Mostly #teambuildmyown but sometimes I so love the color combo of a kit that I can’t resist! Always open to a new experience (unless it’s socks).
About 95% of the time I’m on #teambuildmyown. Once in a while a kit just speaks to me and I have got to have it.
I am on #teambuildmyown most of the time. The only time I am not is when I see a colorwork sweater, etc and the colors shown knock my socks off. Then it is definitely kit time!!!
Love the kits! Because I am not good at selecting colors.
TeamKit…love them!
Definitely #TeamKit
#team kit. I admire those who can create their own.
I generally go for #teamkit for online shopping and #TBYO in store when I can touch the yarns and hold them next to each other. I love when I find a new design I want to make and there are kits by different indie dyers specifically for their designs made up.
#teambuildmyown
It depends – but often, #teamkit – I especially love kits for items with many choices and small fiddly bits. Susan Anderson’s kits for her dolls and animals are one example of an #alwayskits item for me. But a cardigan in a solid color, I’ll pick my own. I am learning that COLOR is part of why I’m attracted to a project, so I may be happier knitting it exactly as shown.
Team build my own in theory, but would become frozen trying to commit and then just not order the kit out of frustration.
Kits. I cannot build a kit of more than 2 colors to save my life. Kits provide more options than I can dream of. Saves time, too.
I have to join #team both. Kits are nice if I’m certain there’s enough yarn for mods or gauge differences; they’re especially helpful for online purchases and getting me to the knitting fun quicker. Yet picking my own colors is a fun part of my knitting world!
GO #teambuildmyown ! I usually buy just a couple of skeins of yarn with unknown-future-project-in-mind and then later discover that I need more (or less) and have to either match or coordinate. It’s fun. I love making up my own combinations. The only kit I’ve ever bought is still in its bag … waiting …
I have never tried a kit, prefer to choose my own colors, but might consider it in the future
#teambuildmyown. I could never trust someone to pick my veggies either. Nor my yarn kit. Lol .
I lean more towards #teambuildmyown. I love sorting through my stash and shopping for just the right missing pieces. But sometimes what looks good on the table doesn’t always work out for a given project. I just chalk that up to being part of the process. Kits are fun because they push me to step outside of my normal color choices. But sometimes I use a kit as the starting point & will swap out a color for something in my stash just to personalize the project.
A bit of both. I usually like to choose my colors, but kits have often given me insight into color combinations I like but would never have come up with on my own.
I am so torn!! I am usually, mostly, a team kit. But I have been known to brew my own as well.
Team Kit-you choose! I like to see what others come up with since I stick to safe colors (‘my’ colors)
#teamkit all the way. Too stressful otherwise
I’ve been #teamkit lately as a way to challenge myself to use color combinations out of my comfort zone.
i love having someone else build the kit. I can name the colors, but have no imagination about mixing, blending, whatever.
#teamkit for me…until the day I wow myself with a color combination I put together on my own. Not holding my breath….
Build my own!
I like both. Sometimes I want to put together my own kit. Other times, I like the colors someone else chooses and I want the kit you guys put together.
#teambuildmyown. Yup!! I want to pick all my favs of Rowan Felted Tweed and have a totally unique blanket! I am color obsessed to the Max!!!
I prefer to build my own kit!
I have never purchased a kit because I am always trying to knit my way through stash on hand which is, of course, an impossible goal. Kits might mean not so much random stash….hmmmm!
#teamkit
#teamkit I used to always want to build my own kit / project but now I can buy a kit and use it as made or disassemble and combine with other yarn colors. It’s so easy to click a button with no decisions and order. Cheers everyone.
#team both. Sometimes the kit is just right so I do that. Other times, I love the pattern but want to do it my way or with yarn I already have so I do my own thing.
Oh, I really want that bag but haven’t been able to justify buying it.
I used to be a “pick it myself person” but have recently become a “kit person.” I think part of that has been because of buying online during the pandemic. What I really need is someone to go through my extensive stash and make it all up into kits!
I am definitely #teamkit. Wait, I really mean # teambuildmyown. Actually, I’m definitely #teamkeepbuilding the stash #ithinkweinsulatethehousewithwool
I’m definitely a #teambuildmyown, however, I have to admit that I will buy a pre-selected color kit if I fall in love with the colors. But after it’s all over, I have all the dibs and dabs to do with as I like…best of both worlds!
#teamkit, where I can. I get frozen with all of the colors/choices. Decision fatigue!!!
I’ll buy the kit. Unless I just don’t like any of the color ways offered, then I will select my own colors.
#teamkit !! Sometimes there are just too many choices to build my own – I love a good kit!
#teamkit
Team kit#
Kit. It’s fun to see what others put together. I tend to be in a color rut much of the time.
Actually, I’m a 50-50 type of knitter; however…that being said, I think I prefer to have a kit if one is available. And BTW…I absolutely LOVE your comments when you write. They always give me a chuckle. Thanks for the opportunity to win a love bag of yarn!
#buildyourown, although that wouldn’t stop me from mostly copying the kit. I just like to be able to swap out colors.
I would have to say build my own. As an artist, that’s one of the fun parts for me, choosing which crayons to use.
I prefer to pick my own colors however when the yarn is somewhere far away – online – this is difficult for me so than I go for the kits. Thanks for asking.
I’m #teambuildmyown 100%
#Teambuildmyown
In addition let me add that I get anxious and crazed when picking colors. Clearly that is my addiction
Team Kit. But I definitely want to choose my own kit.
#teambuildmyown – but I love to look at the color combinations in a well-curated kit.
Team Kit here, unless I’m in person with the yarn. I don’t trust colors on a screen that much.
Definitely #teamkit,. I’ve realized that when I like a design, the color and yarn choice of designer have influenced me.
team build yor own
#teamkit. Actually, thought I was team build my own but just had this ‘aha’ moment lol
It all depends…kits can be fun and easy and offer lots of inspiration, but I enjoy picking my own colors too. And the more I do it, the more confident I get. #teamboth
Generally #teambuildyourown but I have been known to be #teamkit as well…. Especially when it’s a kaffe knit
#teambuildmyown
I’ve Never bought a kit!
BUT…I’m not opposed to buying one.
#teamkit all the way
I do not have the skill/knowledge to choose colours that play nicely together
I usually Build my own. I started knitting 50 years ago in a small town with no LYS. I used a print catalog with tiny color blocks to choose my kit. So a Yarn store where I can TOUCH, and gently squeeze with clean hands, is heaven. But I cannot go to every LYS that I would like to for variety both in types of yarn and color, I have joined #Team Kit when something delicious appears.
#teamkit because it’s less work for me as I’m lazy by nature. Picking my own colours would be too much work for me!
Prefer doing my own thing to kits. But. To be honest… I’ve never used a kit before, so maybe I would like it?
I admit, I’m also cheap, and so I always think I can cobble something comparable from The Stash. Sometimes that works. Sometimes
#teamkit Because I don’t want to be in the 90/80/100 group!
Build my own! I love to make my own color combinations!
Normally a #teamkit knitter, my stash certainly allows me to be a #teambuildmyown, so put me in the middle of both, as I’m truly being honest in my estimation of who I am.
i’m 75% #teamkit – when the kit is coming from certain folks whose yarn/color choices surprise and delight me. MDK is on that list!
I’m #teambuildmyown the rest of the time, when i fall in love with a specific yarn (the color and composition really speak to me) and go searching for the pattern that wants to be made in that yarn.
I am a #teambuildmyown as I have such a large stash that I would like to use it while I am on this side of the dirt!
#teamkit, especially if well selected. MDK makes the grade!
I love kits because they feel like a present. I love choosing my own because kits often have one color that begs to be changed for my eye.
My perfect scenario (barcodes be damned) is a kit that lists each color individually and allows for swaps – Still a present, still a working color scenario and with my own footprint on top.
Definitely make-my-own, but MDK’s kits, and color selections, are in a class all their own!
#teamkit. Thanks for asking!
#teamkit please!
Depends on the project & the colors. I’m never going to go for the pinks (sorry, marled throw) or the pastels, but I’ll go nuts for just about any moody palette. And some things are easier to choose colors for than others.
Loved this post. Today I am #teamkit. Thanks!!
I’m usually #teambuildyourown but find myself drawn to your kits because the colors are so perfectly chosen.
#teamkit I love seeing what other people put together! It pushes my color boundaries. If I don’t like it I can always break up the kit and repurpose the yarn.
#teambuildmyowm unless there are a bazillion colors in which case, I’m #teamkit. Speaking of kits, I’d jump on one for the C,or Explosion kit if there was one with blues.
Totally #teambuildmyown. It feels like cheating to use someone else’s choices!
#teamkit
I can barely dress myself. I am happy to have others select a palette for me. Thanks for your newsletter.
#teamkit 100% I get too easily lost and end totally “squirreling” off into some other projects.
I flipflop depending on the project and my mood. I like being on #teamkit because I’m a new-ish knitter. The kits help me understand yarns. And I’m enough of a diy-er to like #teambuildmyown.
If it requires more than 4 colors, I will almost always go with #teamkit. I am not good enough at combining colors to risk disliking the results. 4 colors or less I will look at the kits for inspiration, but unless a combination sings to me I am #teambuildmyown.
#teamkit I never was very good with color. Our LYS is owned by a weaver and she is very helpful when I am stuck.
I really do prefer to pick my own. I know it seems like a fib. I haven’t ever bought a kit. maybe I should take a walk on the wild side?
#teambuildmyown. In other words, #teammakeitmyown.
I love seeing all the kits but ultimately I usually end up choosing my own by tweaking a kit that comes close to my idea of perfection
I am team build your own but then I’ve been known to forget everything I’ve said (or not paying any attention to what comes out of my mouth) and buy that kit.
I want to be #teambuildmyown, because there’s always one color in a kit that I can’t stand (I see you mauve), but then I can’t make a decision because I want all the bright colors. So I guess I’m really #teamkit.
#teamkit I like the idea of picking my own colors, but I am not “good” at it. Sometimes I’ll start with a kit and maybe substitute if one of the colors isn’t for me, but having someone else choose most of it for me is great.
I’m a #teambuildmyown mostly
I love combining colors and creating different options
I often look at kits but so often I choose a different yarn
Also it is challenging to see if any stash yarns can fit in
Then of course many times my choices need to be amended and augmented, creating more stash of left out yarn
A vicious but enticing circle
I do prefer a kit most of the time, though I am sort of fussy about colors. So I guess a kit as long as its colors I would choose myself?
Depends on the project – I love kits for projects with many colors and varying amounts of yarn. So – I guess I’m teamkit.
Team kit for me. Choosing my own color combinations brings on high anxiety, especially when I am ordering online. I have spent hours, no days agonizing over my color choices before I actually click on the place my order button. I don’t do that much anymore. Instead I order the kit. After all, knitting is supposed to be relaxing.
#teamkit
I’m not great choosing colors that are pleasing together, unless they’re different tones of the same hue. Monochromatic Me! I once chose colors for my parents’ house, which looked great together as paint chips. On the house? Not so much…
#teamkit, of course!
Usually I’m #teamkit because I don’t always trust my color sense. Plus I’m lazy.
I think I’ll be a team #teamkit and let you all do the choosing. How could I go wrong? 🙂
Because of my compassion toward pink in anything I make I am ion favor of choosing my own colors for kits.
#teambuildmyown.
I am mostly a #teambuildyourown, unless I happen to fall in love with the kit colors or if the kit contains something most appealing that I can get no other way.
I’m a 70% – 30% built my own to kit knitter. My own build is very rewarding because it’s all mine, the kit is very rewarding because the angst of “will it work” is eliminated & beauty flows from the needles!
Gosh darn – that one depends on the day and how much brain space I have. Sometimes you can pick for me and sometimes I want to do it myself.
I like to build my own kit. Your bundles are lovely, but usually not my choice of colors.
kits are so appealing these days. Def a build my own. But also have not yet tried a kit. The kits are more lovely every time I peruse them
#teamkit
As much as I admire the look of a beautifully curated kit, I have to lean toward “build my own”, for the sheepish (haha) reason that I have so much yarn in my stash that I almost always already own one or two skeins of whatever is going to come in that kit. So I just spend hours and hours deciding on whatever else I need to make the project.
Team kit. I agonize over picking colors.
#build my own though at times to my detriment! I try to fit a square peg into a round hole….maybe I can make that sport weight sweater out of this lovely bulky I found….
Depends. I have one foot firmly planted on each side of the line. I love choosing and coordinating colors, and knowing that my creation will be one of a kind. But if I see a kit that I fall in lust with, I don’t worry at all about being proud!
#teamkit as often it allows me to use color palettes I wouldn’t have made on my own.
Like to put my own colors together, but that is sometimes stash related. Love getting ideas from you all, and then here’s always holes to fill in with newly added colors to go with what’s in the personal yarn collection. Combining colors is a fun challenge.
I prefer you selecting the colors but having 3 or 4 choices of the same kit. Sorry. That is probably harder for you. Just my opinion.
I like both approaches, as long as there’s lots of color!
#teampickmyown
#teambuildyourown!
Teamkit but I also like to make my own
#treamkit It takes the guesswork out of it for me!
100% #teamkit. I love colourwork but this is the hardest part!
Definitely #team kit, there are usually colour combinations I haven’t thought of
I’m #teamkit. If I had to pick my own, the project might not get done.
Firm #teambuildmyown. Sometimes the kits offered are just not my colors.
I’m team build my own. I’m always trying to use up some of my stash. I’m more likely to buy yarn first then find the perfect pattern.
I have a huge yarn stash, yet I prefer to spend my time knitting so I always end up ordering the kit.
Team build my own, but those kits are very pretty to look at and put in the cart…..
I am all for kits when there are many colors in small quantities. It really chaps my hide to use 20 yards from a skein which might jeopardize a future project. Otherwise I do love the process of picking and choosing.
My husband also carries a jeweler’s loupe to the grocery store and tenderly fondles all the produce before he deems it worthy. It will be a hot day in January in Minnesota before he’d let a meal kit darken our door.
Hilarious… but I’d love to borrow your husband for my grocery shopping. I’m so sick of opening those salad containers and finding the whole middle is rotten.
I have never bought a kit. I am so cheap that the prices always make me gasp, and kits have a slightly paint-by-numbers connotation for me. It’s a false economy though, as I have a room full of random skeins that I’ve bought on sale or ebay in hopes of combining them in stranded patterns. The problem? Paralysis sets in: Will I have the right amounts? Will the different brands, weights, etc. work together? Sometimes yes, but I may cave for a Marie Wallin fair isle sweater kit with dozens of colors.
I really WANT to love the meal kit idea but it just won’t work for me. I especially giggle when it’s for like tacos or something. I mean.
I Love kits
Most often #teambuildmyown, but sometimes it’s easier/more fun/more economical/quicker/…. to buy a kit. ⬛
If buying online, I trust kits more than my ability to match the colors that go best together using photos rendered they a computer screen. I have purchased online for the most part of two years, so have had to do some non-kit purchasing and have lucked out a few time with my own choices.
Definitely #teambuildmyown. Even when I have purchased a kit, it’s very likely that I will switch out one or more of the yarns to make the project or use the kit yarns to make something(s) else entirely. While usually a rule follower, when it comes to my knitting (crochet, x-stitch, embroidery…) I definitely color outside the lines!
PS- I love my original blue “my other bag…”, but as one of the hockey dads pointed out the first time I carried it (full!) to one of my daughter’s tournaments, it really should say “My other bagS ARE (also) full of yarn.”
#teamkit but I like to ponder building my own.
I’m an equal opportunity Gal, and swing both ways. (Careful with that.). Experts design kits that make me swoon. Experts who aren’t color-blind like, that is. There is a woman in my knit group who picks color combos like a Goddess. I’m more likely to follow Kaffe’s recent Knit Stars permission to “make something ugly.” Bless his heart if he only knew how easy that can be. Still, with help I do pick my own. Wait, that means I don’t pick my own? Over to you.
#TeamKit!! I don’t trust myself to choose colors. 😉
#teambuildmyown, but I have been doing kits as well. Sometimes it’s nice to work with the exact yarn for a pattern. That way I know how it will come out. Other times I’m willing to take a leap of faith. One thing I really like about MDK is you actually have the yarn for the patterns. (I still wish you had the variegated yarn for the sweater with the sleeves that are different from the body. I’d love to make it.)
Today must be Black Cat Day. We just brought home a new black kitty who is named Baxter, after the Maine high peak. So I missed Rhinebeck again, but we have given this girl a warm and loving home before the winter comes.
If the kit colors speak to me I will go with them. If they don’t I go for the build my own camp.
If it’s a Rowan pattern with a hundred different colors, I stick with their genius eyes and go for the kit. Otherwise, I like to select my own colors.
I’m #teamkit because I love seeing color combos I wouldn’t have thought of!
I’m a “change my mind person” so it really depends on the project. The project picture very often will evoke my preferences.
Gorgeous yarns make the decisions more difficult. Thx for all your help.
Team kit seems to do a better job than I can!
Oh no, I like both options!! Sometime the kit is what draws me to the project and sometimes it’s a particular skein of yarn.
Definitely #teambuildmyown. Although I always like to ask the opinion of others who have more colour sense than I do.
#teamkit. Definitely. All the right colors
Definitely #teamkit! Color theory terrifies me!
#teamkit In MDK, we trust
Like others have admitted, I am “teambi” :). I impulse buy kits because I can imagine myself giving or wearing the finished project. But I also love the hunt through my stash to find a long treasured yarn that is perfect.
I’m always looking for ideas I can knit from my prodigious stash. That said, some items are just so perfect, so luscious that I go for the kit.
Curious- I guess you have to ck the ball band of every skein you pack to confirm the color?
#teambuildmyown
I love kits!!!!! #teamkit
Really loved today’s column. Those slight typing errors and corrections made me smile. I like to look at kits for color combination ideas and have purchased some but mainly choose my color combinations especially when I am using two types and colors of yarns together. Never knew I was marling until your articles about it.
Definitely Build Your Own. I rarely use the colors pictured in the pattern and even alternate choices…especially purples …leave me cold. I have purchased kits in the past, but startling-lee, out are still in my stash. Go figure.
Gotta say #teamkit only because I can’t make up my mind among do many beautiful colours!
#teamkit for sure! I have no color scheme talent at all! Kits make me soooo happy and less anxious!
Definitely #teambuildmyown – I have strong aversion to some colors and invariably they are included in kits.
DIY, because no matter how beautifullly put together, there will always be 1 color that I want to swap out.
I want to say I’m Team Pick My Own, but I really do much better with kits!
Err, I think I have to split the baby and say…both? I love to build my own, but for a large project like the marled throw, that would be really overwhelming. Also, I prefer to do to it myself *in person*, but online a kit can be a lot easier, especially because you just can’t trust the monitor to represent the nuances of color. I do like it when there are a couple of different kit colorways to choose from. I don’t like to be quite *that* matchy with the entire rest of the knitting world! (None of this will stop me from getting a color explosion kit when I’m done with the school semester and holiday gift knitting. Hope there are still some left for me! Otherwise I’ll be building that mountain myself one boulder at a time, whether I want to or not.)
So my answer is #teamkit and #teambuildmyown! Just give me ALL the yarn.
Usually, build my own. Exception is when there are many colors (over 10?) OR when the kit is discounted (assuming I even like the color). And remember, it is MUCH easier for the non-yarn addicted to buy me gifts if it is kitted!!
#teamkit
Definitely #teamkit!!! Give me garanimals from days gone by and I am happy!
I am definitely #teamkit. I’d much rather use my free time knitting than agonizing over which colors to choose (which I absolutely would do!).
#teamkit for me. I don’t feel creative enough to pick my own colors for most projects.
After reading this column, I’m #teamkit.
Both! I love choosing colours, but there are some kits that are absolutely me, so why not?
Honestly I love to build my own, but rarely have the luxury of time to do so. So…I buy kits sometimes. Next month I’m taking a fair isle color blending workshop from Tracey Doxey who LIVES in Scotland…so maybe I’ll be more inclined to take the time after that.
I’m a combo girl . I have some of both. It is great when I need something to do without the extra thought.
Isn’t there a ‘team both’? That would be me! In person, it would be fun to see the colors together to mix/match personally. On the internet, not so much as it’s hard to envision what one color over ‘here’ might look like right next to that color over ‘there’.