Hanukkah was right around the corner, and with the holidays comes not only fantastic food, but gifts for the kids. Lots of gifts. I feel it my duty as a mother to attain gifts that are constructive, open-ended, and develop character in my kids. Usually this includes books, toys that don’t need batteries, or craft materials. Luckily, LatchKits Owl Mini-Rug created by Kahootz Toys met this standard and immensely blessed my family this holiday season!

LatchKits are those classic hook crafts that many of us remember doing when we were younger. The Owl Mini-Rug kit includes multi-colored yarn strips about 2-3 inches in length, a 12-inch by 11-inch color-coded latch hook canvas, a latch hook tool, and an illustrated instruction guide all within a classic looking cardboard box so that the crafter, age six or older, can create a primarily pink, purple, light blue, and yellow and owl rug.

If you are unfamiliar with latch-hooking, it is a very easy to learn craft that involves looping a small piece of yarn around the provided hook and pulling it through the holes on a color-coded grid canvas so that the string ties itself in a knot. The two ends of the yarn face away from the canvas, and when finished, a small shag rug-type creation is formed! The color-coded canvas grid ensures that the crafter will not lose their place, so this, in turn, is a project that can be put down and picked up over the series of a month or so! That’s my kind of toy!

As my daughter sits in my overstuffed arm chair working on her Owl Mini-Rug, I couldn’t help but recall when I was a child and completed my first latch-hook project. It felt incredibly satisfying giving the lengthy task to my own child to conquer. I remembered the thrill of accomplishing row after row on the seemingly endless grid of colors and switching the tint of string based on the pattern presented; I reminisced about the frustration I felt wanting the project completed but needing to painstakingly put the time and effort into making that happen. I look forward to my daughter completing her first latch-hook rug and hanging it on her wall or placing it on her bedroom floor and appreciating it and recalling the effort and discipline it took to accomplish what she wanted, just as I did!

The instruction guide in this kit is brilliant! One of the simplest, clearly laid out instructions I have ever seen for a craft project before. It’s not bright and flashy, but an easy blue and white schematic that has large print and clear pictures. The front page gives ample illustrated and scripted directions providing the basic skills of latch-hooking guaranteeing a novice can get started immediately. The back side expounds on details such as where to begin on your Owl Rug, how to match the color strings to the colors on the canvas grid, how to avoid snagging your yarn, what to do with the edges of the canvas, how to adjust the yarn ends so that they are consistent and even, how to fix mistakes, and how to finish your project. They likewise give suggestions as to how to utilize left over yarn such as making yarn pom-poms.

Kahootz Toys offers more tools on their website for the crafter’s questions or to quench their thirst for further creativity. Other kits such as the “Rainbow Kit”, “Unicorn Kit”, and “Mermaid Kit” are available for purchase.

I am so extremely delighted that we received LatchKits Owl Mini-Rug from Kahootz Toys for our holiday season. I will be adding more kits like this to my list of gift ideas and suggestions to family and friends.

- Product review by Cassie Deputie, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2019