Holy Cow… This $12 TEMU Crochet Kit Did WHAT?! 😬

The kit I bought literally disappeared from the store, so that's comforting. Hey everyone, welcome back. Today I'm testing out another kit from Temu, because you all know how this goes. Sometimes they're great. Sometimes they're not so good. So I actually ordered two new Amigurumi kits from the same seller. One is the star-eyed highland cow and the other is a little brown cat that'll be in a future video. So we're starting with the highland cow because this one actually looks pretty realistic. Spoiler alert, the other one does not. And it's really cute. It looks doable. It looks like an actual pattern. It looks like something I would want to make because I love cows. But there were a couple things that caught my eye and made me curious. So the listing shows that the cow comes with these starry eyes. The picture showed it has eyelashes. I don't see eyelashes in the material list, so we'll see what's up with that. And I want to see what's actually going to come in the box, because as you know, if you've watched my other ones, and if you haven't, I will link them, sometimes you don't get quite what you paid for. So also, what's interesting is that in the material photo, it has the little instruction book that I actually got in the cat bed kit that I reviewed before, so I want to see if I want to see if that shows up as well, because it's kind of interesting that... Multiple sellers have the same booklet. And then, one last thing that made me a little wary... The exact cow kit I bought isn't even available anymore. There are a bunch of other sellers listing what look like the same thing, but mine disappeared. So we'll see by the time I post this if it's back up and I'll link it if this turns out well. So we're going to take a close look and see what I actually got is worth grabbing and did I get scammed or not. And then after this I'll be trying the cat kit which Looks definitely more suspicious, so we'll save that one for the next video. But before we get started, be sure to hit the like, subscribe, and notification bell so you don't miss out on any of these reviews, crochet patterns, knitting patterns, tutorials, and all that good stuff. All right, now let's open up this cow and see what we got. Okay, here's the cow package I could already see we're up to number four of our DIY Crochet Basics book. Let me open this up. Okay, we got our cow. The PDF and video tutorial that's supposed to come with is on the backside as QR code, so no written instructions included. Our favorite DIY book that we're on number four, so that's hilarious. Stuffing, of course. And then we have our yarn, so he is white with brown horns and some pink. I don't see where the pink happens. Oh the ears, okay the ears have pink. The black looks like nose and mouth. So it looks like we have every color. It looks like DK worsted as usual so no qualms with that. Now for the part that I was really wondering about. What kind of eyes am I getting and am I getting any eyelashes? I feel like Those look like plastic eyelashes that maybe go with the safety eye, so let's see what's in this thing. I should buy stock in 2.5 millimeter hooks because I have yet another one. And as I've always said with these kits, I will only use what's in the kit, so this hook with that yarn is gonna give me hand pain, but I'm willing to sacrifice for you guys. I will never run out of yarn needles ever again. And little fun containers for them. I need to find other things that I can store in these, because they're pretty good looking little containers. Maybe not. Okay, not that bad. Not that bad. Oh my goodness. It does come with eyelashes. Oop. Lashes. Oop. And I lost them. Okay, I found it. They are very weird eyelashes. Can't you see them? Looked like they were cut off of a fake eyelash. There are two. I don't, like, there was tape on the eye. I don't know, I guess you would maybe have to hot glue them. So I don't know. I'm going to put these back in the bag before I lose them. We'll see. Like, they look small, like, definitely compared to the picture. So the eyes are supposed to be starry eyes. What it gives you is a slip-on. And if you've seen my last Temu haul, you'll know I got some, like, Metallic eyes, and it was basically like you put the thing on the back and the eyes see-through, so you do get a starry eye, so that is a plus. There are two thankfully. I don't think that the eyelashes are going to work though. There's like a plastic piece of thing over the top of it. Cute, you know, those are cute. They gave me two, four, six, eight extra safety eyes. Okay, so I want to make them All-seeing eye? I don't know. I have so many extra safety eyes from these kits that don't have any use for safety eyes. I got safety eyes in my cat bed. I don't know why they're giving so many safety eyes out. I guess because they just come in such large amounts. But this is the backing for the eyes, so I do get that. We get stitch markers as usual. And I'm just I'm interested to see how this is going to turn out. I hope that the instructions are clear and easy to read, and I'm going to get started and see what we get. Okay, I finished my cow, and I'm going to talk about the experience before I show it to you. So, the pattern itself has some pictures. They show a brown Highland cow. And the cow did not really look like the one in the picture, so for reference here's that picture of the cow that it should have turned out as, and then here's mine. I'm calling him Jareth because I gave him like a Goblin King haircut, so he is my derpy little Highland cow. I kind of love him a lot, but he's so not what it was supposed to be. First off, the hook way too small, especially with white yarn. Oh my goodness, it is so hard to see the stitches with that small of a hook and white yarn. There's like no contrast. It was so difficult to use. The pattern itself talked about a video tutorial that did not exist. There was no link for it, which the hair placement was In the instructions see the video tutorial. So since I had no video tutorial I just kind of winged it off of kind of like and the pattern pictures in the pattern were very dark so I couldn't really see those so it was just basically off of the Highland cow picture. I just started placing hair wherever and then kind of trimming it. Why his face looks so super derpy was because The big giant starry eyes that they sent me, the post on them were too big to get through these tiny stitches. So... I was fumbling. I was trying to make it work. I was trying to stretch it out as much as I could and I just couldn't. So because they gave me like a million extra safety eyes, you're supposed to use two for the nose, which are way too big for the nose. They look ridiculous. So I just used the other safety eyes for these eyes. I... it was... he's so derply cute though. But I... It was not what it was supposed to be, obviously. I didn't even bother with the eyelashes because there's really no way to attach them. And now it's tiny eyes, so it would definitely look strange. So this pattern is definitely not beginner friendly or even experienced friendly. And when I went back and looked closer at the listing photos, they Definitely started to look even more AI generated than I first realized. The body part looks like it's knit. The face isn't even worked in the same direction. It's going this way, and the real pattern goes this way. And then there's pearls and shells randomly attached all over it. It's just, Not at all real. It really feels like someone took a real pattern and then just threw together some cheap materials to sell it as a kit. So what you end up with is definitely not what's pictured. And honestly that raises the question, why not just show real photos of the finished project? My guess is that the people selling these kits probably don't actually crochet, so they wouldn't even be able to make the pattern they're selling. They just prompt AI to make a highland cow and crochet and keep going until they get some pictures they like and they think that will sell the kit. So my scam meter on this one is a three out of five. You do get yarn and you do get a pattern, but it's not what was advertised at all, which you would probably say is a scam five out of five, but at least we got something, even though it wasn't what it was supposed to be. Thank you. And it's kind of a bummer because I do think this little guy had potential. If the pattern used a larger hook and gave better instructions for the hair placement, this could actually turn out pretty decent. I won't say cute because, like, I think he's dorky cute already so I'll give him that. But as it is, the pattern will never match those photos and you're not going to get that end result. So just a reminder, always zoom in on the listing photos, look for stitches that seem off or inconsistent from picture to picture because that's a big red flag, and read the the reviews because someone else may have already gotten burned. In this case, the listing was actually taken down by the time I received it. And if you do end up getting duped... Report it. Especially on platforms like Temu. I did get a partial refund. I could have returned entirely, but I figured I have a whole lot of yarn left over. So I might as well just take the partial and not mess with shipping and all that kind of stuff. But that will be the only way they start cracking down on this stuff. So report, report, report. But tell me, do you like my derpy cow or is he just sad? Stick around though because I found more kits from other websites and we're going to put those to the test next. So make sure you hit that subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss it. Until then, I'm Deja with Knit and Crochet Ever After and thank you for watching.