American Thread 1965-Ken's bathrobe

Ken has been left out of the fun so it's time to do something for him. This week I'm reviewing this bathrobe pattern from the American Thread Star Book No 192 Doll Clothes Knitted and Crocheted.

I'm not sure what's going on in this photo. Why is older Ken in a bathrobe watching over the the other two?

This pattern asks for one skein of American Thread Company "Dawn" De Luxe Fingering Yarn in gold and one in brown along with a steel crochet hook size 0. A size 0 hook is generally about a 3.25 mm.  The pattern gives a gauge of 17 stitches to 3 inches. To make the robe I used Teksrena Wool in brown and a scrap of merino wool in green. Based on the photos I could find, one skein of Dawn is about an ounce. I had more than an ounce of the brown but much less of the green. Just looking at the photo I assumed this was one of those cases where they just tell you that you need a skein even you only need a smaller portion of it so I didn't worry much. 

The pattern is single crochet in the back loops to give it a ribbed effect and it's worked lengthwise. Once I started, I realized two things; they want you to cut the yarn after every row and switch colors, I wasn't going to have enough green to do that. (I guess they meant more than .3 ounces of yarn.) There are 46 rows in the bathrobe so if I follow their pattern I will have 92 ends to sew, not including the sleeves which are thankfully only one color. Sorry Ken, you don't get all the stripes! I made a design choice to do them on the front of the robe only.

The directions for the robe, sleeves and the collar were easy to follow and the tie is lengths of yarn that are twisted so that was easy too. This went pretty fast, much faster than if I'd had to cut the yarn after every row and then weave all the ends in.

Here he is in his new bathrobe.

I think this went pretty well. The yarn looks more wine colored than brown but the green looks good with it. I think Ken likes his new robe.

Rating:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes
If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes
Does it look like the photo? Yes and less creepy
Did it fit Ken? Yes 
Did I enjoy making it? Yes though I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I'd done their color pattern.

This one gets a 4.5