Ken' Swim Trunks

I've made a point of focusing on celebrations rather than worries for this year's donations and Ken's swim trunks bring us to another celebration. His are the last of the fashion doll bathing suits I need for the 2023 donations!! I still need more swim suits to finish off my yearly challenge but one set of dolls is done and that is worthy of celebration.

This pattern comes from the June 2009 Crochet World. The pattern is called Fun in the Sun and includes swim wear for Ken and Barbie along with beach accessories. I've made some of the accessories in the past but the last time I got caught up in making the accesories some of the dolls left without suits so I'm thinking suits first and I can always go back and make the accessories if I have the desire to come back later.

The pattern calls for a 1.9 mm hook with size 10 crochet cotton. For my last two attempts I've used size 10 cotton with a .6 mm Tulip Etimo steel crochet hook. Having done this twice now I've found the .6mm hook is splitting the thread and since I've increased my supply of size 20 thread I'm making a note here for next attempt to try the size 20 thread with a larger hook to avoid the thread splitting and make this a more pleasurable project.