Carnival Treat Dudes

The Carnival Treat Dudes

Another pattern test for misssBerlin

The Carnival Treat Dudes is the new pattern by misssBerlin. Candy Apple, Cotton Candy and Popcorn Dude. A very lovely Trio!

It was a lot of fun to test this pattern! And it also was very instructive to me. That‘s one thing I love with testing patterns. I not only get new ideas, but also learn a lot and improve my skills - not to mention the exchange with other crocheters.

The Candy Apple

I started this test with the Candy Apple. It was love at first sight! 

I like the round caps anyway, but this one is not only round, it really has the bulbous shape of an apple. Even the small pit, where the stem and leaf normally sit, is shown. And of course the Candy Apple has a Candy Cane and a little leaf for decoration.

 

And sometimes you are lucky enough to have exactly the right color in your stash. My Candy Apple is made with Scheepjes Catona, no. 516 - Candy Apple.  

The Cotton Candy

The Dudes and their caps are mostly made with a Cotton sports weight yarn, but for the Cotton Candy it is recommended to use an Acrylic DK yarn. So the instructions for the cap are specially written for slightly thicker yarn, using a slightly thinner hook.

I used Stylecraft Special DK with a 3,5 mm hook. It worked pretty good and the cap fitted perfectly. 

But it was a personal drama to me in other ways. Although the cap fitted very good, I wasn't happy with the shape at all. In Dana's (the person behind misssBerlin) photos the shaping was very smooth and soft and mine didn't look like that at all. Dana tried to calm me down and told me that brushing will ease the shape ......

..... Well, she was so right! But I only got that after a series of tests of my own. 

As I know that the look of a crochet piece depends a lot on tension, stitch height and so on I tried to make little changes to improve the shaping of my Cotton Candy cap..... 

I ended up doing three caps, but wasn’t really satisfied with any of them. So I took the chance to make another test and try how hard you can brush the yarn before it breaks completely. 

To get the fluffy look the finished cap is brushed with a pet slicker brush or something similar. Until now I've always been very cautious with brushing, being afraid to damage the whole item. But after I had three caps to choose from I could be a little braver. And what should I say, it withstands quite a lot! The result is even better if you are not too careful (but still with feeling of course).

So, look at my finished cap.... I am so happy with it!

Oh, do I have to mention that this is the cap I did first and the one I liked the least? Well, quite a learning curve I guess!

By the way, I used a small wire brush from the hardware store for "pre-brushing" and finished with a hard clothes brush.

The Popcorn Dude

This one needs a lot of concentration and some time. But it's so worth it! 

As the popcorn box should fit snug I chose a smaller hook (2,25 mm) to make it. For the popcorn kernels I went up to my regular 2,5 mm hook. 

Doesn‘t the Popcorn look yummy?

In the picture the cap is worn by my new Dude that I made during the test. I think so far he is my best one! What practice can do....

For the yarn, colors and hooks I used in detail please see my Ravelry Page.

And you also should have a look at the Ravelry page of one of my fellow testers. She tested two of the caps using a 0,75 mm hook and size 40 thread. So cute!