Bonfire night

Bonfire Night Cowl by Fiona Hamilton-MacLaren

What Is Being Made

Bonfire Night is an advanced knitting pattern for a circular cowl designed to be worn around the neck and shoulders. This autumnal accessory combines decorative lace stitches with practical warmth, making it ideal for outdoor autumn and winter activities such as watching fireworks. The cowl is worked in the round using circular needles, creating a seamless tubular garment that requires minimal finishing.

Lace Techniques and Stitch Patterns

The cowl features two distinct lace stitch patterns that create the visual effect of a bonfire: Catherine wheel lace and flickering flame lace. These complementary stitch patterns work together to produce an intricate, textured design that evokes the movement and warmth of flames. The lace stitches are created through strategic use of yarn overs and decreases, which form the characteristic holes and directional lines typical of lace knitting.

Core Knitting Techniques

This advanced project requires proficiency in several essential knitting skills:

• Longtail cast on for creating a strong, elastic foundation edge
• Knitting in the round using circular needles to create a seamless tube
• Yarn overs to create the lace holes that define the pattern
• Decreases including k2tog (knit two together) and k3tog (knit three together) to balance yarn overs and shape the lace
• Increasing techniques including kfb (knit into front and back) and kfbf (knit into front, back, and front) for creating additional stitches
• Slipped stitches and pass slipped stitch over (psso) for shaping and lace construction
• Weaving in ends for finishing

Yarn and Needle Specifications

Bonfire Night is designed for 50 grams of 4-ply yarn, a lightweight fingering-weight yarn that creates delicate, well-defined lace stitches. The pattern is demonstrated in Babylonglegs Semi-precious yarn in the Cinner colorway. Knitters should use 3.5mm circular needles measuring 62 centimeters (24 inches) for working the cowl in the round. The pattern notes that exact gauge is not critical for this project; instead, knitters are encouraged to use a needle size slightly larger than typically recommended for the yarn weight to achieve optimal drape and lace definition.

Additional Materials and Notions

Beyond yarn and needles, the project requires a tapestry needle for weaving in yarn ends and a collection of stitch markers to track pattern repeats and structural points throughout the knitting process.

Pattern Abbreviations

The pattern uses standard knitting abbreviations including k (knit), kfb and kfbf (increases), k2tog and k3tog (decreases), slip stitches (ss and sl tbl), yarn overs (YO, yf for yarn forwards, yb for yarn backwards), and psso (pass slipped stitch over).

Difficulty Level

Classified as an advanced knitting project, Bonfire Night is suitable for experienced knitters who are comfortable with lace knitting, working in the round, and reading complex stitch patterns. The combination of two different lace stitch patterns and the precision required for yarn overs and decreases make this pattern best suited for knitters with solid foundational skills.