Guy Fawkes night

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

I've always preferred bonfire night to Halloween*. It was always a big deal in our house with us and our next door neighbours from either side getting together for a big shared bonfire. My main memories are of the wet bonfire night at Brynn's (next door up the street) when we sheltered from the rain under a make shift awning made from sheet plastic and the year when we burnt the old table tennis table at our house. We retreated indoors because of the fumes from the paint and stood in the kitchen worrying whether the intense heat from the bommy was going to crack the windows. I have great memories of the food too. Sausages in rolls with onions and ketchup, baked potatoes in foil and kitchen towel, Brynn's special black peas (although I'm not sure that I ever ate any), rock hard treacle toffee which my brother and I made with Mum and then smashed into pieces with a mallet on the patio table.

There was (sadly) no bonfire for me this year but we did go to the Somerville college firework display which was a fantastic spectacle and I did get to have sparklers and treacle toffee (albeit from Thornton's).



I knit the fingerless mittens especially for bonfire night. The hand dyed yarn is a perfect autumn/bonfire colour and the stitch pattern is Flickering flames from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches vol. II. The lack of fingers make them ideal for lighting sparklers and fishing sticky toffee out of a bag!



Flickering flames mitts:
Pattern: 10 rnds of K1 tbl, P1 rib. 2 repeats of Flickering flames pattern, afterthought thumb and another 10 rnds of K1 tbl, P1 rib.
Yarn: Hand dyed Debbie Bliss merino dk
Needles: 3.25mm dpns


*Actually Halloween and trick or treating was pretty much banned in our house due to all the evil.