The Nightmare Before Christmas Cowl by Tanis Gray

The Nightmare Before Christmas Cowl

Knitting
September 2023
DK (11 wpi) ?
24 stitches and 28 rows = 4 inches
in Stranded colorwork in the round on larger needles, blocked
US 5 - 3.75 mm
US 6 - 4.0 mm
Height: 15.5" / 39.5 cm, circumference: 30" / 76.2 cm
English

It’s been said that the filmmakers were inspired by watching stores in southern California change their displays over seasonally from Halloween to Christmas merchandise. In the process of seeing the two holidays collide, a question often asked about Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is whether it’s a Halloween film or a Christmas film? Voice actor of Jack Skellington, Chris Sarandon, has shared that this is the question he gets asked the most and diplomatically answers, “It’s a little bit of everything.” Meanwhile, both songwriter and Jack’s singing voice, Danny Elfman, and Director Henry Selick stated, “It’s a Halloween movie.” Creator Tim Burton recalls, “Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn’t there before… Nightmare is both, I guess, but for me, it’s all about Halloween, it’s Halloween Town, Halloween creatures … But either one is fine, it just depends on your perspective.”

This is Halloween! Show your love for Jack’s hometown in this colorful cowl. Worked in the round from the bottom up and flanked with quadricolor corrugated ribbing done on smaller needles, the stranded colorwork section is worked on larger needles and has Spiral Hill, candy canes, graveyard fencing, Jack’s face, pumpkins, and spooky bat motifs. While the colorwork may look about as intimidating as Jack’s plans to take over Christmas, no more than two colors are ever worked across one round.