QUICK KNITTING

My daughter has been complaining that her hands get cold, especially when she is playing hockey, but that gloves are no good as they slip on the hockey stick.

So what about wrist warmers?

I buy lots of my yarn from Deramores online shop (www.deramores.com). They have a really wide selection of yarn and each page of yarn has recommended patterns.

There are always lots of offers once you have signed up to their newsletter and this means that you can buy the yarn even more cheaply than on the high street. If you buy 10 balls of any one type of wool you only pay for 9 - which is an instant 10% saving and great if you are knitting a larger garment. Postage and packing is free if you spend over £25.00 so if you want to buy a selection of yarn, make sure that you buy it all at the same time to benefit.

Anyway, these wristwarmers are made with MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino yarn and it is one of the nicest, softest yarns I have knitted with recently. The yarn keeps its shape and knits up very quickly to a DK gauge. Each pair of wristwarmers takes about a ball and a half, so if you choose three complementary colours you could knit three plain sets and then one striped.

The wristwarmers are a simple rectangular shape with no complicated shaping, though the cable design is probably best suited to those with some knitting experience.

Each pair took about three hours from cast on to finished item, so easily finished in an evening in front of the television.

GREAT MONTH OF WINS IN OCTOBER

Isn't it funny how you can go months and months without winning a competition and then all of sudden lots come around at once - like buses!

This month I have won three cookery books, two lots of curry ingredients (shame the cookbooks are all for Italian food!), two bracelets (both destined to be Christmas presents) and some sweets.

It's really satisfying when you get an email or a DM on Twitter starting with the words "Congratulations!"

Now my teenage daughter has caught the bug and asks me every day how many competitions I have entered. It's also good for my weight loss campaign (42 lbs gone, 23lbs to go) as I spend my lunchtimes on the computer comping and not eating!