Real stories · The jumper with its own thermostat

Cold street, boiling café, cold street again — this jumper adjusts, so I don't have to

A jumper with its own thermostat — that's what the little buttons turn out to be. I'm 67, and a winter's day out is a series of climates: the freezing walk in, the tropical café, the arctic bus stop, the sauna that is any shop in December. One jumper is never right for all of it, so I spend the day either shivering or glowing.

What I wanted was a jumper that could adjust as often as the weather indoors does.

Then I found the Buttonelle from a British label called York Boutique — a soft jumper in the loveliest pale blue with a neat collar and a short row of little buttons at the neck. I chose the blue; there's red, camel and white as well.

The buttons are the thermostat. Done up to the top, it's a snug high neck that keeps the wind off on the walk in — and the moment the café turns tropical, two buttons open turn it into a soft, relaxed open collar — which is why I'm no longer dressing for one climate and enduring the other four. It's warm without being bulky, soft against the skin, and the collar looks just as deliberate either way.

Buttons done up, it's a snug high neck against the wind; two buttons open, it's a soft relaxed collar in an overheated café — a neckline with settings.

It was £29.95, half the usual £60 — about what I've spent on a scarf bought in a panic outside a cold café. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery settled the rest.

It has since done a full town Saturday — four shops, two climates each — one parish lunch in a hall heated like a greenhouse, and a windy walk home, adjusting as it went. Sandra watched me undo two buttons at the lunch and said 'that's clever'. It is. It's two jumpers with one price tag.

If your days out also swing between arctic and tropical, do have a look. The Buttonelle is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 230 women, it comes in four colours, in UK sizes 8/10 to 22/24 — and at half price the blue goes first.