Real stories · Warm, without the roasting

Warm jumpers always roast me the moment I step indoors — this one breathes

A jumper I don't have to take off indoors — that's the whole discovery. I'm 67, and every warm jumper I own has the same flaw: perfect on the cold walk to the parish hall, unbearable within ten minutes of arriving, because every hall, shop and house in Yorkshire is heated like a palm house. I've spent whole winters carrying my knitwear over my arm.

What I wanted was warmth that could cope with central heating.

Then I found the Fioralis from a British label called York Boutique — a soft high-necked jumper in the prettiest pale blue, worked all over in a delicate openwork pattern. It comes in the one lovely colour, and that's the one I have.

The pattern is doing quiet engineering. All those pretty openings let the air through — warm on the cold walk there, never stifling once the radiators take over — which is why, for the first time, a jumper has lasted a whole coffee morning without being peeled off. It's soft, it has a little easy stretch, the high neck keeps the wind off, and the pale blue looks lovely against every coat I own.

The pretty openwork pattern lets the air through — warm on the walk there, never stifling in the overheated hall — which is why it stays on from door to door.

It was £54.95, half the usual £110, and I paused — then remembered the years of cardigan-off-cardigan-on theatre it ends. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery did the rest.

It has since done one blowy churchyard walk, a parish lunch in a hall like a greenhouse and a long café afternoon, staying on and comfortable through all three, and at the lunch the vicar's wife asked where the pattern was from. 'York,' I said, enjoying myself.

If you also spend winter carrying your knitwear, do have a look. The Fioralis is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 200 women, it comes in the one pale blue, in UK sizes 8/10 to 14/16 — and at half price it goes quickly.