The softer side of knitting

Mr FF's jumper of barbed wire is finished, I washed it in the hope that it might soften up but that didn't really work and when he finally tried it on I howled with laughter. It is truly awful. As can happen the twist of the yarn has caused the knitting to twist, the whole thing is slightly out of kilter and I believe it has been banished to the depths of the wardrobe, or abandoned somewhere deep in the countryside I'm not sure and I'm certainly not going to show it to you.
However I will show you how I've moved on to finer things. I finished and posted this little jumper for Amelia. I've used this pattern from Louisa Harding's Miss Beas Rainy Day and this 100% pure wool before. It's fairly plain but with some interesting cable in the rib, such a pity the yarn discontinued it truly is soft and colourful, apparently Amelia was delighted and wore her jumper straight away.I've also made these socks using Regia World College Color which was and possibly still is on offer at Kemps, take a look £3.99 plus postage for a 150 g ball you can't go wrong. Usually I prefer 4 ply for socks, this is dk, but they do seem cosy and Regia is such hard wearing yarn that I'm hopeful they will last.

And I've been cracking on with my super soft giveaway yarn from Josiekitten. I finally selected Lace Ribbon as the pattern for my scarf, reminds me slightly of Clapotis and makes me keen to knit another of those soon.

We heard at the weekend that our house in Italy is under 2 feet of snow but apparently fine. I bet all our friends in the village regret telling us how much they'd love a proper snowy winter, our neighbours didn't get out for two days while they waited for a snow plough. Extraordinary that we have barely a dusting of the white stuff here in Scotland.