Dany and Fiona are my colleagues and friends - we call ourselves the SPAM sisters, after a program we developed. (It’s the Strategic Promotions Advice and Mentoring program, not anything to do with dodgy emails offering to enlarge bits of you that you might not in fact possess).

So as I finished my contract and we planned a final dinner together, I thought I would mark the occasion with knitted treats for the SPAMmers. Dany has just bought a farm in Kangaroo Valley and mentioned a while ago that she needed a hat, and Fiona hikes across a cold campus every morning so fingerless mittens seemed like a good idea for her.

At the Bendigo show this year I found the perfect colours at the Fibreworks stand - Fiona loves her purple and Dany looks great in blues and greens. And these were fairly fast to make, too, which is great when you’re staring down a deadline.

For Dany’s hat, I cast on 94 stitches, increasing up to 98, and knitted according to the Yarn Harlot’s formula.

Fiona’s mitts were going to be flippy ones, so she could roll down the finger bits when she needed to be dexterous but flip it back up again when she wanted the extra warmth. I did ten extra rows at the wrist cuffs, five extra rows at the hands and five extra rows before the ribbing for the fingers. There were 18 rows of rib for the flippy bit and six rows of rib for the thumbs.

My SPAM sisters were very pleased with their presents and Dany even wore her hat home, as a buffer between a newly-short haircut and a freezing winter wind. Fiona is currently prancing around her building with her mitts, so I declare this project a success. Well, I was due …