Break out the bunting, pop the champagne, buy a lottery ticket! I finished Matt’s birthday present BEFORE his birthday!

Yes, it’s a miracle - feel free to alert the media and/or check the sky for flying porkers. After the fiasco of last year’s jumper I felt I really had to step up and deliver a present on the actual day. Admittedly, picking a hat instead of a larger garment or 50km of scarfery probably helped a bit, but I’m still quite chuffed.

I used some yarn that I bought on holiday in New Zealand earlier this year and I have to say it’s fantastic. You can read all about this heritage merino on the Skeinz website but let me also add that it’s amazingly soft and squooshy and the color is brilliant. There is a tiny black thread running through the yarn that gives it a lovely depth and makes the stitches really stand out. If I gush any more you’ll think I’m an employee but really, go to Napier and buy lots of this stuff. The people in the shop were so incredibly nice, the town is amazing and the gobsmackingly good local wine will help you not to care when you drop a stitch. It’s a knitter’s paradise.

So Matt is going to have something to unwrap on his birthday and I’m unbearably smug. It probably means I’m going to fall flat on my face with a project very soon but until then all I can do is to skip around my flat going, “La, la, la …”