A letter from a reader

At 62, every jumper I own is either too hot indoors or not warm enough out

I have never written to a shop before, and I did not expect my first letter to be about a jumper.

You will know this one. You put a proper jumper on in the morning because it is October and it is grey, and by eleven you are sitting in the kitchen feeling like you are in a sauna. So it comes off, and you are in a T-shirt, and twenty minutes later you are cold again. My daughter keeps her heating on high, and every Sunday lunch at hers I spend the meal pulling a cardigan on and off like a woman doing exercises.

I was never the right temperature. I had stopped expecting to be.

So I put up with it, and kept a cardigan on the back of every chair in the house.

Then I saw it on a friend at the hairdresser's

Maureen was under the dryer in a soft charcoal knit with a hood and great wide sleeves that stopped just below the elbow, and when they sat her under the heat she did not have to take anything off. It hangs loose over a T-shirt, so nothing is tight and nothing is stuffy. She told me it was the Camille, from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened at Sunday lunch

I wore it to my daughter's on Sunday, heating on high as usual, and for the first time in years I sat through the whole meal without taking anything off or putting anything on. Three different women asked me where it was from, two of them my daughter's friends, and my friend Sue told me the next day I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

It is a small thing, being the right temperature. You do not notice it until it stops being a problem.

Three things I have learned since

One. Loose is the secret. It is a poncho shape, so it drapes over you rather than hugging you, and the sleeves are wide and stop below the elbow. Nothing is tight at the wrists or the waist, which is where I always used to get too hot.

Two. The T-shirt underneath does the rest. I wear it over a plain white T-shirt indoors, and when the weather turns I put a long-sleeved top under it instead. One jumper, the whole of autumn.

Three. The hood is for the garden, not the gym. It has a soft hood with a drawstring, so I can pop it up to take the bins out or have my tea on the back step, and it looks like a proper knit rather than something sporty.

About the price

I had assumed a knit this soft would be more than I like to spend on something for every day.

The Camille is £37.95. It was £76.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on and delivery is free. Mine is the charcoal, which goes with every pair of jeans I own, and there is a whole collection of them, plain colours and stripes, all at the same price. The Camille comes from a UK 8/10 right up to a UK 22/24.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "It is the only thing I own that I do not take off the minute I get indoors." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you came round and we sat out on the porch with a cup of tea, this is what I would tell you.

If you spend your days pulling layers on and off, it is not you that is wrong. It is the jumpers. They are made tight at the wrists and the waist and heavy all over. Get one that sits loose and stops below the elbow, and you can stop fussing.

It does not look like it was made for somebody half my age, and it does not look like I have given up either.

Caroline