The key ingredients for the perfect pudding, an old friend of mine explained, are something crunchy, something creamy and something fruity. He expanded this theory over a bowl of apple crumble and custard when we were housemates in a shared student house about 100 years ago. I reminded him of his old pudding formula when he presented me with some oven-heated apple strudel from the freezer with cold custard last week. He smiled wryly and said that he no longer had the certainty of those days, and maybe pudding perfection is just a bit more complicated than that.

So much for puddings, aren’t we supposed to be talking about sweaters? Ok already, I’m getting there..

Brontë arrived in the shop on Tuesday in her newly finished  Minna No Sweater, announcing that she thought she may just have found the perfect sweater..

Now while there can be no doubt that Brontë’s Minna No is perfectly knitted (for Brontë is a perfect knitter), I’m interested in what makes a perfect sweater for her…

“It’s got to have a high crew neck,’ she explains, “and arm holes which are not too low, NO pouffie sleeves. They’re so impractical!’

She ponders a bit more.

“Not too chunky,” she adds.

“Interesting construction.” She thinks again and revises this one. “Actually what I want is a bit of interest in the construction.”

Her eyes light up.

“A saddle shoulder or a well proportioned raglan. The Minna No has tiny short rows at each of the raglan ‘corners’ to make them more curved around the neck. So clever. And always definitely top-down. I need to be able to try it on as i go, to get the sleeve and body length right.”

Then of course there’s the wool.

“The whole time I was carrying the project around with me and working on it, the Vovó never pilled, and only has the tiniest signs of bobbling under the arm since I began wearing it last week. This is proper hard-wearing wool.”

Other sweaters that have made it into Brontë’s elite list of premier league perfect sweaters include:

The Lakes Pullover by Ozetta

Stalactite by Camille Roselle

Cambys by Orlane Sucche

Fanel by Orlane Sucche

If you’re tired of making good-enough sweaters and fancy finding your perfect sweater, come by to the shop and talk to us about what works and what doesn’t for you, sweater-wise. And we’ll do our best to help you find it.