Let Curious Rose Help friends and family feel warmer and cosier this Christmas

We all know it’s free to put another layer on, or cuddle a friend (two friends, if it’s really parky). As the nights draw in, however, we want increased cosiness and we are looking to traditional methods of keeping warm. 

This is where that old stand-by, the hot water bottle, comes into its own. 

And we at That's Christmas feel that these will make absolutely perfect Christmas gifts this year.  

Cost comparison

It currently costs nearly £2.50 an hour to put the central heating on (based on gas at 10.31p per kWh, with a 24kW boiler). 

By comparison, it costs roughly 4.37p to boil a litre of water (3kW kettle for 2.5 minutes, at 35p per kWh for electricity). So that’s a cost of pennies, compared to heating the whole house, literally under 2% of the cost!  

And a hot water bottle will stay warm for at least a couple of hours, and can sit on your lap or up your jumper, whatever you are doing. 

Even cheaper is the newcomer to the party, the microwave wheat bag. For a 500g wheat bag, it costs 1.17p to microwave for 2 minutes (based on a 900W microwave, at 35p kWh of electricity). One of these will stay warm for over an hour, and is a safer alternative to boiling water for children or elderly people.

Climate concerns

It's important to hold onto our values about the environment when choosing a new hot water bottle, or wheat bag, or even a jumper for that matter. Polyester fur, and polyester fleece, are two of the worst culprits for shedding microfibres into the oceans (never mind that polyester is made from fossil fuels, in unregulated working conditions, and transported from China with a carbon footprint any Yeti would be proud of).

Wool is the perfect natural solution.

So, what you need is wool. It’s a natural by-product of healthy sheep farming, it actually stores carbon during its useful life, and breaks down into the earth very quickly once discarded. It is durable, naturally anti-bacterial, and its structure repels stains. 

It only needs airing, not washing very often, which again reduces energy costs. And of course, wool holds the heat, which makes it perfect for hot water bottles.

More excitingly, wool can be dyed a range of gorgeous colours, and knitted in hundreds of different patterns. Whether traditional or trendy, a good bit of knitting combines design and function perfectly. Just what we need in a cold spell, especially with a recession round the corner.

Curious Rose design and knit colourful hot water bottles, using only pure lambswool. Their yarns are dyed in Yorkshire, and knitted in the Midlands, sticking with traditional methods for a proudly British product.

Their microwave wheat bags (in a delightful hot water bottle shape) are made using pure wool blanket fabric, which gets softer and softer the more you cuddle it. They even do a range of brightly coloured alpaca snuggle socks, perfect for surviving the (cold) winter in style.

Learn more at www.curious-rose.co.uk.