Heart warming was designed for a friend who was having a wedding in the UK, but lives in the USA, so requested only small gifts that she could easily take on the plane. Living in Florida, she and her husband have no need for my standard knitted gifts of hats and scarves and blankets, so I wondered what I could make instead. As my friend and I spent many of our formative years sitting chatting in coffee shops together I decided on a matching pair of personalised cup cosies.

The cosy makes an excellent last minute present as it can be knitted in only a couple of hours.

The cup cosy is knitted in aran weight yarn in the round, with the heart motif and any personalisation added at the end using Swiss darning. A full alphabet is provided so you can personalise your cup cosy as you wish.

Other craft(s) required, if any: Swiss darning (duplicate stitch)

Tools: 5 mm (US 8) set of 4 or 5 double-pointed needles; 1 stitch marker; tapestry needle

Materials: Oddments of aran weight yarn in the cream (MC, 15 m/20 yds), red (CC1, 5 m/5 yds) and black (CC2, 5 m/5 yds)

Difficulty: Intermediate knit, purl, increasing (m1), working in the round