I found the cold the hardest thing about being up here. I came from Exmoor, which isn't a warm place in winter, but I really had no idea what proper cold can be like. (And of course anyone from Iceland reading this is thinking, "She still doesn't."
)
After much trial and error I have found the key things are:
- forget polyester 'fleece' (*) and other so-called revolutionary manmade materials, what you need is wool (and/or alpaca)
- the single most important key to not getting cold is to not get cold. Not a tautology - stay warm indoors; have a hot water bottle behind or under you when you're sat reading or knitting or whatever, warm your clothes before you put them on, get changed when warm in a warm place; keep the wellies somewhere warm so they're dry and warm when you put them on, ditto hat, gloves, scarf and coat(s). The other side of this coin is to not get sweaty in clothes that don't breathe - another reason for using wool
- it really is better to have several thin layers than one thick one - at least two of the layers should be wool (or wool/alpaca) and personally I have no truck with manmade materials no matter how 'hi-tech' (*) - IMO natural fibres are best. So my next-to-skin layers are cotton or silk or wool.(*)
- I use the most woolly (as in are made of wool) tights I can find under a thin pair of jogging/leisure pants under an outer thicker trackie bottoms - and am plotting to make my own handspun handknitted wool overtrousers for the really cold weather
- the most important bits for keeping warm (because you are starting warm now, right? ) are hat, neck, hands and feet. And in my case, because I get chilblains there , backside!
(*) the exception to forgetting polyester 'fleece' is the Polar Buff. I haven't found anything better for around the neck and over the nose if you still want to be able to breathe and work! Although I am sure if someone ever does make something similar from fine wool it will do at least as good a job.
And the other 'hi-tech' manmade I don't dis is that I will happily wear Coolmax socks under a wool pair
Someone mentioned boiler suits for small people - farmers' sons (and daughters) hereabouts wear boiler suits like Dad's, so if Mrs Womble is small, the kiddies' sizes may be the place to look
Sometimes it is a balance between being a roly poly Michelin man and being able to move and work - so then I concentrate on being warm before I start, only putting on warm (ie., pre-warmed) layers, and making sure I wear a good woolly hat, something in my neck (usually the Polar Buff), plenty of wool layers inside the wellies (
Bamas are brilliant if you don't have handspun handknitted socks and welly-liner slippers), at least two layers on my legs, a good thick layer down over my backside and upper thighs (men's jumpers are longer if you don't make your own
), a wind-cheat layer (I have a wonderful Toggi body warmer that is thin and light as a feather but stops the wind - I wear this under my outermost layer) and my never-have-to-take-em-off two-layer woolly gloves. (Which you can't buy ones as brilliant as the ones I make myself, but you can get gloves which are fingerless gloves with a flippy-back mitt-top, which are the next best thing perhaps.)
And other things that help include having the right food for cold weather. Porage for breakfast, a hearty soup for lunch, that sort of thing.