May appears to have become Birthday Season.
There was cake.
There was wine.
There were two birthday parties.
And knitting.
And there was me standing in a back garden giving an entirely unofficial preview of the new LANGYARNS spring summer collection to an Italian lady who became emotionally attached to alpaca within about four minutes (see pic above).
Now, I know Jakob Lang (the boss) occasionally reads these emails.
So Jakob…
if you are reading this…
I’m sorry your new collection debuted beside a barbecue in South East London (the posh part) before official launch day.
It all became very QVC very quickly.
The funniest thing though was the 70th birthday party yesterday.
When I was little, a 70th birthday involved beige buffet food, someone discussing cholesterol and a man asleep beside a sausage roll while wearing a party hat.
Yesterday everybody looked about twenty-seven. They behaved even younger.
People were dancing.
Laughing.
Holding wine glasses while dangerously balancing paper plates full of barbecue food.
At one point I genuinely thought:
“Have we all got younger or just dafter?”
Either way, I support it fully.
And speaking of drama…
Eurovision is this week.
Even more importantly, Eurovision lands on my birthday this year which honestly feels like the universe finally understanding me properly.
I’ve watched Eurovision every year since childhood.
I’m fairly certain I was born under glitter lighting and key changes.
Meanwhile life at McIntosh HQ is finally peaceful again now the windows are finished.
Dr Thomas is delighted.
The sanding has stopped.
The birds have returned.
And I’ve rediscovered this exciting new hobby called “looking outside”.
Everything suddenly looks green again.
Even Peckham currently resembles the English countryside for around six and a half minutes a day.
The new Seeknit Curve needles have also arrived and honestly they are glorious.
Ridiculously smooth bamboo.
Beautiful curved stainless-steel joins.
No snagging.
No wrestling stitches.
Just calm knitting.
They’ve been selling wonderfully alongside ChiaoGoo and I’m very proud that little old McIntosh now carries huge collections of both.
One all elegant Japanese precision.
One all clever American engineering.
Meanwhile I stand in the middle covered in yarn fluff whispering:
“ooh that’s nice.”
And finally — don’t forget the knitting kits and bundles on the website.
Because life is too short to spend three hours wondering:
“Now what yarn did they use in that sample again?”
Anyway, I’m off to emotionally prepare for Eurovision (tomorrow night is the first semi-final) and continue staring lovingly out of my new windows.
James
James McIntosh — the one man band that is McIntosh
(and Dr Thomas, who is trying his best to describe what "high maintenance" is to me - I'm having none of it ;-))
