Queues, Cocktails, Knitting
This week has been a little topsy-turvy.
Dr. Thomas has discovered TikTok, I have been defeated by the Norman Conquest, and my knitting has enjoyed a night out at a private members’ club.
Dr. Thomas and the infinite scroll
As I mentioned last week, Dr. Thomas has discovered the TikTok.
Every spare moment is now spent watching videos and sending them to me. Quite often, I’ve already seen them, but I watch again because that is what you do for someone you love.
Marriage involves patience, kindness and pretending you haven’t already watched that dachshund fall off a footstool.
We’ve also finished binge-watching Blue Lights, the BBC police drama set in Northern Ireland. Having grown up there, I found it wonderfully believable, and we both thought it was excellent.
If you’re looking for something to watch as the evenings draw in, it’s well worth a look.
Assuming nobody beside you keeps interrupting to show you a TikTok.
Six hours in a queue for the Bayeux Tapestry
My friend Anne-Marie, who works in the addi knitting needles office in Germany, asked whether I could get Bayeux Tapestry tickets for her and her mother.
“Of course,” I thought.
Two words that have caused me almost as much trouble as “just one ball”.
Anne-Marie has visited our home many times, and we’ve visited hers. This is one of the things I love about working with family businesses. You get to know the people behind the products, and over the years, suppliers become friends.
Occasionally, those friendships involve attempting to secure access to medieval textiles.
Tickets went on sale on Wednesday morning. I got up at 5 a.m., logged into the British Museum website and prepared myself.
The queue didn’t open until ten.
Still, I was there. Early. Organised. Giving this the sort of attention normally reserved for checking whether I have enough yarn to finish a sleeve.
At ten, the screen changed.
I was more than 48,000th in the queue.
Apparently, getting up five hours early had secured me a place behind an entire town.
I waited.
By eleven, I was around 35,000th.
Thirteen thousand places closer! At this rate, I might get to see the Norman Conquest before somebody organised another one.
Then the screen flashed.
The queue was closed.
I was very welcome to try again next year for tickets later in the year.
How thoughtful. Something to put in the diary beside “defrost freezer” and “recover emotionally”.
I was properly disheartened. Six hours invested, and nothing to show for it. With a chart and sufficient wool, I could at least have made a start on my own tapestry.
I’ve wanted to see the tapestry since learning about it at school. When Dr. Thomas was studying for his Life in the UK test a year ago — a YEAR ago, goodness me — he learned all about 1066 and the Norman Conquest.
I thought the pictorial version might offer some light relief between editions of the British Medical Journal.
He still remembers that Sir Christopher Cockerell invented the hovercraft.
An invaluable contribution to our domestic life. We haven’t needed the information yet, but when the moment comes, we shall be formidable.
Rooftop cocktails, with knitting
Fortunately, my friend Andy decided it was time I left the spare bedroom.
This is where I run McIntosh, so some days my commute consists of moving a basket of yarn out of the way.
“Come to my club,” he said. “We’ll sit by the swimming pool, have cocktails and dinner. You’re working too hard.”
Dr. Thomas was working late, so off I went.
There was chicken with chanterelle mushrooms. There were gin and tonics. There was half a bottle of rosé.
There was also an outdoor rooftop swimming pool.
And rain.
Because you can arrange impeccable service and a beautiful dinner in central London, but the weather remains independently managed.
We sat beneath a magnificent parasol with heaters, perfectly dry, looking out over Big Ben, St Paul’s, the Temple and Australia House. I could even see Bush House, which regular readers will remember from last week.
It was lovely. Warm, beautifully looked after and out in the world with a friend.
I could become dangerously accustomed to this. Although I suspect installing a heated parasol in the spare bedroom would raise questions.
Andy owns the company behind the clever business of getting digital adverts onto screens, including those you see in train stations and at Piccadilly Circus. His company makes sure the adverts appear correctly and at the right time, then analyses how many people have seen them.
With McIntosh advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest and now ChatGPT, I know how much understanding those numbers matters.
Andy counts audiences. I count stitches.
On Wednesday, I counted backwards from 48,000 and achieved very little.
Photography is generally discouraged at the club, but we did manage one cheeky little photograph together, with my knitting making its society debut.
Of course I took knitting.
I was invited out for the evening. Nobody said anything about leaving my personality at home.
LANGYARNS CLOUD 12 is back in stock
The yarn enjoying this glamorous excursion was LANGYARNS CLOUD in colour 12, chestnut and petrol.
I know how many of you have been waiting for this shade. The back orders have been phenomenal.
CLOUD 12 is back in stock, and we can get it.
If you’ve been longing to cast on with this season’s most popular colour, it’s time to have another look in the McIntosh shop.
Mine has now been taken out for cocktails and dinner. Yours is under no obligation to maintain that standard of living.
A comfortable chair and something good on television will do beautifully.
New knitted swatches to help you choose your yarn
I listen carefully to what customers tell me, and I’ve been working on something that I hope will make choosing yarn online much easier.
On the LANGYARNS yarn pages, you can now see knitted swatches showing how gradient and multicoloured yarns look when worked up.
That includes favourites such as MILLE COLORI, MERINO 120 COLOR, CLOUD and MAGNOLIA.
A ball of yarn can be irresistible, but seeing how its colours move through the knitting helps you imagine the finished project.
For the plain colours, you’ll find a larger swatch so you can see the yarn more clearly.
This has taken a long, long time. My two principal limitations remain the hours in the day and what the shop software is prepared to do after a firm but polite conversation.
But the swatches are now live, and I’m delighted to have them ready for you.
I want McIntosh to be the best it can possibly be. Some days that involves finding beautiful yarn. Other days it involves spending an extraordinary amount of time improving a small square.
I hope these particular squares help.
Chunky knitting for the evenings ahead
This week, it’s all about chunky knitting.
On Wednesday, I shared the free chunky raglan sweater pattern, and there are plenty of lovely chunky yarn options in the shop to inspire your next project.
Beautiful colours, bigger needles and the pleasure of seeing your knitting grow.
After my experience with the tapestry queue, I’m particularly enthusiastic about visible progress.
A chunky sweater also makes excellent evening company. It doesn’t send you TikToks, and provided you count properly, it rarely introduces an unexpected police investigation.
A little sunshine on the horizon
Dr. Thomas and I are here this week, then we fly to Gran Canaria next Sunday for six nights.
I’ll put a wee note on the website with the dispatch arrangements.
Holidays are an interesting exercise when you run a one-person business. However carefully I explain that I’m away, there’s usually a lovely message asking whether somebody could just send out a crochet hook.
I do understand. Once you need a particular crochet hook, no other object in the house will do.
Sadly, “somebody” is also on the flight to Gran Canaria.
Until then, there’s CLOUD 12 to enjoy, new swatches to explore and chunky knitting to plan.
Have a lovely week, and keep your emails and messages coming. I love hearing from you.
Especially if you know how to get tapestry tickets.
With love,
James
