Last week was my birthday.
Image © Silke Liebenau
Forty-eight.
Which I have now officially declared is not a number.
Dr. Thomas was wonderful and took me out for a very fashionable breakfast in Piccadilly, followed by a long walk home through London in the sunshine, which was stunningly lovely.
And then…
We had a birthday party.
Now honestly, when was the last time you had a proper birthday party?
Exactly.
So we invited friends, neighbours, people from upstairs, people from across the street, people who said they would “just stay for one drink” and somehow were still there discussing life, politics, knitting and whether hummus counts as a full meal… at 4am.
The party finally ended at 8 o’clock in the morning.
Did I have a sore head?
Yes.
Nothing more needs said.
Now some glorious things happened.
Firstly, Dr. Thomas managed not only to buy me a birthday card with handwriting I could actually read, but also a birthday cake.
Admittedly from Tesco.
But still.
Progress.
He also cooked an enormous pot of chilli so everybody had something sensible in their stomach and we have been eating it all week since ....
One of the loveliest surprises came from a lady called Silke who works at LANGYARNS.
Many of you won’t know this, but when you place a LANGYARNS order with me, I enter it into the LANG system, and it’s often Silke or her colleague Andrea who then process everything before it heads to the packing team.
And honestly?
What LANG achieve is extraordinary.
Remember — they are a family company. Six generations.
If I place an order by 9am, it leaves rural Switzerland that very same day and begins its journey to me here in Peckham (the posh part).
And these aren’t tiny little parcels.
Some of the boxes are absolutely enormous and contain hundreds of different yarns and shades.
Silke grew up in the former East Germany — the DDR — before later moving to Switzerland. Over the past year we’ve chatted back and forth by email, and when Dr. Thomas and I were in Cologne a few months ago, they both disappeared into rapid German conversation while I stood smiling politely and understanding approximately three words.
Now.
Unknown to me…
Silke has a hidden talent.
She is an extraordinary artist.
And she painted a picture for me.
Not just any picture.
A painting of me sitting knitting LANG football socks in our dining room in Peckham.
She had somehow noticed everything from photographs online. The new windows. The curtains. The fireplace bricks. The trellis outside. Even the neighbour’s garden climbing up behind the fence.
And there I was, knitting a pair of German football socks using LANG Twin Soxx yarn.
The care.
The observation.
The kindness.
That someone would quietly spend hours creating something simply to make another person smile.
And I thought afterwards:
That is what knitting is really about.
Not perfection.
Not tension squares.
Not whether somebody twists their stitches.
But love.
People who make things with kindness — whether knitting, crocheting, painting, baking or simply caring for others — they are the energy for life.
Nastiness and rudeness leaves a sting.
But grace?
Grace and kindness stay with you.
I’ve now got to know many of the LANG team and what strikes me most is this:
They are a small company with a huge global brand, yet they are truly deeply human.
Recently I interviewed Jakob Lang for a magazine piece.
Halfway through the video call he suddenly said:
“James, could you move a little? I cannot see you because of all the dust in your flat.”
Cheeky.... ;-)
He had clearly been reading my emails about the building work and the new windows.
And weirdly, it made me smile.
Because to be known matters.
To be seen matters.
To not feel like just another customer number or account number matters.
You can see many of the LANG team on their Instagram posts. They know where their yarns come from. They know their mills. Their fibres. Their history.
And I think, in a world that feels increasingly faceless, that is rather glorious.
So today is really about knitting with family, what ever shape yours is, or like mine, has become.
About the strange, wonderful little community we all belong to.
The sun is shining.
The yarn is flowing.
The kettle is on.
The bees are buzzing.
And honestly?
Isn’t it glorious what we are blessed with as knitters?
Have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend.
Create with love.
James
James McIntosh — the one man band that is McIntosh
(and Dr Thomas, who is working in the hospital all weekend helping others ;-))
