Season's Greetings

It's 4.30pm on 25th December 2009 - the turkey has been cooked and half of it eaten for lunch, the presents were unwrapped hours ago and we're just about to sit in front of the TV with our knitting and watch some Christmas afternoon telly.

Everyone in the Melody Household wishes you a Very Merry Christmas and a Joyous and Peaceful 2009.

And Another

Christmas pressie - this time a hat for Mum which I'm really pleased with:



Knitted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran in a stone shade (Mum's choice of colour). The pattern is Rambler hat from one of the Sublime aran booklets and knitted on 5mm rosewoods. The yarn is soft and squishy to use and knitted up into a lovely soft hat. I was fortunate to find the error in the pattern before the hat was completed which would have made the hat far, far too big! Watch out for the number of pattern repeats *wink*

I Get Things Finished - Oh Yes I Do

Yup, another something completed:



Although not sewn up. That might take another few weeks to do, heh heh...

And something that doesn't need sewing:

A scarf knitted in slip stitch rib on 8mm needles in Patons Symphony. A bargainous Christmas knit because I got the yarn in a Karma swap recently and it's knitted up into a lovely, soft scarf for a friend of mine.

Some of you may remember that I had a dreadful experience in the summer when my parcel of yarn was returned to the online shop because the courier service they use hadn't put a card through the door and I had to pay postage TWICE in order to receive my yarns as I asked for Royal Mail for the second delivery.

I placed an order a few weeks ago (you can see the spoils of my shopping spree in an earlier post) and was told that postage through Royal Mail was £7 odd and I paid the extra on top of the £6 courier cost. The order was a big one and weighed in at about 3.7kg kilos.

Today I've been told that to have a yarn order of just under 2kg delivered, the online shop are going to charge me a mighty £9.00 to have it delivered via Royal Mail. Er... no I don't think so...

So this is absolutely the last time I will ever use this particular online shop again regardless of their seemingly cheap yarns because the postage charge is above and beyond ridiculous. Online shops such as Modern Knitting charge a flat rate of £1.50 for your order unless the order is over £30 in value, in which case postage is FREE. I know where I'd rather spend my hard earned cash, thank you very much :evil:


At least this will help with the Stashalong Effort in 2009.

Big Little Melody's Letter to Santa

Each year the boys' school have a letterbox in which children can send letters to Santa and have them answered for a small fee (£1 per letter). It raises money for the PFA and school funds and children feel that they have written a letter to and received a reply from the Man in Red himself.

This is the letter that my wonderful 9 year old son wrote to Santa this afternoon in his best handwriting, complete with naive charm, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, and that brought a lump to my throat:

Dear Santa,
I love Rudolph and every Christmas eve I dream about having my own baby Raindeer. I am very responsible and caring so if you want you can send me a baby raindeer go ahead. If you want to send me one send it to (our address).

Ho Ho Ho merry Christmas
Can my baby raindeer be a boy.

From (his name)

PS: If you do put it on my bed please.
PS: Love your outfit.
PS: I know you have an invisible shield So nowone can see you.
Thank you

Two Things I'll Never Have

Yorkie bars and Man-flu. Apparently they're not for girls.

Rip and Burn

I've had a new gadget for my car - a wonderful new music system thingummy. My old one was transferred from my Astra into my current car and it doesn't owe me anything, so it's been upgraded for a funky new one. It has a radio which I rarely listen to anyway, a CD player hidden behind the front piece (which irritates me beyond belief because I virtually have to dismantle the whole system ) and a USB port which is by far the most useful thing on it. Except the lovely blue lights - they're very pretty.... and the sound is amazing....

I've spent a good part of today ripping tracks from the Chez Melody CD collection and downloading them onto a data stick to stick into the USB port. Mr Melody had very kindly, but uselessly, downloaded a few complete CDs; but navigating my way through the crap using the remote proved dangerous while I was driving one-handed and trying the change gear at the same time... *ahem*

I found tracks I'd forgotten about and I've had a brill time this afternoon reliving the past via the CD collection.
Favourite today: 'Build Me Up Buttercup' The Foundations, from times past long ago in the 60s.

Strange Week

In more ways than one.

Current state: puzzled and surprised