Royal Mail Postal Changes 2013
As you may have read, Royal Mail are changing the price of postage from 2 April 2013. The Yarn Cafe use Royal Mail for domestic (UK) and international postage/shipping. The postal changes will affect all those who shop online as postal increases may be passed on to customers. It will also affect those who send packages. There is a petition which you may want to sign
Changes to Royal Mail Domestic Prices
The changes will mainly affect UK customers and those items more than 8cm in depth. This is because Royal Mail have changed the way that they classify packets (or small parcels) into small, medium and large sized parcels The new classification takes account of the height, weight and depth of a packet as well as its weight. The definitions and prices are in the table below.
| New Format | Size (up to) | Weight (up to) | Royal Mail Postage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Parcel | Length – 45cm Width – 35cm Depth – 8cm |
2kg | First class from £3 Second class from £2.60 |
| Medium Parcel | Length – 61cm Width – 46cm Depth – 46cm |
20kg | First class from £5.65 Second class from £5.20 |
| Large Parcel | For Parcels greater in size than 61cm x 46cm x 46cm or heavier than 20kg, use Parcelforce Worldwide  products. |
||
This means that the use of Royal Mail will be a significant increase in postage for any package more than 8cm in depth.
Other Changes to Royal Mail Prices – UK
1st Class and 2nd Class Letters and Large Letters stamp prices
- 1st Class stamp prices for Letters remain unchanged at 60p
- 1st Class stamp prices for Large Letters (up to 100g) remain unchanged at 90p
- 2nd Class stamp prices for Letters remain unchanged at 50p
- 2nd Class stamp prices for Large Letters (up to 100g) remain unchanged at 69p
Royal Mail Signed For™ Letters and Large Letters prices
- Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.70
- Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £2.00
- Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.60
- Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.79
Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed™
- Our Guaranteed by 1pm service offers great value features, generous compensation and market-leading quality of service. Prices start from £6.22.
Other Changes to Royal Mail Prices – International
- Postcards to anywhere in the world will cost 88p
- Airmail letters weighing up to 40g will cost £1.28 to Europe
- Airmail letters weighing up to 40g will cost £1.88 to rest of the world – Zones 1 & 2
- International Signed For costs £5.30 per item (in addition to postage)
- Details of prices for international parcels are here
What this means to The Yarn Cafe customers
The online shopping system used by The Yarn Cafe, allows each product to be classified by height, length and depth as well as weight, so that postage/shipping by Royal Mail (including a package cost) can be calculated. We are aware that a number of yarns that are in balls, such as Opal sock yarn and Jawoll Magic have a depth of more than 8cm and will be classified as a medium sized parcel (and thus attract a higher Royal Mail postal rate). We have thus added more options to try to give customers the lowest possible deals on postage and have added the postal cost of a Myhermes courier. Customers will need to check whether Myhermes deliver to their postal area, but they are generally cheaper than Royal Mail.
In addition, we will try to send out orders for single patterns out in a envelope as a large letter – meaning that the postal cost is much lower (it is shown on the product page as fixed postage). If a postal estimate is much higher than actual postage, a refund for over payment of postage will be made by The Yarn Cafe.
Christmas 2012 Last Posting Dates
Christmas 2012 Posting Dates
You may wish to note that the last Christmas posting dates for Royal Mail are as follows:
Wednesday 5 December – airmail to Asia, Australia, Far East (including Japan), New Zealand
Friday 7 December – airmail to Africa, Caribbean, Central and Southern America, Middle East
Monday 10 December – airmail to Eastern Europe, Canada, USA
Wednesday 12 December – airmail to Western Europe
United Kingdom
Thursday 13 December – Standard and Mail Order return parcels
Tuesday 18 December – Second Class and Recorded Signed for
Thursday 20 December – First Class and Recorded Signed for, Parcelforce express48
Friday 21 December – Parcelforce express24, Special delivery with Saturday Guarantee
Saturday 22 December – Special Delivery
Further details are available at www.royalmail.com/greetings
London 2012 – The Ravellenic Games
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 2012 Olympic Games and was proud that my home country had hosted such a spectacular games, with two fantastic ceremonies, well organised events and the best of the World’s athletes breaking records. I cried, cheered and jumped up and down as Team GB won medal after medal (costing me a small fortune in First Day Covers – special stamps of the Gold Medal winners!). I will remember the games for equality and the fact that all participating countries has female competitors. Nicola Adams became the first female Olympian to win a boxing match and there were was plenty of discussion regarding who was the greatest Olympian – Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Osain Bolt or Michael Phelps?
Inspired by the build up to the Games, I decided to take part in the 2012 Ravellenic Games, organised by Ravelry – a knitting and crochet community with over 2 million members. The Ravellenic Games has not been without their own problems (much like the real games) with the U.S. Olympic Committee objecting to the original name of Ravelympics and mocking the competition. This was a bit rich given various knitters in the UK had been knitting spectacular wool cushions for the athletes!
Anyhow, the brief was to cast on during the Opening Ceremony on 27 July 2012 and cast off by the end of the closing ceremony on 12 August 2012. The aim was to make something challenging and there were 32 events, such as “felted freestyle”, “double knit boxing” and “”baby dressage”. As I had not knitted many socks, I decided to take part in the Sock Put and chose “Fields of Gold” by Anna Richardson as the pattern had recently been in Knit Now Magazine (issue 10). I remembered that I had some rather lovely yarn from a Skein Queen sock club called “Old Yellowed Photographs” and it looked like it had gold, silver and bronze colours.
I duly sat down to watch the Opening Ceremony to London 2012, at 9pm on 27 July and was so entranced by Danny Boyle’s production that it was 11pm when I started to cast on! I still remember the making of the Olympic rings and the spectacular cauldron and wondering how many people outside the UK understood the historic and social references. I had a brief holiday in the middle of the Olympics to a place so unusually warm that my hands were too hot to knit. Despite that I did manage to finish one sock in the comfort of the air conditioned hotel! Unfortuately, I had left myself the marathon task of knitting one sock in less than two days and knitted like a demon. I finally cast off at 2 minutes to midnight whilst watching the Closing Ceremony. I may not be an athlete but I was certainly inspired by them and have a lasting reminder of the time that the modern Olympics came home.
Royal Mail Price Increases
Unfortunately, Royal Mail have put up their prices for postage as from 30 April, 2012. This means that the cost of a first class stamp for a letter sent within the UK rises from 46p to 60p. The price for a Second Class stamp for a standard letter will increase from 36p to 50p. The cost of a Large Letter stamp up to 100 grams will rise from 75p to 90p for First Class and from 58p to 69p for Second Class. (Other products, including packet also have increases in prices.) The postage costs for items ordered from The Yarn Cafe are calculated automatically and based on the size and weight of a package and apply prices from Royal Mail. Customers (in the UK) may want to consider having items delivered second class.
In view of the increases, we are offering a 10% discount on yarns ordered throughout May, Please use the code of “May2012″ on check out.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Yarn Cafe wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and offer a 15% discount on orders made until 7 January, 2012. Just use the code “Christmas” when you check out.
Joys of Christmas
There is still time to make items for Christmas, whether these be Christmas presents or something to spruce up your decorations. We used our sparkly mini sock skeins from Dye Spin Knit to create these lovely mini christmas stockings (using the pattern in our sock blocker kit) and holly wreaths.
I have been having a go at creating my own Christmas cards using lots of free papers and items from craft magazines. I think the knitted socks and crocheted wreaths work well with these.
Get Ready for The Big Knit
The Big Knit is back this week with little woolly hats adorning Innocent Drinks bottles. The hats have been knitted by people across the country and for every be-hatted bottle bought, 25p will be donated to Age UK. The drinks will be available in Sainsburys and Boots stores. Innocent Drinks are hoping to raise £1 million this year. Further details are available on their website.