I'm starting to think I'm a bit spoilt. Where to begin?

I went to Chris' place on Tuesday because he was sick, and walked away with:


my belated birthday present. You all know what an iPod looks like, so there it is in the sock I whipped up last night. It's an 80 gig classic, and soooo cool. The screen seems much bigger than it really is, especially if you hold it close to your face.

My Zen goes to William, IF someone can fix it for me. I dropped it just before I went to England. It makes a ChChChChk noise when you turn it on, and then nothing happens. I had to go throughout the whole England trip listening to that Umbrella song on the radio FIVE OR SIX TIMES A DAY FOR A MONTH because of breaking my Zen :'(



digital scales! I've been lusting over something like this for ages. It has auto-tare :) I tried to spin up some lace weight on my 1.6 oz spindle, but only managed to get a 2 ply fingering. I spun for hours and hours and look, it's only 9 grams worth! That's merino roving from EGMTK in Belle's Story. There's also some white Angelina chucked in as an experiment. It is very princessy. (What would YOU do with pink sparkle yarn? Say, about 400 yards/metres fingering weight?)



yarn! 8 ply Rustic from Bendigo Woolen Mills in Natural Fleck. This was also at Chris' house. I got it delivered there so I wouldn't start knitting with it straight away. Ha. It's becoming the first sleeve for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. It's not baby soft, and feels a bit "woolly". I'm not sensitive to woolly knits, so it'll suit me just fine. I like how the huge balls (*snicker*) mean less joining. Plus it was cheap.

Okay, that's it for Chris' house. This is what turned up at my place this week:



Optim from EGMTK in er... I've forgotten the name actually. Something about fruits, I think. If you can't tell, I like this store a lot. The service is fast, and really lovely.



my lace spindle! It's 30 grams-ish, and I can spin to TWICE the wpi than on my old one. It came from the Spindlemaker on etsy, and it is really very beautiful.

Whine

It's time to accept that the custom-dyed sock yarn I ordered is never coming. It was supposedly sent a month ago, and according to the post office it should have taken a day (max two) to arrive. I've been really cool about it up 'til now, but now I'm so pissed off.

I accept that things go missing in the post. The part that gets me is the lack of reply from the seller. I've asked them (nicely) for confirmation that the parcel was really sent and that the notice I received wasn't an error (I received the email on Sunday night, which was a bit weird, considering the PO is closed on weekends). No reply.

I emailed them AGAIN, giving alternative addresses to reply to, in case their replies were being eaten by spam filter. No reply.

I asked them to file a missing parcel complaint for me. I'd do it myself, but the sender has to do it. No reply.

I left a comment on their blog asking them (again, nicely) to get in touch with me. No reply.

There are no real-life contact details on their yarn website. I did find a link to the web design business they have, but no details there either. I don't think there's anything else I can do, so it looks like it's time to give up :/

I've ordered from them once before, when I needed the yarn for a deadline. At that time, I sent them an email asking if I could get the yarn before the date. I also asked if it was possible to make one of the colours slightly darker. She said the yarn would definitely be ready by the time I needed it, but ignored my question about the colours. The yarn arrived a week later than expected. She was nice about it though, and refunded me the postage cost.

Speaking of postage costs. Why the fuck does she charge $6.10 for regular shipping when she lives about FIFTEEEN minutes away from me? That's $5.10 for a prepaid post satchel, and $1 for what? Her time? When I order things from Victorian sellers, they charge the actual postage cost and it's $3.85 (I think) for up to 250g. Using the prepaid satchels is just dumb. (I thought it was uneconomical before I was pissed off at her, too)

Luckily, I didn't spend too much this time. It was only about $30+, I think. I'm VERY annoyed at this unreliable person. The lady at the post office said that if there were any problems, the parcel would have been returned to the sender. All I want is some acknowledgment. (And my yarn.)

I'm glad there are so many other places to shop.
(Btw, I just did my tax return online, and I'm getting everything back :D Have you done yours?)

So, all I got for my birthday was cash. Over the past week I converted it into actual goods in an orgy of materialism.


Merino cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery in Orange Blossoms.



The same yarn in Indigo on its way to being a spiral boot sock.



Hand dyed merino roving from Ewe Give Me The Knits in Neptune's Nemesis. I've already spun up a quarter of this. It's so easy to handle, and the colours have kept me entertained for hours. Literally hours.


And o-m-g, we have hand dyed Optim in Babycakes (also from EGMTK)! It's so shiny and soft. I'm afraid of messing it up. I think I'll wait until I get my new spindle, then aim for some laceweight.

Yeah, as part of my spree I ordered a spindle from the Spindlemaker. They're made to order, so it should take a while to arrive. John and Juleen helped me choose a spindle since I have nfi.

I also bought some Angels on Bare Skin from Lush. Slightly noticeable improvement so far. I'll see how it is in a few weeks.

At the end of last month, I ordered some dyed-to-order sock yarn with the intention that it'd arrive around my birthday. It was posted a couple of weeks ago, but no sign of it yet. I'm convinced it's gone missing, since it should NOT take 18+ days for something to travel 15 kms.

I think that's all, unless there's something I've bought but forgotten about.

Edit: Also got membership for the Zen String sock club, and some sock needles. I don't know how I forgot those.