The Postal Strike is over and now the work begins !

April was an extremely busy month for the South African team.  They have been working very hard to clear the backlog caused by the strike.  Please be patient if your name does not appear on this month’s list.  As the photo shows, there are many parcels to open !!

Received in April                Received in May          Received in June    

Tops: 684                                     246                                     505             

Beanies: 1,173                            860                                     881             

Squares: 22,855                    14,844                                21,723             

(653 blankets)                 (424 blankets)                (620 blankets)  

We have added a new category to the Squares List.

This category will be for knit/ crochet clothing items that do not qualify as “Tops”, “Beanies” or ”Squares”, e.g. KASCuddles, scarves.  The 'Other' column will be marked with an “x” to signify the arrival of the item. We will not be listing items as that would create too many categories.  We don’t want to make any more work for Ronda than is necessary !   Also, slip-ins [toys, pencils, underwear, etc.] will not be recorded. 

See attached files for April, May and June Squares List

    When Sending Your Parcel

1. Squares

-pack flat

-with tails neatly butterflied to squares

-bundle in lots of 5 or 10, if possible

2. Inside the Parcel:

Click here for instructions on

how to make unpacking

easier in South Africa.

3. Check the Postage discussion before mailing.

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Replies to This Discussion

You seem to have received only one of my parcels which means two must have gone astray (totalling four cuddles, a scarf and some squares)...I sent them in May! There's another on its way sent in June and I've two more waiting but wonder if it's worth the high postage if they're just going to get lost or stolen en route?!

Marie Scheuerlein, Germany (Bavaria)  

Hi Marie, it is discouraging when the parcels don't seem to arrive when we think they should !  

How did you send them, by airmail or by surface mail?  If they are sent by surface mail it can take 2-3 months for the parcels to arrive at Ronda's place and then they need to be unpacked.  I send parcels every month and last month 4 were listed as received so that meant the ones I sent earlier arrived at the same time as the one sent in April !

In the 4 years, very few parcels have gone missing.

Hi Linda, thanks for your words of encouragement. The cheapest way to send stuff from Germany is by letter post, 500 g, but I have no idea whether it's sent surface or air mail. So I'll stick to my knitting - especially as I've just discovered how easy it is to make a beanie! 

Hi Marie,

I checked the Postage discussion and discovered this from Heide.  I thought you might be interested.:

GERMANY      (with thanks to Heide Nochel) 

As I had to discover, from Germany, SA is "Welt, Zone 4" to send a "Paket" with DHL.

Up to 2 kilo it is called "Päckchen" and the cost is 15,90 Euro.

(summit 90 cm, no side longer than 60 cm)

I'll add this comment to your page in case you miss it here.

Thank you Linda

for posting this great info! My family (except me) is living in Germany. And I just printed this info out for them to make it easier for mailing my beanies I did this May/June while there on vacation. I don't know if this is the same as was quoted to me at the post office there, but if it is, the parcels sent that way will take at least 3 weeks or longer to get to SA.

It is 1/3 cheaper to sent the same weight from Germany than from Owensboro, KY, USA, as I have discovered. So every 3rd package is like a free mailing for you Marie! That is so nice!

I have been knitting up a storm ever since we got back in June, but have not yet mailed it, because my husband has been in and out of the hospital with biopsies and other surgery to remove the mass in his lungs (benign or cancerous) and some lymph nodes. I got a lot of knitting done sitting at his bedside. And I am thinking about sending it all on from Germany (could be in December) when we will be there again, God willing.

I must have enough for two 4lbs.-pkgs. or more. --Marie, are you a native German? Ich spreche noch deutsch.

Hi Monika,

You might like to let your family know the prices I've mentioned below - even if they are less than in the USA, I still think it's a shame such a lot goes on postage when the money could be used for buying wool!

Sorry to hear that your husband is so sick, I hope he'll be better soon.

I'm from London, England, originally but have lived in Bayern for 35 years now so also speak German but with a Bavarian accent - Oberpfälzisch um genauer zu sein!   

Hi Marie,

thanks for this additional good info for sending the squares/beanies from Germany. And thank you for your good wishes for my husband. Now I am curious. Are you a British lady married to a Bavarian, like I am a German married to an American for 35 years now? Your written German is excellent!

And you are right I am ready to knit and watch TV now! 

Hi Monika,

Yes, I'm a British Lady who married a German 35 years ago - unfortunately that ended in divorce but then I met another man and we've been together for over 20 years now. I worked hard on my German - I'd trained as a journalist in the UK and ended up working as a reporter at the local newspaper here. Your English is perfect as well! Which part of Germany are you from?  

Hi Marie,

I am from Hesse, and there a small town called Bad Soden - Salmuenster. It is about 1 hr Northeast of Frankfurt/M by train.

Monica, I'm sorry to hear about your husband. Knitting would be very helpful for you.

Hi Linda,

Again, thanks.

For some reason known only to the German Post Office the size allowed for letters/small parcels of 500 g, 1000 g and 2000 g is the same, namely 90 cm for the sum of all sides with no side longer than 60 cm. Myself I find it difficult to fit 1000 g of wool/knitting into a parcel this size, let alone 2 kg.

However, the prices are just as strange: 500 g costs 3,45 Euros and 1000 g 7 Euros when you use letter post. So the cheapest way to send knitted squares etc. to SA is in 500 g "letters"!!! 

Sending a 2 kg Päckchen with DHL costs only 14,90 Euros if you buy the stamp online; a 5 kg parcel costs 40 Euros buying the stamp online! All very confusing and hard to figure I find.

Whatever - back to the knitting!!! 

 

Postal bureaucracy the world over is much the same ! Letters work for you so that's a good way to send things. Maybe I should investigate letter rates from Canada.

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