Other exciting news –  I’m having a Knit Love Club bag made by Be Sweet.   The bag is the Mielie shopper -a hand-hooked rug tote made from recycled t-shirt material, with one pocket inside and sturdy suede handles.  Size is 11×13″.  I fell in love with these bags when I saw my BFF Susan with one last year. She had the skull and crossbones bag (love(1)!). I can’t find a photo, so here are a few others from the Be Sweet site so you get the idea of look and feel of the bag:

This is the design for the front and back of the bag, and approximate colours that will be on the bag (each one is made by hand so there are slight variations in design and colour):

The sample should be shipped in April so I’ll post photos as soon as I have it.  Very excited!   I’m guesstimating a price of about £150 (I need shipping charges and duty to have a more concrete price).   Once I’ve had a chance to post photos and test out the bag, I’ll post more details on how to buy.

If you have paid for your membership, you will receive within 24 hours of your payment a Member’s Handbook. If you have not received this, please get in touch as your Handbook has important information to help you make the most of your Club year, including where all the Club social groups can be found.  Check in on Ravelry, and join the mini-sock swap as a great way to get to know your fellow members.

Meanwhile for those who blog, here are a couple badges for you to proudly display in your sidebar, thanks very much to talented member Ashley of Thistlegirl Designs. Grab your badge by copying and pasting the code under your chosen badge into your sidebar:

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<a href=”http://www.knitloveclub.com/blog” title=”Member Knit Love Club 2010″><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3943434787_89963d1044_o.jpg” width=”114″ height=”118″ alt=”Member Knit Love Club 2010″ /></a>

<a href=”http://www.knitloveclub.com/blog” title=”I Heart Socks Knit Love Club 2010″><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3477/3943434819_6e0048a4af_o.jpg” width=”178″ height=”94″ alt=”I Heart Socks Knit Love Club 2010″ /></a>

The Knit Love Club goes back to basics and embraces my yarnie heart’s fundamental love – gorgeous covetable yarns. Covetable being the key word.

My mission this year is to ensure you receive yarn which is highly desirable and which will all be (except for the Bonus skein), imports to the UK. The kind of yarns I have in mind would be along the lines of Hazelknits Artisan Sock, or Alchemy Juniper…. indeed the imported yarns that have been featured in previous socktopus clubs are a good indication of what to expect.

What you will get in this club:

• 6 parcels of sock yarn,approx retail value £18
• 6 patterns to go with each yarn,approx retail value £4
• A bonus skein from a UK indie dyer, approx retail value £25
• An accompanying bonus mystery KAL pattern,approx retail value £4
• A souvenir year book containing all the year’s patterns, photos of members’ socks and a little bio on each member (unless you wish to opt out),approx retail value £20
• All of which are exclusive to club members. Patterns and yarn may (or may not) be available to the general public at the end of the club year

THE DETAILS

1) Designs: The designs will be Alice (that’s me!) exclusives though I have not ruled out the possibility of one or two guest designers. What this means for you is I can tailor the club socks to your skill set and make them a little more modular and progressive in terms of learning.

2) Colourways: I get to choose them all! This means I can choose and arrange for all the six club yarns in advance and don’t need to juggle around additional schedules. It means I can make sure that there is a good mix of solids semi solids and variegated. It also means you can tell me what you hate and I will see what I can do to avoid using it! However, broadly speaking (and bear in mind the infinite possibilities of colour – metals, earth, water, air, etc) I will try to hit the following colour families: Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Purple.

3) Patterns: These will be pdf downloads for the club kits.  At the end of the year, members will receive a yearbook – a bound soft cover book (in technicolour!) of the year’s patterns, as well as member pages.

4) Bonus: There will be one bonus UK dyer’s yarn which will accompany a mystery pattern that will take place over 4 weeks during the course of the year. I haven’t decided the season yet – if it is summer it will most likely be a lace shawl. If it is an autumn then most likely colourwork mittens or a hat.

5) Schedule: The sock yarn parcels will be sent out during the 4th week of: January, March, May, July, September & November. The Bonus yarn will be sent out with either the July or September parcel.

6) Club forum: There will be a club social group on www.ravelry.com (I encourage you to join Ravelry if you haven’t yet).

Ravelry is a fantastic resource and a fun place to meet like minded people. And even better, sign up is free.

We will also have a social Twibe on Twitter, so members who are on Twitter can also keep in touch with, and post questions to fellow members who are also on Twitter via our group page on Twibes.com. Twitter is also free.

There won’t be a member’s blog this year.

7) Knit Love Club blog: The Knit Love Club blog (www.knitloveclub.com) is where I will post updates on the club, such as calls for address changes about a month before posting, and exact posting dates. All relevant links will be on the blog (such as the twibe link, the ravelry link and their RSS feeds) and contact details. Participation on the club forums is optional however the blog is where you should go if you want answers from the horse’s mouth.

8 ) Cost: The cost for the year is £170, including postage & packaging within the UK. For EU addresses add £10 for postage. For ROW add £33.

If you can’t see the ballot below, click here.
Update 15/09/09 Ballot now closed! Successful members will receive an email confirming membership and requesting payment by the 22 September. Thank you everyone and good luck!