Please send me any address changes (you know the drill).  December parcels will be shipped out on the 4th December.

The yearbook however will not be finished in time for the December shipping date.  It will be posted separately to you around the third week of January.

I also have a few skeins of extra yarn from most of this year’s socks (Alchemy Juniper, Wollmeise, Brooklyn Handspun) and will be sending out an email to members with details on how to purchase.

On Ravelry please remember to use a spoiler shield for 3 weeks from Friday . The pattern will be up next week, with a spoiler shield. The shield will come down on the 30th October when you can take the shield off your project pages too.

What you will get in the Knit Love Club:

• 6 parcels of Socktopus special spun sock yarn, approx retail value £15
• 6 patterns to go with each yarn, approx retail value £4
• A bonus skein approx retail value £25
• An accompanying bonus 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. Exclusivity on the patterns and yarn ends at the close of the club year

THE DETAILS

1) Designs: The designs will be by Alice (that’s me!) and exclusive to the club for the duration of the club year.

2) Yarn: This year we will have a totally new, specially spun, made in the UK sock yarn! The totally new sock yarn is being spun exclusively for me here in Britain to the specifications of my socky heart. Which means it will be a lovely rounded 3-ply sock yarn (100% superwash organic merino) with a nice tight twist in a heavy fingering weight. The skeins will be approx 120 grams and 390m.

3) Colourways: I will be dying the colourways so I have artistic control over pairings between pattern and colourway. Am very excited and have been like a mad scientist at the dye pots! The colourways will range from solid, semi-solid, to variegated. Solid and Semi-solid are pretty straightforward, but the variegation needs a little explaining. There will be 2 kinds of variegated yarns. The first kind is a soft variegation – think Malabrigo, Manos, water based dying where colours softly blend into one another. The second kind where you have a splash of colour spiralling its way up the sock when the right gauge is hit. It’s sort of ‘spiral pooling’ not just pooling which I take to mean splotches of a colour with no discernible patterning. It’s not self striping because it is not round after round of a single colour, followed by round after round of another colour. For want of a better term, I’m going to call it spirooling.

4) Patterns: These will be pdf downloads from the club drop box. 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 (members can opt out if they wish).

5) Bonus: There will be one bonus skein and pattern that may or may not be a KAL sent out with one of the parcels.

6) Schedule: The sock yarn parcels will be sent out during the 4th week of Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov 2011.

7) 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 and free resource and a fun place to meet like minded people.

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 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.

9) Cost: The cost for Full Membership for the year is £150, including VAT, postage & packaging within the UK. For EU addresses add £10 for postage. For ROW (that is, the rest of the world outside the EU) add £33. There is also a Pattern Only option below, which is £50 including postage & packaging with the UK. The Pattern Only option includes everything but the yarn.

Full Membership

Pattern Only Option

Previously we’ve had covetable yarns that you can’t get in the UK. This year, it will still be covetable -  a totally new, specially spun, made in the UK sock yarn!  I am so excited as I haven’t quite found my perfect sock yarn – they are either too thin or too thick, not spun tightly enough, or only 2 plies… but this baby is my dream yarn:  spun exclusively for me here in Britain to the specifications of my socky heart. Which means a lovely rounded 3-ply sock yarn (100% superwash merino or possibly BFL if the micron count is fine enough), with a nice tight twist in a heavy fingering weight. I’m still working with the mill to finalise the yarn, but it will have approx 120 grams per skein and at least enough yardage to finish a pair of average sized socks.

What you will get in this club:

• 6 parcels of sock yarn, approx retail value £15
• 6 patterns to go with each yarn, approx retail value £4
• A bonus skein approx retail value £25
• An accompanying bonus 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. Exclusivity on the patterns and yarn ends at the close of the club year

THE DETAILS

1) Designs: The designs will be by Alice (that’s me!) and exclusive to the club for the duration of the club year.

2) Colourways: The colourways will range from solid, semi-solid, to variegated. Solid and Semi-solid are pretty straightforward, but the variegation needs a little explaining. There will be 2 kinds of variegated yarns. The first kind is a soft variegation – think Malabrigo, Manos, water based dying where colours softly blend into one another. The second kind where you have a splash of colour spiralling its way up the sock when the right gauge is hit. It’s sort of ‘spiral pooling’ not just pooling which I take to mean splotches of a colour with no discernible patterning. It’s not self striping because it is not round after round of a single colour, followed by round after round of another colour. For want of a better term, I’m going to call it spirooling.

3) Patterns: These will be pdf downloads from the club drop box. 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 (members can opt out if they wish).

4) Bonus: There will be one bonus skein and pattern that may or may not be a KAL sent out with one of the parcels.

5) Schedule: The sock yarn parcels will be sent out during the 4th week of Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov 2011.

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.

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 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 £150, including VAT, postage & packaging within the UK. For EU addresses add £10 for postage. For ROW (that is, the rest of the world outside the EU) add £33.

If you’d like to sign up for a reminder when Knit Love Club opens for new membership, enter your details in the form below:

On Ravelry please remember to use a spoiler shield for 3 weeks after today. The pattern will be up next week, with a spoiler shield. The shield will come down on the 30th August.

Your parcels will be sent off on the 7 August.

While waiting, come on down to Knit Nation and wear your lovely socks to show off! Hope to see you there.

Axx

The May parcel will be posted out on the 26th May. If you would like to pick up from All the Fun of the Fair/Thursday Knit Night, please let me know by email with subject “Sock Club Pick Up” by Saturday 22nd May so I can set yours aside from the mailing piles. Thanks!

The hooked rug tote is made from recycled fabric, lined with an interior pocket and zip closure and measures 31 cm by 34 cm. It has an adjustable leather shoulder strap that at its shortest setting measures 95cm end to end. Because each bag is made by hand, they are one of a kind. I think they did a great job with the wee owls, and I really like the polka dot lining!

They take about 8 weeks to deliver, and cost £150 plus shipping (from the UK to you). If you want one, please email me with BE SWEET CLUB BAG as the subject heading.

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.