It’s almost time for “sock club” signups for 2011, but we’ve made a few changes, including the name. Since not every shipment will include a sock yarn or sock pattern, we’ve decided to simply call it “Club Loopy” this year. Do you want to know more? (Lots of info in this post! Note: Signups will be available this week for auto-renewing and next week for new spots. See below.)

1. We will do these in two different rounds of 3 months each. The first round will be the Club Loopy for Spring with shipments in February/March/April.  (3 kits total) The second round is planned for shipments in September/October/November and will be our Club Loopy for Fall.

2. We will be offering this two ways.

1. You can buy a full spot in the Club (via a one time payment that covers all three months and reserves all three kits for you) and we’ll ship each kit out to you automatically by mid-month in February, March, and April. Or:

2. You can wait until the kits come out each month and purchase an individual kit for that month only.

3. We’re all about bags and quotes in this first round. Each month, you’ll be receiving

1. an exclusively dyed skein of yarn
2. two patterns written for the yarn
3. an exclusive Baggu Bag with a knitting quote on it.

Each of the quotes will be one that we have decorating the walls here at Loopy. Since this is new, we’re giving you a preview of the first bag. Each month you will get a different color and size of bag with a different knitting quote on it. We didn’t order extra quote bags to sell at a later date. These are exclusive to Club Loopy. We will, however, be offering non-imprinted Baggu Bags and accessories soon.  The bags are made of a nylon parachute-like material. (Like the GoKnit bags, if you have one of those.) They come in a little pouch and are easy to pop into your knitting bag or purse, with your project. Also, easy to loop the straps over your arm and knit on the go. And the bigger they get, the more yarn they can carry! Great for shopping.

4. Since the bag sizes and yarns are all different, the price for each kit will vary slightly from month to month. If you are using the pre-pay option, we’ve figured this all up into one price. The 3 month pre-pay cost is less than if you were to purchase each kit separately.

5. For this round, two months will bring you yarn in multi-colors and one month will bring you a beautiful semi-solid. Two will be fingering weights, one will be a DK weight. Our designers (Debbie O’Neill, Wendy Johnson, Jeannie Cartmel, and Kirsten Kapur) have been hard at work on the patterns, and the dye companies (no hints on those!) have been dyeing up a storm.

6. If you were in the sock club for the first time in 2010, watch your emails this week for a link to auto-renew and pay for the February/March/April round, if you choose. For the Fall Club Loopy, we won’t be doing auto-renews, but we hope you’ll come back and get a spot when they go up on the website.

7. We’ll sell most of the Club Loopy spots via the 3-month pre-pay option, but as I mentioned above, we will set aside a batch for individual sales each month as well.

8. The 3-month spots will go up on the website next week. As soon as you put it into your cart and pay for it, the spot is yours. We’ll ship your first kit out in a couple of weeks. No lotteries, no Loopy Lite options. We figure a 3 month round is sort of like Loopy Lite, which I know a lot of you enjoyed! To purchase the kits individually month to month, watch for them to go up mid-month, after the pre-paid kits have shipped.

9. The cost will be:
- 3 month option: $127 (plus $18 postage US & Canada, $28 postage for other countries)
- Individually: February $39 plus postage, March $46 plus postage, April $49 plus postage. All kits ship separately and can’t be added to other orders.

I’ll be sure to post on our Facebook, Twitter, and Ravelry pages when the spots are up for sale on the website. If you’re not linked up with one of those groups, come link up! (That means clicking “like” on our Facebook page, or “following” us on our Twitter page, or “joining the group” on the Loopy Groupies Ravelry page.) You’ll find the Club Loopy spots under What’s New, and also in the “Kits” section, when they go up for sale next week.

We’ll also be offering a Mother’s Day Kit in April, a Loopy Anniversary Kit in August, and possibly another special kit later in the Fall. We’ll keep you posted on those as well.

Sheri hopingtheweathermanwasrighttoday:SNOW!