The Finished $40,000 Stretch Goal - Jon Knits a Sweater! (and general update)
about 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 02, 2020 at 03:40:01 AM

Hey Everybody!

Crazy times I know, but wanted to send out an update as a final update to last years project, as well as give some info about what's going to be happening this summer with the next campaign.

The Stretch Goal:

I guess first things first, I finished my sweater! For those that might not recall, the $40,000 stretch goal on last years project was for me to knit a sweater within a year. After the project was funded, I picked up the needles and started knitting. Started off with a simple hat, then went on to a cabled scarf, then finally ended up tackling my sweater. 

The Scarf:  Braid Cable Reversible Scarf 

The Sweater:  Fyn Sweater 

So thank you guys for the motivation to keep me pressing on to learn a new hobby! Also, big thanks to everybody that followed the thread in our Ravelry Group and offered help and suggestions when I needed it. I just finished the sweater last weekend, and I'm thinking my next projects might be a pair of baby blankets for both my nephew and then another niece/nephew I have on the way.

ULA+LIA 2020 Campaign:

For this next year, I'm planning to once again to run a campaign around the beginning of June once fiber prices hit the market and have been finalized. With everything that's going on, I'm not too sure what to expect this season, but there are a few things I'm pretty excited about:

• Planning to offer baby yak wool, produced by a small cooperative 
• Offering hand-spun yarn produced by members of herding co-operatives
• Continuing to improve consistency and quality in our yarn
• Continuing to offer the best cashmere, yak, and baby camel wool available

I'm currently waiting for a new camera here in Mongolia and then I am going to take a trip to the countryside and see the cooperative and it's operations up close. After that, I'll understand a bit more about everything involved. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better videos and pics with some new equipment!

As always, leave comments, or join our Ravelry Group especially to give feedback and make suggestions for the next campaign. Social media (Instagram,  Facebook) always work great as well!

Mongolia in General:

If anybody is curious about what's happening over here, Mongolia is doing pretty well through all of this craziness. All of the borders are closed at the moment (until at least April 30th), and the only flights in/out of the country are occasional chartered flights to repatriate citizens. Everybody that comes in is quarantined for 21 days, so the only cases in the country are from those flights (12 total, 10 current). Before borders were shut, there was only one case in the public in Mongolia, but luckily it wasn't transferred to anybody else. In the end, I guess that's one of the good things about living somewhere that only has a couple land borders and only one international airport.

All that being said, schools and gyms are closed, as well as anything that involves meetings of more than 6 people. Not sure when all of this will end, but there's talk that schools will be opened again at the beginning of May.

So, I guess that's about it for me! Although my inventory is getting pretty slim, there's still a lot of sheep wool and fiber available through my website. If anybody is in need of yarn right now, use the code 'spring25' on our website ( www.ulaandlia.com ) for a 25% discount. Other than that, please keep me in mind again this summer!

Thank you!

Jon

Giveaway competition and Washing Instructions!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Dec 02, 2019 at 06:36:47 PM

Hey everybody,

Should be getting around the time where everybody has gotten their items apart from a few holdouts internationally. A couple countries in the EU seemed to be particularly difficult, but I think 99% of Backers have received their goodies. If you haven't, send me a message so we can figure out what's going on!

So, since (almost) everybody's got their stuff, please show me some pics! If you complete a project (or make good progress on a big project!) post it and tag me on Instagram or post it on the giveaway thread in our Ravelry group! At the end of January I'll select 3 winners to get 2 skeins of their choice. It's a great way for me to see the yarn in all their glory, so I hope you guys can find some time to get your needles warmed up. For the spinners, feel free to post spun yarn as well to enter!

As for me, I'm currently working on a scarf with the dark melange sheep wool, doubling up the DK for some bulk that will be perfectly fitting for the Mongolian winter!

After finishing this in the next few weeks or so I'll start on my sweater. Hopefully by the beginning of spring that will be completed and we can start this whole process over again!

Washing Instructions

Some backers had questions about the smell of the yarn, both an animal scent and a chemical/petroleum smell. Both are normal and can be removed with a good washing! Whether you have issues with the smell or not, it's still a great idea to wash your yarn as it will make the yarn a lot SOFTER once any industrial oils are removed! My advice is to follow a guide that was posted to remove spinning oil on colormart yarn. This process will work just as well with ours! The full article is here, but these are the basics:

Soap: For the first washes you want to use a detergent to remove the spinning oils that are on all ColourMart yarns. Dish soap is the prefered detergent but make sure it is enzyme free and NOT antibacterial. In North America, Dawn Blue is good enough for oily ducks and yarn! In Europe and other places, Fairy Liquid is recommended.

Water Temperature: Water should only be as hot as what comes out of your tap or less. Anything hotter and you risk ruining the yarn. If you scald your hands then the water is too hot!! Many yarn manufacturers now recommend 30c to 40c/86f to 104f for removing lubricants from their yarns.

The Process: (Cashmere, wool, yak, silk… it’s all done the same.) This is the same process if you are prewashing skeins of yarn, your knit swatches or washing a FO.

Wash

Fill sink or container with hot water and add about 3 times as much soap as you think that you’ll need. (A sink full of dishes would need a tsp. or so, so you’ll need a tablespoon or more dish soap. I use water/wine glasses for swatches and small bowls for small things like hats. Same process, less soap.)

Add items to the hot soapy water and let soak for about 15 minutes. Gently swish/squeeze but don’t over agitate or you may start to see some felting/fulling. Be gentle! (Do not let the water cool down too much or you’ll have to repeat the process more.)

Repeat these 2 steps, at least 2 or 3 more times, until water is no longer cloudy/milky looking.

Rinse * Rinse in the same temp. hot water 2 or 3 times, letting it soak for about 5 minutes each time. Add a bit of vinegar to the final rinse to balance the yarn’s PH.

Roll up in a towel to squeeze out excess water and lay flat to dry. (When I wash skeins, which is a rare event, I hang my skeins on a hanger to dry but FO’s and swatches just get laid flat to dry.)

Subsequent Washing Now that you have removed the spinning oils from the yarn/FO, wash as you would normally any other FO. A nice warmish wash in “Soak or Eucalan” and lay flat to dry.

So, long story short? Don't be too afraid to get a little rough with your yarn and use HOT water and soap! In my experience I haven't needed to repeat the process multiple times, but your mileage may vary. If you have anymore questions about washing or care, post here or feel free to post on the thread in our Ravelry Group.

So, that's about it for me for now. The couple weeks after getting back to Mongolia were hectic, but now I'm settling back into my teaching schedule and routine. I'm planning to take a short countryside trip in the next few weeks to get some cold winter pics with the animals and see how they are doing with our fiber for next year! The website is still up and running and the best way to see what's in stock and make orders! Free shipping as always on orders over $60. (www.UlaAndLia.com)

I'm also making progress for another kickstarter project with Mongolian felt slippers. After a couple shots with suppliers where the quality didn't quite meet my expectations, I think I've finally found the incredible quality that I'm completely comfortable with. The big idea is to do that next month or so and have it completed, produced, and delivered by the time we do another yarn campaign in late spring!

Thanks for everything and for such an awesome campaign yet again! Please stay in touch, I always love to see project pictures!

Ravelry Instragram Facebook www.ulaandlia.com

-Jon

Everything is OUT!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 07, 2019 at 11:24:17 PM

Hey everybody,

So I just clicked the button to send everybody their shipping notifications because all the packages have been dropped off at the post office! Shipping info should be updated to the labels either this evening or sometime tomorrow after it all gets moving in the system.

After some delays getting everything delivered here in Pittsburgh, we ended up getting the shipment Tuesday morning. Taking the band-aide approach, my mom, dad and I worked late Tuesday and all day Wednesday to get everything wrapped up *and to give my mom her house back ;) * The cat was also going crazy, so we had to get things back to normal ASAP!

The general system was my mom would pull the orders from the boxes in the living room and dining room, then my dad and I would double check and package everything in the kitchen. There was a lot more this year compared to last year, but things were a bit more organized so it went quicker in the end! The skeins were a little more awkward to pack compared to the cakes, so I apologize in advance if the mailers are packed a little strangely.

So yea, everything's gone. Now what?! I'm going to start making a sweater soon, and we'll also get a knit-a-long or two going on our ravelry page, so join with us there! I'd also like to do some competitions or giveaways for projects next month once everybody gets their yarn. Still open to ideas for both of those. As always, I try to post pics of Mongolia and animals as much as I can on Instagram and Facebook, so follow me somewhere so we can stay in touch! I still need to update some photos, but the eCommerce site is still www.UlaAndLia.com.

The wheel is always turning for other projects, and am already going through some iterations for felt slippers I hope to finalize soon. Next year I definitely hope to do another yarn kickstarter, but maybe with fewer SKUs but some more unique items... maybe baby yak or some blends? We'll see!

That's it for me for now. Please let me know when you start getting your packages, and definitely share pics when you start knitting! As always, holler if you guys have any questions, and THANK YOU again for another awesome campaign!

-Jon

Are you sure you wanted fiber?
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 01:24:26 PM

Hey guys,

If you're getting an email notification for this update, it's because you signed up to receive fiber in your orders, not yarn. So, if you were expecting to get fiber in your package, great! But if you were expecting to get yarn and don't want to learn how to spin this holiday season, send me a message so we can straighten this out before everything goes in the mail!

That's all, just figured it was better to check now then after everything goes out! As always, holler if you have any questions.

-Jon

Everything's on its way to America, and new website!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 12:02:01 AM

Hey everybody,

After a little bit of a delay last week getting everything finalized, all of our beautiful yarn and fiber made its way onto a plane Thursday evening! From just talking with DHL, it's making its way over to Pittsburgh from Chicago for final customs clearance at this point, so it should get home right around the time I do if everything goes as planned! *fingers crossed*

For the next year, I've revamped my website (www.ulaandlia.com) and simplified things a bit. I don't have all of the product photos that I need yet (e.g. changing the pictures of yarns to skeins) but I'll update that in the next week or so once I'm home and unpack everything! It will still be a work in progress for the next few weeks for sure.

The important part is that the inventory is calculated and loaded to the products, so if you've come up with another idea for a project or have decided you'd like to add-on before everything ships out, just use the code Kick2019 in the checkout for free shipping. I'll put everything together in one shipment, so if you use a different email or name on the website, please write in the notes the email you used for kickstarter so I can tie everything together! This will work for the next 72 hours until I start wrapping things up and getting ready to ship out.

I forgot that I had ran into this problem last year as well, but unfortunately this year the order for DK and Fingering weights got switched up at the factory for both of the yak wool orders. (e.g. fiber input for Light brown DK was used for light brown Fingering, and visa-versa) Because of this, I was actually a little short on the milk yak fingering, but luckily with the help of some yak wool backers, that was able to get straightened out! So thanks for bailing me out with that one. Literally the type of stuff I lose sleep over. For the dark yak, I still had enough inventory planned to cover the difference, but I did end up a little low in DK and heavier in the fingering.

So, other than being out of milk chocolate fingering and low on dark yak DK, inventory actually looks pretty even. Crimson DK and fingering are a little lower than I was hoping for, but there's still a lot of lace left. Hopefully we'll have a good mix available in inventory for a bit!

So that's about it for me for now. I'm about 30 hours away from my flight to Pittsburgh. I'll send an update with pictures when fulfillment gets going at the end of this weekend!

Thank you all again and as always, holler with any questions!

-Jon