Surveys Starting to Roll Out!
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 02:35:44 AM

Hey everybody,

The surveys are starting to roll out! We're starting with a small smoke test to make sure everything goes smoothly on Backerkit, so only 5% of people will get the survey immediately. If you take the survey and run into an issues at all, please let me know! Otherwise, If nothing blows up on Backerkit, everybody else will be getting their survey at this time tomorrow! 

The invite to your Backerkit profile should be sent to the email used for Kickstarter within 24 hours. If you don't get an email about your survey by Saturday night/Sunday morning and you've checked your spam folders, please send me an email and I'll make sure you get connected to your account.

In other news, the lace weight options that made the cut were Crimson for the cashmere, Dark Chocolate Brown for the yak, and the Natural Cream Melange for the sheep wool. Baby Camel Wool will also be available in the lace weight! Thanks to everybody that took the time to fill out the survey, and sorry if the color you were hoping for in lace didn't make it.

How to Use Backerkit

-Pledge Level Options

For anybody that hasn't used Backerkit before, it should be a pretty straightforward process. Once you follow the link in your email to get into Backerkit (within 24 hours of this update) you can just click the "Get Started" button. After that, you'll have to choose your weights (for yarn) and color (for yarn and fiber) for each skein of yarn. It can be a bit clunky, but you choose your options for each skein, so if you'd like, you can mix and match your 200g or 500g packages with different colors and weights. 

-Add-Ons

After you've selected your options for your pledge level, you'll be taken to the "Add-Ons" page. Here, you can choose more pledge levels, extra skeins, or woven blankets to add to your purchase. If you have options to choose, you will be asked AFTER you click the "Next" button before adding "Shipping" info and final checkout.

Shipping, depending on your location, is added on per item, but will be much much cheaper than the origination shipping charge that was on Kickstarter.

Thank you guys for the continued support and patience. If all goes as planned, our fiber should start coming in at the beginning of next month, so exciting times! Everything is still looking plenty in order to have things produced and out by November.

As always, if you guys have any questions at all, please holler!  (and, obligatory animal)

-Jon

Link for (optional) poll to decide lace options!
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 15, 2019 at 12:32:40 AM

Hey everybody,

A week after the campaign has ended, and I think my brain has finally dropped the addiction of checking the funding status ever free second I have! 

We're still about a week away from Backerkit opening, but I wanted to send out a survey now for those that are interested in lace weight yarn. We'll have one lace weight option in each fiber, but need help from you guys to decide which colors to do it in. 

To find the survey, just follow the link here:  Lace Weight Survey 

The baby camel isn't on there because there is only the one color option, so that made the list automatically!

As for everything else, Backerkit should be open by the end of next week. Hopefully you'll here from me on Thursday or Friday (the 20th or 21st), and be getting an email to find your Backerkit profile where you'll choose your yarn colors and weights!

As always, thank you for the support, and holler with any questions! 

-Jon

(Obligatory Animals Attached)

Thank you to everybody for an awesome campaign, here's what comes next!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 02:34:43 PM

Hey everybody,

Can't say it enough, but thank you all to everybody that came back from last year, and all the new backers for giving us a chance. Can't wait to get everything out and in your hands!

For you guys, the next steps are going to be:

1) Deciding which fibers/colors will get lace weight

2) Getting into Backerkit in 2 weeks to select colors and weights, as well as select your addons

Even though we didn't hit $60k, we are still going to do a selection of fibers and colors in lace-weight for people that want something thinner. To make sure I don't spread my batches too thin, I'm going to send out a poll (probably through survey monkey) where you guys can make your choice for what you'd most like lace in. I'm thinking one lace weight batch per fiber in addition to the DK and Fingering weight should be manageable!

As for Backerkit, it takes about two weeks for the charging of cards from Kickstarter to be completed and the funds released. At that point, I'll invite everybody into Backerkit where you'll be able to choose your yarn options and select anymore addons and pledges. I'll also have some of my blankets from the last campaign available if you'd like to pick up one of those!

For me, the next steps are signing contracts, getting the down payments sent over, and waiting for our fiber to start coming out at the beginning of next month. Last year, procurement took a bit longer than expected, but I'm hoping to have everything in hand at the latest by the end of August, and then the spinning will start!

So, expect to hear from me in a few days about the survey for those that would like some input in lace weight options, and then again in about two weeks when Backerkit is up and ready. In the meantime, holler on here or anyway you'd like if you have any questions.

Obligatory Mongolian animals:

Thank you!

-Jon

Last 72 hours, and "natural melange" update!
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 08, 2019 at 10:34:56 AM

Hey guys,

Home stretch here, so thank you all for an awesome campaign once again. We've had a lot of chatting in our Raverly group, and I've talked with a lot of you guys through comments and updates as well. As always, it's been a great trip!

Once I figured out that everybody had a bit of a different idea of what natural melange was, I ran a small poll in our group. We were pretty split directly down the middle on a lighter blend and on a darker blend, so the only logical thing to do is to make both. Expect the natural melange(s) to look something like the following pictures.

Dark:

Light:

I sent a message to my spinning factory today to figure out what mix of natural colors we'll be using for both, but this is what we'll be shooting for. It's possible it could change still in the next day or so, but I'll relay that information if anything comes up. It might be darker, lighter, or a bit more speckled, but this is the blueprint I'll be shooting for for both of them.
 

I was supposed to meet with my main contact from the co-op today, but he's still in the countryside, so the meeting is planned for Wednesday. I did have a chance to ask him about the sheep breeds well be using, and its either the Tamir sheep or the Sartuul sheep, or a mixture of the two. We are getting the special treatment here and getting finer wool than what's generally on the markets. When we meet on Wednesday (hopefully) I'll get even more information, especially about the Tamir sheep, as there's not much info I can find through googling. I'm assuming the thinner fiber we'll be getting will be from the youngins!

What else, what else?! It looks like we'll be a bit shy of $60k for the lace weight goal, which is honestly OK with me. Advertising this year was a bit more of an investment (speaking of which, thank you to everybody who joined through those efforts!), so batch sizes would be a bit of a squeeze to run lace weight on everything. Especially having 3 colors of cashmere it gets expensive quick, even after considering post funding in Backerkit. Once the campaign closes, I sign the contracts, and get final costs on everything, I'll run a poll to see what we can get some lace in. Maybe one color from each fiber is what I'm aiming for, but we'll see what's possible.

As always, an update wouldn't be complete without some pictures. Had a lovely trip to the countryside this weekend!

I always seem to compliment the goats on their big horns when I wrestle with them! This guy was particularly brave, I think he wants to get brushed again. He was rubbin' up on me and scratched himself with his horns, so maybe he's still shedding a bit and wanted some more! The goats are a bit more brave, but the sheep are pretty shy. Next time I go to the countryside I'll need to bring some treats to get them closer.

Alright that's all for me. As always, if you have any questions, please holler!

-Jon

Still cruising! Update on stretch goals and progress!
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2019 at 08:06:01 AM

Hey everybody,

Thank you again for all of the support so far! I'd like to welcome everybody that's arrived to the campaign from my various advertising efforts, either through Ravelry, Facebook, Reddit, or word of mouth. I appreciate you guys giving me a chance and I hope you enjoy the rest of the campaign!

Stretch Goals

I've updated the graphic to show everything we've done so far. I know we aren't quite at $40,000 yet, but I'm definitely going to knit that sweater! The thread has started on Ravelry, so follow along there if you'd like. I'm leaning towards the Fyn pattern, so excited to get my skills up to par and be ready when our yarn gets out. But of course, for the important things, all the colors are unlocked. Still working towards the lace weight, but it's looking like lace weight will most likely just be made in a few batches.

I'm thinking after the campaign ends I'll crunch the numbers and see exactly what we can make, and maybe send out another poll for what the most wanted fiber/color combos of lace are. I'm hoping no matter what we'll have at least a couple combos of lace weight, and then we can go back and add in some more if we can.

Sheep Wool

I'm starting to get some more information about the sheep wool from this year. I haven't got the exact numbers yet, but the general results from testing I got from Mongolia put the wool in the ~30 micron range. Talking with my coop, the area in Mongolia that has the best wool is from "Dundgobi" province, which more or less translates into "Middle Gobi" desert. The wool there is between 18-26 microns, which will be a lot nicer to work with. Generally speaking, merino wool is 24 microns or less, so I'm hoping we'll have something that can compete well with merino. As I get more information there I'll be sure to share!

Alrighty, that's it for me for now! Thanks again for all the support! Aaand here's a picture of a cute Mongolian baby in her traditional costume (Deel). My friend had a countryside wedding a few weeks ago, so got some good pics!

Alright, and a picture of a post the sheep and goats were using as a back scratcher

Ok, and a picture of a baby goat eating my jeans!

OK that's really it. Thank you again! As always, holler if you have any questions!

-Jon