Website Discount Code
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 06:49:16 PM

Hey everybody,

Just a quick note from me! The prices on the website have gone up to match up with retail prices for some of the wholesaling I've started doing. If you use the code 'backer25' on the website (www.ulaandlia.com) it will be good for a 25% discount and get things pretty close to where they were for the campaign. I increased the prices about a week or so ago, so if you might have bought something between now and then please send me a message and I'll refund the difference.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report or show since we're on lockdown over here in Mongolia and I haven't gotten a chance to get out to the countryside yet this year. Hopefully soon! I'm going to send out a newsletter in the next week about the next campaign as I need some help picking colors ;)

As always, please holler with any questions, comments, or concerns! Hope everybody is enjoying their yarn.

Thank you,

Jon

A Final Kickstarter 2020 Update!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 02:30:10 AM

Hey Everybody!

I hope everybody is having a nice spring and enjoying their soft things! I had originally hoped to write this update a few weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I was pretty sure all of the international packages finally filtered through to where they needed to go. Up until the beginning of this week, I know there were still a couple of people in Europe waiting for their shipments. As it is now, if you still haven't received your items, please send me an email ([email protected]) and we can sort it out as I'm pretty sure everything should be delivered by now.

As for everything else, I guess I'll just start laying it out!

Our Fiber for Next Year

It is spring time, so as critters start to get their brushing, plans start to be made for the coming year. So far it's been a rather interesting season with cashmere prices the highest they've ever been. Sometimes it takes a bit for prices to stabilize, but there seems to be a lot of demand. I guess that's a good sign things will start moving again this year!

For us, and although it isn't fully finalized yet, we're going to be working with the WCS (The Wildlife Conservation Society), the Sustainable Cashmere Project (now known as the South Gobi Cashmere Project), and others (The Sustainable Cashmere Union, AVSF). We will be purchasing all of our fiber (cashmere and camel wool) from a small herding cooperative in the South Gobi that have been involved with sustainability efforts for some years now. I'm hoping to get down there to meet the people and animals soon, but it might be until early summer before travel in country is realistic. Vaccinations are starting to roll out, but the COVID numbers are the worst they've been here and it might be a few months before things thaw out a bit.

The goal with this cooperative is to be able to fully trace and monitor where all of our wool comes from and monitor rangeland to develop realistic sustainability metrics. As we grow, we can bring more cooperatives into our project, and eventually scale to other international brands as well that want legitimately tracible and sustainable fiber for their products. Sustainability is really difficult, especially in a land without fences, but I hope you all trust me to be a leader in this area as ULA+LIA develops. When you invest in these projects and purchase our products, you directly enable this progress. This is the most important issue for me at the moment and moving forward.

This is still in the beginning stages, but I'm looking forward to really being on the forefront of sustainability here and also developing long lasting relationships with the herders we purchase from. Hopefully in the future we can also set up tourism so those of you that are curious enough can come over here and keep me honest ;)

For our yak wool, I plan to continue to purchase from the same small cooperative we did last year, as the more I've learned about them the more I've confirmed that they are doing incredible work with sustainability and I really couldn't source from anywhere doing it better. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Last year I wasn't able to visit any members, but again, hoping I'll be able to do so this summer with a bit of luck.

Constructive Feedback

I just started a constructive feedback thread in our Ravelry group. That's definitely the easiest way to let me know if you have any suggestions moving forward, but you can also always let me know via email ([email protected]) as well. Having everything in one place does make it easier, but I understand not everybody uses Ravelry. Although I go into a bit more depth on that thread, here are a few things that I already know are issues and am looking to fix.

1) Plastic bags

This year I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place with wrapping the individual skeins. The warehouse required items to be individually bagged and I didn’t have any good options here with both the timeframe I had and international shipping/border issues. I apologize for that, and I hope you guys can dispose of them properly, even though I know that’s not really realistic in a lot of cases. It seemed in the last few months I was learning more and more about how flawed recycling systems actually are.

For next year, if I still need to use a distribution service, I’ll either use recycled paper bags with my label information printed on them and have just a small hangtag on the skein inside, or I’ll use eco-friendly/degradable plastic bags. The first option seems more likely as any eco-friendly clear plastic bags I’ve found so far have been very expensive. Ideally though, I’ll be home doing distribution myself and we can sidestep the warehouse distribution requirements all together.

2) Shipping

Obviously this was a mess this year and I absolutely cannot do another season this way. In all honesty, I’m sure I’ve already lost customers because of it and I wonder if the business could handle another year like this one. It really is that serious to me.

Next year, I'll definitely have a better agreement for distribution time if we need to use a warehouse again. Hopefully, with port congestion back to historic levels and quicker distribution, we could easily save a few months. I'd also REALLY like to have things in stock for the holiday season as well, so I have a lot of motivation for this too!

A lot of customers also received rather large orders in plastic mailers rather than boxes, and next year any shipment with over 12 items will be boxed. 

If you'd like to expand on those topics or let me know your thoughts on any other quality/service topics, I'm all ears!

Online Sales

Not a whole ton to report here! Things are going pretty smoothly and you can still purchase yarn on our website (www.ulaandlia.com). I'm in some chats to start doing wholesale with some local yarn shops, and if I start selling in shops I'll have to increase prices on my website to match the in-store prices. If that is something we do, I will be giving Kickstarter backers a coupon on the side so they get a similar price to Kickstarter prices. In the end, even after 3 years, I still couldn't make the fiber purchases in the way I do without your help and initial investment, so I think people that invest early should always get the cheapest prices. If that is something that happens, I'll send another (private) update with a discount code.

KALs (Knit Alongs) and Yarn Giveaways

Now that I think most everybody has gotten their soft stuff, you're more than welcome to take part in our KALs on our Ravelry page. There are KALs for  Garments and Large Items ,  Hats, Gloves, Mittens, and Socks , Handspun Yak Wool , Scarves, Shawls, and Cowls , Swatches , and  Spinning Fiber . More or less, complete a project, post a picture in there, and I'll do a drawing where 1 person for every 10 people involved will get a free skein of their choice (e.g. if 21 people post projects, 3 will be chosen).

There's already a ton of great pieces, so it's also really nice to get project ideas and see other's beautiful knitting!

I *think* that's all I wanted to say! I feel like I'm going to push the 'Publish' button and immediately remember something else I wanted to say, but from here on out I'll try to be in touch a bit more regularly with a newsletter. Since I haven't been able to travel since last summer, I'm running a bit low on pictures, but still follow on  Instagram and  Facebook .

Thank you guys again for an awesome season, although it did get pretty crazy at the end of it! Crazy to think we'll be gearing up again in just another couple of months to start it all over. I hope you'll be there again!

THANK YOU!

Jon

Everything is in the mail!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 11:54:36 PM

Hey Everybody,

Maybe a bit of a longer one here, so breaking it up with headings!

Shipping

So, I think it's happened. As of Friday, everything was packed and ready to hit the mail system, and after the holiday here on Monday, everything should have gotten into the system. I know the mail system is never 100%, but...

I am beyond relieved not having to say "...one more week until things get out!" So thank you all again for the patience here. 

The biggest mistake I made in this whole process was thinking getting things out of Mongolia and on their way to the US would be the biggest unknown and possible delay. After that all got cleared, I thought it would be pretty easy. Then things got stuck at the dock, then at the warehouse... and with this being my first time with sea freight and using a warehouse, I didn't have much reference. I think there was also a misunderstanding between me and the warehouse as they told me a project of our size (approx. 900 shipments) would take two or three days. Although they might have thought that was roughly the same as the total pieces (it wasn't, total pieces was around 7,000) and staff issues on their end, it really dragged on.

In the future, I'll either hopefully be back to doing this with my parents at home, or I'll have a more defined contract for a deadline at a warehouse. Either way, that was definitely not enjoyable for anybody.

So, what now?

KALs

I just created some threads in our Ravelry group for some KALs (Knit-A-Long). Join us there to figure out patterns, post pictures of your projects, and be entered for yarn giveaways! There are different groups depending on your project, but for every 10 people that participate, we'll be giving away 1 or 2 skeins of your choice depending on the size of your project. We'll also be collecting swatches for gauge info to make life easier for everybody. That's really the best way to stay in touch moving forward, and I also love seeing the different projects everybody makes!

Wholesaling

In the next few days I think I'm going to rework the pricing on my website so I can start wholesaling to some yarn shops and try to get our yarn out to the world a bit more. It's taken a few years of feedback and patience, but I think the quality is finally where we want it to be and can work on expanding a bit.

Especially after everything you guys went through this year, it also doesn't make sense to have around the same prices on Kickstarter as on my site, as I feel you guys all deserve a bit more of a discount since you invested ahead of time and supported me through the uncertainty of production and delivery. In general, I think I want to make some things exclusive to Kickstarter in the future (e.g. pricing, special color(s), etc.)

So, a few things I'll most likely be doing:

• Increasing prices on my website so retail prices in shops will match the prices on my website
• Generating a coupon code for Kickstarter backers so they will always have access to Kickstarter pricing
• Doing my best to develop a network of local yarn shops to carry our soft stuff

I'm also considering doing something with yarn shops where any coupons I create can also be used in their shops and I can refund them directly for the discounts. So, if you have a local yarn shop that you love and think would be a good fit for our yarn, please let me know! Otherwise I'm just going to be googling and cold emailing a lot of shops :)

Once I figure out the pricing for everything and switch things up on my website, I'll send out an email with the code for your future purchases.

Monthly email

If this turns out to be every month or every other month, I'd like to keep the same Kickstarter-style email blast going. I feel like people enjoy the Kickstarter process with the updates about what's happening here, so thought I could continue that with emails. There are a few bigger things happening at the moment with sustainability programs and finding a way to work with/purchase directly from a herding group that I'd like to stay in touch about. It's also going to be spring soon, so hopefully lots of baby critter pics if COVID allows me to get out to the countryside a bit!

Washing Instructions

After some help and input from people on Ravelry, I've cross posted some washing instructions on my website. 

Is that all?

I think so, but I'm sure I'm going to think of something else as soon as I hit the 'Publish' button. If you still haven't gotten your tracking, just send me an email at [email protected] and I'll send it over! Every tracking number should have at least be in the hands of the courier and waiting for a scan.

For getting in touch, look me up on Facebook, Instagram, or our Ravelry group. Email always works as well, [email protected]. For purchases, www.ulaandlia.com!

I'll probably send out another quick update in a few weeks to make sure everybody got their stuff OK or maybe something else will come up. Anyways, I'll be in touch somehow soon!

THANK YOU ALL!

Jon

Now that everybody has their stuff on the way, I can show off my sweater from this year's yarn:

Still a few packages left to go out!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 07:54:31 PM

Hey everybody,

A little embarrassing to make this post as it's me saying the same thing all over again, but we're down to the last handful of larger orders waiting to go out and still need a few more days to complete everything. In the update I just got from the warehouse where I was turning the screws a bit, they said they are down to orders that have 10+ items in them that take a bit longer. Apparently they have been short some staff members, so delays from that as well. 

Anyways! I wanted to relay that information. They said it will be done this week, so hopefully this turns out to be the case this time. More importantly I just want people to know that are still waiting for their items to go out that everything is still OK, it's just a bit more delayed, but I promise and guarantee that everything will get to you.

As always, please holler at me with questions, comments, and concerns at [email protected] or  our Ravelry group.

THANK YOU for your continued patience this season!

-Jon

Packages are going out!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 03:47:45 AM

Hey Everybody,

Sorry for the delay in updates, but was wanted to wait for a Monday evening update from the warehouse so I had some more detailed information about progress and expectations. Packages have been going out daily since Thursday, but due to carriers rationing the amount of packages they will pick up it's been going (surprise surprise) slower than usual. For now, about 35-45% of packages are either in transit or ready to be picked up. At this rate (and confirmed by the warehouse) all packages should be out by the end of this week or beginning of next week. 

Your tracking numbers should have been emailed to you on January 5th or 6th. If you search for the email "[email protected]" you should be able to find it in your inbox. If you're still having issues and can't find tracking, please send me a message on here or email at [email protected] with the email address used on Backerkit and I'll send it over.

A few lucky people have already gotten their packages. To say I'm excited to start hearing feedback and seeing some castons would be a understatement. We've been at one stage or another of shipping since the beginning of November, so I think 3 months is enough! All things considered though, I think we've actually gotten a bit lucky that everything stayed marching forward and have just had a few 2 or 3 week delays at the beginning of different steps. This will definitely be one to look back on in the future!

I'll send an update out again when all packages are out at hopefully this time next week, or of course if anything else comes up that needs to be addressed. If you'd like to share pictures of your goodies or talk about plans for your upcoming projects, please join us at our raverly group!

Thank you all for your support and continued patience!

-Jon