Revision to Locking Orders and Charging Cards
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 02, 2020 at 07:58:43 PM

Sorry guys, a little bit of a misunderstanding on my end, but I'm not able to charge cards without first locking orders on Backerkit. So, I'm going to initiate the locking process this evening my time, and that will give everybody a few days to make final changes to add-ons, colors, weights, etc. You will all get an email notification about this as well from Backerkit, linking back to your survey.

After everything is locked, cards will be charged beginning of next week. Emails will go out before cards are charged with a link to change payment info if needed as well. Sorry for the confusion here!

After orders are locked and charges are made, you'll still be able to add-on or change colors if needed, but it would have to be done through me personally.

Hope that makes sense! Holler if you have any questions.

Thank you!

Jon

We've received the rest of our fiber! Also Backerkit Locking and Card Charging Info
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:51:09 PM

Hey everybody!

I feel like we're officially through the crux of the campaign now that we've received the rest of the fiber! It's all lovely, soft, and ready to be made into beautiful things. I think we pretty much got the rest of the grey baby yak fiber in the country as well, so thankfully all of that worked out well. I was sweating a bit when the delivery got pushed back a few times, but all in the clear!

Here's also some looks at the different yarn weights. I think third time is a charm and we have properly weighted yarns! They really do look beautiful up close

Some more videos of the processing, making our charcoal gray. Starting off with the mixed cream and black, then it gets carded and mixed all while going through the machine. A long clip, but too cool not to share!

Here's our green, ready to get twisted and plied:

Beautiful Blue:

So that's about the updating there is as far as the yarn goes. All of the items (hats, scarves, and gloves) are in the finishing processes and I'll have pictures of those in the next update. The handspun is also on its way and will be ready soon. Talking the factory manager today, we're looking at around mid-October for everything to be skiened, labeled, and ready to ship. As long as things don't get too goofy with shipping to the states, we should still be looking right on schedule.

For Backerkit, orders are going to be locked for spinning fiber on the 3rd, but leave the yarn and other items open for add-ons up until shipping. Almost all of the fiber not earmarked for the fiber bags has already gone into the yarn, so that's going to be limited and don't want to over extend.

For orders on Backerkit, I'm going to charge cards on September 3rd. If you'd like to get back to your survey to make edits, please follow this link:  https://herderstohome2020.backerkit.com/ 

After cards are charged, you'll still be able to add more items, swap colors, etc. up until the final prep for shipping in Mongolia where exact counts will be needed. That will probably be in about a month.

That's about it for me! I'll post again in a few weeks when the spinning is done and we're all into the skeining and labeling work. As always, feel free to holler with any questions!

Thank you!

Jon

Things are spinning and some yak wool is coming!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 12:40:18 AM

Hey everybody!

A bit of an update to share. I got some of the extra grey yak wool, so there are pics! Still waiting on our original order of yak, which is going as expected. By our contract we were planning for middle of next month, but hoping for end of this week or middle of next week. There's a bit of a backup at the moment for yak wool processing, so things have gotten pushed back a couple of times. Today we got 55kg, and around the end of the week I'll get another 85kg. With the originally planned yak wool order, we'll get 50kg of the gray and all the browns as well.

Trips to the factory for fiber delivery also mean pics of yarn process! Camel and crimson cashmere are in different states of production at the moment, so got some cool stuff to show. The copper camel also looked exactly like what I was hoping for in yarn form. It definitely picked up some depth and some of the rustic/natural color look I was hoping for. I'm still having a really hard to get great pictures in the factory lighting to show the color exactly though! The plying video coming up might show it best.

For those interested in the production process, here's some of our cashmere after going through the carding machine. Here is just together in bands without any twist, waiting to be twisted into single ply.

After the single plys get made, they come here to get combined either for 2ply (lace) 3 ply (fingering) or 6 ply (DK). The copper camel getting in on some work here!

Finally, the plys are twisted and balanced together here to get the final weighted yarn.

After this process, they will make the hanks, and then twist them into skeins. Not quite there yet, but that's where it's going! Everything so far is definitely on schedule, so as long as there are no substantial delays in the yak wool, we're looking good. Even if the yak doesn't come for a few weeks, there's enough work with all the different cashmere colors that we're not losing time.

I still want to wait until I have pictures out of the brown yak fibers to lock orders and charge cards on Backerkit, so hopefully the end of next week will be enough time for that. I'll post another update with pics and a reminder for everything!

That's about it for me... but I think I'm starting to run out of animal pics! I'm waiting on some audio equipment from the states, then I think I'm going to hit the countryside a bit. Until then, sorry if some of these are repeats. I should also do a better job of remembering what I post!

If you need to get back into your survey to make corrections, you can follow this link to get it sent to you.

As always, holler with any questions, comments, or concerns!

THANK YOU!

-Jon

Pics of our COLORS! and other updates (yak wool delivery, backerkit lock dates, final yarn specs)
over 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 10:51:44 PM

Hey Everybody!

Had a pretty eventful couple of days here so have some juicy things to share in an update. If there's ever anything you'd like to discuss more in depth and leaving a comment might seem too brief, feel free to join our raverly group. If you have a question about something I'm sure others are thinking the same thing too!

Baby Yak Wool

Maybe most important for my sanity is I checked/tested everything out with our extra gray baby yak wool and it's perfect, so I'll hopefully be taking delivery of it sometime end of this week/early next week. The rest of our baby yak wool is also currently in the process of being dehaired and washed, where they separate the softest yak down (that we use) from the larger guard hairs that are no good for us. That's a bit ahead of schedule and will be ready by the end of this month, which is great news. Not that it's ever been an issue for me, but I can always sleep a little more soundly when I have all the fiber in hand.

Fiber Colors

All of our dyed fibers (copper camel and the 4 cashmere colors) are back from the dyers! Photos are a bit tough at the factory because of lighting conditions, but trying to do my best here. Everything looks awesome and according to plan!

At first glace to me, the camel fiber seemed a bit... orange? and a little flat. I didn't think it had the richness that I was hoping for, but rubbing and twisting it into some yarn brought that awesome fall color I was hoping for. The way the yarn holds the light compared to the loose fiber makes a big difference, so I can't wait to see this spun out!

Grabbing handful of the crimson!

Something that I didn't understand completely until this year, but some of the different colors have a kind of 'recipe' and are made with a mix of different colors. I thought everything was mixed together at the dyers, but it's actually done at the spinning factory. Our olive green is made from varying quantities of these 5 colors. The charcoal grey is also a mix of an almost black and cream.

I'm a little worried to post this because it's hard to believe this will mix seamlessly make the same dark olive green in the pictures, but this is it! The darker colors are a higher % than the lighter colors, but it all comes together to make an awesome rich mix of a green color. The crimson and cobalt are all dyed from just one color, so they are already done. The charcoal gray and olive green will get mixed right before spinning.

Yarn Specs

After a bit of a problem, crunching the numbers, then meeting with the engineers, we had to adjust the final specs of the yarn a little bit. The final goals for our length numbers are going to be:

• 650yds/100g for the lace 
• 430yds/100g for the fingering
• 215yds/100g for the DK

The lace will be a 2 ply construction, the fingering will be a 3 ply construction, and the DK will be a 6 ply construction, up from the 4 that we had our previous two years.

Backerkit Dates

As things are getting closer and more defined, let's set 8/31 as the day to lock orders and charge cards for Backerkit. I'll still post an updates between now and then when we get the gray yak wool and other yak wool so everybody can get a good idea of what that will look like and make adjustments where needed (it's going to be awesome). We'll still be able to make changes and add-ons with the yarn, but it's more important for the other items to be locked down by then.

Other Things

Unfortunately it hasn't really been possible to get back out to the countryside where our handspun is being made, but that is all in progress and also on schedule, so hopefully I'll have some pictures of those soon. As far as scheduling for our machine spun yarn, I'll get an estimate around the end of this week, but at this point we're definitely ahead of schedule. I was waiting for the final yarn specs to make the labels, so I'll start having those made next week now that everything is hammered out!

Ah yes, and our baby camel shawls and baby yak hats, gloves, and shawls are almost ready! I've got some woven labels coming from America now, so those will hopefully be out and ready by the end of the month as well.

OK that's it for me, and here are a couple pictures of yaks! I'm hoping sometime in the next few weeks I can get out to the countryside a bit and get some more shots (maybe with some camels if I'm lucky) and have some different landscapes to share.

Thank you all! Please feel free to holler with any questions!

-Jon

Cashmere and Baby Camel Wool Fiber Is Here!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 09:41:43 PM

Hey Everybody,

It's been a couple weeks and finally have some things to update on. Thank you to everybody that went though and answered your survey! About 90% of the surveys got done in the first 10 days, and that gave me all the information I needed to get the fiber order together. If you need to make changes, we still have plenty of time to do so. If you need to find your survey again, you can follow this link. 

Yesterday morning I sent in the order to our cooperative, then I got out to the factory in the afternoon after my classes to receive it! This is most of it on the truck, and another 3 bags of cashmere were in an SUV as well. The process of where it starts to the beautiful things it turns into is always awesome.

I didn't have too much time to play with it since they were leaving and gave me a ride back to the city center after we weighed everything out. Now the dyeing process will start and the spinning of the natural colors (the baby camel and cream cashmere) will get underway pretty quick. When we get our colors back, I'll go for some more pics!

As planned, the baby yak wool will be coming around the beginning of September. I had to do a little bit of anxious scrambling as the orders for yak wool were coming in as the platinum gray was VERY popular compared to the other two colors and exceeded what I had reserved on contract. The gray yak is more rare here, so I had to use my network a bit to thankfully find some more gray baby yak to fill everything. We're good now, and even have a backup for the backup, but I was a little concerned I was going to have to propose a yak-cashmere natural gray blend to make up the extra weight. Although I'm glad we won't need to do that, I did get be curious how it would turn out! Maybe next season...

I think that about catches us all up! I'd say we've got a great start on timing for spinning and processing, and as long as the baby yak gets to us pretty close to on schedule, we're definitely looking in good shape.

As always, holler with any questions, comments, or concerns. If you need help getting back to your survey, you can always follow this link.

Thank you!

-Jon