Natural dyed camel wool shipping update and 2022 campaign schedule!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 31, 2022 at 09:05:40 PM

Hey Everybody,

For those still waiting for the natural dyed camel wool, thank you for your patience! Everything has cleared customs and is scheduled for delivery on Tuesday, the 31st. The plan is to get everything in the mail on June 1st. Everybody still waiting for the natural dyed camel wool will receive tracking info when it finally gets into the mail. As a reminder, the red camel wool did not make it through production, so I have already refunded everybody for those pledges. The ochre camel wool will be in the mail this week.

Herders to Home 2022

Finishing one, and on to the next! I'm still planning to launch Herders to Home 2022 on June 1st or 2nd, although I'm still waiting for final approval from Kickstarter to launch the project. If all goes as planned, everybody should receive a 24 hour heads up email from Backerkit and then another email when it finally launches. I'm sorry in advance for invading your inboxes so much in the next week!

I'm very excited about this year. I already had the chance to visit a new cooperative we're working with and the 14 families that will be providing our cashmere and baby camel wool. I can't wait to share the pictures and videos of the people and area!

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see everybody again in the next campaign!

THANK YOU!

-Jon

Natural Dye Came Wool, bulky weight yarn, and 2022 Colors Survey!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, May 03, 2022 at 12:50:27 AM

Hey Everybody,

A couple of updates here that will hopefully get us to the 2nd to last update for the 2021 Kickstarter, which is just in time for the 2022 campaign to start next month!

Natural Ochre Camel Wool is Spun Up!

Some mixed news here about the natural dyed camel wool. On the bright side, the ochre camel wool is spun and in the final stages of handwork and labeling to get it ready for shipping. As far as I'm aware, this is the first mass produced, naturally dyed yarn of any type made in Mongolia. I know there have been some finished items hand-dyed with natural dyes, but this is a first for anything at scale. It's been quite the trying and expensive process, but I'm proud that we have something to show! Your support through Kickstarter has made it possible to do something truly unique here and both I and my dyeing and spinning parters here learned a lot and have a path forward to make things better. It's a small country, and now there are go-to producers here for work on natural dyes.

It's definitely an interesting color and changes A LOT depending on the lighting situation it's in. The more sunlight it sees the more yellow it gets, and in the shade/darker areas more of the natural camel wool color comes out. It's VERY important to follow the washing instructions as the color will bleed more than other yarns before it gets a good bath and washing. If you are going to do color work with lighter items, I'd definitely reccomending washing before working it with other colors. The water definitely had some dye in it with the soap but rinsed out clear just like our other yarns and there wasn't any color transfer after a rigorous rub test post blocking. The color of the washed swatch didn't drastically or even noticiably change, so I think the dye took just fine but was just a bit overdyed.

This is also a sample of the bulky weight, as I wanted to test out a heavier weight before promising it on the next campaign. It's a 10 ply construction (compared to 6 for DK and 3 for Fingering) and I love the way it turned out.

For gauge, I got 3.5 stiches and 4.25 rows per inch pre washing and then 3.25/4.75 post washing with US10 needles. I'm pretty excited to see the cashmere and other fibers in the thicker weights for this year's Kickstarter! If you previously ordered the fingering or DK and want to try out the bulky weight, just send me a message and I'll switch things around.

For shipping timeline, the rest of the handwork/skeining will finish up this week and then we can get everything on a plane by the end of next week, according to theory and from what I've been told from DHL. I'd really like to get the packages at least on the way to people before launching the next campaign at the beginning of next month, so crossing my fingers it won't be too much of a mess getting everything home.

Refunds for Natural Dyed Red Camel Wool

Unfortunately here, we just could not get the fiber clean enough to spin. Whether it's from there being too much dye on the fiber, the fiber not holding the dye correctly, or some other reasons, the red fiber was causing too much dust when trying to spin. We sent it back to the dyers over the last two weeks for more washing and rinsing, but in the end we could not get it to work without causing serious contamination issues in the spinning factory. 

We're at the end of our rope here and I don't have anymore favors to call in, so we're throwing up the white flag for now and I've sent out refunds to everybody that ordered the red camel wool. Depending on the package it was part of and the shipping charges for your destination, the refund will be anywhere from $22 to $24 per skein/fiber bag ordered. It may take up to 10 days to see the refund on your payment method. If the card you used for the project has expired, the refund will be sorted directly to the bank account linked with the card. If that bank account has closed, please send me a message and we will work it out.

Thank you for your pateince with me during this process, but I'm very sorry we couldn't get it to work out in the end. I just recently received some updated guidance from the dye manufacturers about how to possibly adjust the final rinse to avoid some of the issues we've had, but it will probably be until after the busy season here for the producers before we get back to any testing.

2022 Colors

I made a quick survey to help gather some feedback about colors for next year! This is also important because the highest voted colors will be the lace options. I want to do at least limited bulky weight options as well, so knowing where the most interest is really helps for the planning. It's just two questions about the color and weights your most interested in and can be found here:  2022 Colors Survey.

That's about it for now! I'll holler once again whenever the packages with the ochre are going to get sent out and in the week or so leading up to the 2022 campaign! If you are interested in picking up some of the ochre camel for yourself, you can order it on the website here:  Ochre Baby Camel Wool. Please use the code KS2125 for a 25% discount for those that were part of the campaign.

THANK YOU!

-Jon

Natural Dyed Baby Camel Wool Update and 2022 Kickstarter Plans
about 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 15, 2022 at 09:25:53 PM

Hello Everybody,

Sorry for the radio silence here over the last couple of months! It's been a pretty continuous battle trying to get the baby camel wool spun up, but we are finally scheduled to start spinning on the 18th, so next Monday! I'm hoping to have something to show by the end of the month. 

As always, I fully guarantee everything that is purhcased through Kickstarter, so you will either be refunded for the items or get some naturally dyed baby camel wool! If the next attempt and spinning doesn't work, I will automatically go through and refund the items. One way or the other, we need to get this worked out before our next campaign starts, as I'm not comfortable raising funds for new products when items from a previous campaign are still in production, as small of a segment as it may be.

Kickstarter 2022

It's starting to get warm here and goats are starting to get brushed! I'm still planning on launching a new campaign somewhere between the beginning and middle of June, depending on what happens with the natural dye camel wool. I don't have a ton of detail to add here except that we're planning to bring back some of the most popular colors from the first few campaigns and add some bulky yarn options for those that want maximum warmth!

Things have been running pretty smoothly in Mongolia for a while now, so lets hope that continues through the summer and we can have a somewhat normal production and delivery season for the first time in a couple years!

Is there anything special or specific colors you'd like to see this year? Let me know! In the next couple of weeks I'll get together a survey to send out to decide on colors and maybe some other options (like blends) for next year.

THANK YOU! And as always, please holler with any questions, comments, or concerns.

-Jon

Everything is out!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jan 07, 2022 at 03:19:45 AM

Hey Everybody!

So all the packages have finally gone out! All in all, everything went pretty smoothly once we received all the boxes from Mongolia. We would have been able to finish over the weekend but we ran low on boxes and didn't receive more until late Monday because of the holidays. So thank you again for another slightly delayed yet successful year! I thought last year would be the most complicated as far as COVID goes due to lockdowns, but this year was a whole new set of lessons learned with needing to produce through it. It was torturous with how long the yarn took to get here, but now looking back it was a pretty wild operation from start to finish this year and I'm happy everything went as well as it did.

In reality, we still aren't completely finished yet! We still need to finish spinning up some natural dyed camel wool and get those out to backers! The dyeing is finished, but I need to get back to Mongolia and do some testing before it makes it to the spinners. I'm hoping to be back in Mongolia by the end of this month, but it's been a bit difficult with flight schedules changing and long haul flights being cancelled. If all goes as planned I'll be in Mongolia and out of the 10 day quarantine by the early part of February.

Tracking

Whenever the labels were printed, you should have received tracking info from '[email protected]' and 'ULA+LIA' to the email you used on Kickstarter/Backerkit. If you didn't receive the email, please search for that email and also check your spam folders. If you can't find it, please send me an email at [email protected] and I will send it to you. If your package still shows that it is waiting to be dropped off, please give it another day or two to get into the system.

For international orders, especially in Europe and Australia, packages may take the better part of a month (or slightly more for Australia) to get to you. It's common for the tracking to show packages at a 'consolidation center' for a couple of weeks before they get sent to their final destination. After leaving the consolidation centers, local delivery tends to happen quite quickly. All packages have tracking through to delivery, although it can be very basic depending on the service. All in all, please try to be patient with these! I guarantee they will get to you, it just might take a bit. 

Staying in Touch

I'll continue to post updates here whenever there is major progress with the natural dyed camel wool, but I'll also be sending updates via our normal mailing list so everybody (not just backers) can see what's happening with ULA+LIA and in Mongolia. I'm optimistic about this spring/summer in Mongolia and hopeful I'll be able to travel around the countryside to visit and spend time with the people we procure our fiber from. It's been more than a little difficult to do so over the past two years, but maybe this will be the season!

If you'd like to join discussions, KALs (Knit-a-Longs), give feedback, etc., our ravelry group is a great place to do it! Although I haven't been very active lately in posting, our instagram and facebook are still great ways to get in touch. And as always, sending a message here or sending an email to [email protected] always work too!

Future Purchases

With everything you guys do to bring these projects to life, I think it's only fair you keep access close to the low prices we offer through our campaign. Please use the code KS2125 on the website (ulaandlia.com) for 25% off yarn and fiber. The coupon will not work on apparel and other items, as those are still very close to Kickstarter prices.

If you know any local yarn shops that would be interested in carrying our yarn, please let me know!

THANK YOU!

-Jon

Shipping is Underway!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 09:13:54 PM

Hey Everybody,

Just a quick update to let you know that everything got here safe and sound and that packages are starting to go out! It's looking like everything will be completely wrapped up by the middle of next week.

Everything looks fantastic and super excited to finally get stuff sent out to everybody! There isn't too much more to add for now, so happy new year! I'll post another update when everything officially gets into the mail system.

Thank you!

-Jon