Herders to Home 2024: Luxury Mongolian Yarn and Fiber

Production is finished, getting ready for shipping!
18 days ago – Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 10:58:10 PM

Hey Everybody,

I went to the factory yesterday to drop off a few extra labels and check on progress. All production is finished up, so everything is getting packed up and ready for export.

There'll be around 65 or so of these when everything finally ships out. Something around 1300kg (2800lbs) of fiber and yarn.

All in all I'm really happy with how everything turned out. I did a bit of swatching and took some pictures in a controlled environment. I've got some cones for easier work on my knitting machine. I put my personal order in for cones after some fibers were already completly made into skeins, so I don't have photos for the evergreen yak, robin's egg cashmere, and dark chocolate yak. I'll get them the next time I visit the factory!

The Camel Wools:

The Yak Wools: The mahogany is a bit lighter compared to last year's ruby, but very similar to the first ruby batch we had 4 years ago. Pictures of the evergreen and dark chocolate coming soon!

The Sheep Wools: Beautifully soft, although there does seem to be a bit more white guard hair than in previous years. If you look close (especially on the Amethyste) it's somewhat noticeable. I don't think it will be a problem, but it's worth mentioning since it's slightly different than what I was expecting. If it's an issue (either now or after receiving your yarn) just send me an email and we can work it out.

The Cashmeres - The Azalea is lovely but really difficult to get good photos of! Granted I'm not the best at photo editing, but no matter what I do I can't quite seem to get it to match exactly what I'm seeing. It tends to show a bit more orange in photos, but in reality it's a bit less orange and a bit more pink. Here's the best I could do! Robin's Egg pictures coming soon!

The Purples together! I'd like to have a picture of the robin's egg and aegean sea next to each other as well.

Scheduling

Wrapping up packaging, getting the packing list/export invoices/customs data together will take most of next week. I'll then notify DHL that the shipment is ready. I'm hoping we can get everything picked up in the first half of the week of the 25th. DHL quoted a shipping time of 5-7 days, but historically it's usually closer to two weeks. We'll need a week to pack and ship everything out, but getting everything in the mail the week of December 16th is a decent estimate IF everything with shipping goes smoothly. This close to the holidays it might be a bit more difficult, but that's the timeline I have in my head. I'm currently planning to go home something around the 5th or 6th of December, but I won't buy my ticket until the export is completed.

Locking Shipping Addresses

Once DHL picks up the shipment, I'm going to lock addresses on Backerkit. You will get an email notification, so if you need to change addresses, that will be the time to do it. If your address has changed to a different state inside of the USA, you'll have to send me an email diretly to change that. You can do that anytime at [email protected].

Final Add Ons

See a color that you like or want to pick up some more? In the 2 or 3 days prior to final shipping, I will have a flash sale (at close to Kickstarter prices) available through my website. With a code, I will add anything ordered to your Kickstarter/Backerkit order and ship it together. I will make an update when everything is available!

Alright, I think that's about it from me for now. We're almost there! I'll post another update when the export finishes. Until then, please send an email to [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

THANK YOU!

-Jon

October Production Update!
about 2 months ago – Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 05:39:43 AM

Hey Everybody,

Sorry for the extended radio silence! I finally got to the factory to get some photos for an update. Long story short, everything is going smoothly and most of the yarn is skeined up. The next and final steps will be the labeling and packing. It looks like everything will get wrapped up next month, but I don't have an exact deadline yet. That being said, it's been quite a few years since we've exported before the holiday season, so I'm not exactly sure how the export/shipping schedule will look like quite yet. I'll have more info with that in the next update once I have an exact finish date from the factory and have spoken with DHL.

But on to some photos!

That's about what I've got to share! I hope you're all enjoying the new colors. 

A few housekeeping notes:

Surveys

If you'd like to check your survey to remember what you've ordered or if you have yet to complete your survey, you can get back to it here. If you have any issues, please send an email to [email protected].

Final Add Ons

If you'd like to add on more items, I will do one final sale for you at Kickstarter prices before we do the final shipping, which will hopefully be sometime in December.

Address Changes

Also before final shipping, there will be a notice sent out to lock your shipping address. If you need to change it, waiting for that notice will be easiest. If you'd like to do it now, you can go back to your survey and change your address there. Here's the link to get back to your survey. Please note, I will need to change the address personally if the shipping state has also changed.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns in general, please send me an email at [email protected]. I'll try to have more definite dates and timelines for export and final shipping in the next update, probably around the beginning of November.

THANK YOU!

-Jon

Everything is dyed, just spinning and skeining left!
3 months ago – Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 03:55:41 AM

Hey Everybody,

There's been quite a bit of progress in the last few weeks so I wanted to post an update with some photos. As it is now, everything is out of dyeing and getting into spinning. The cashmere is also getting split up into 100g hanks for the final skeining and labeling.

Here's a quick clip fo the robin's egg cashmere getting hanked up!

Here are some other yarn and fiber pics. Please keep in mind these are in the factory where lighting isn't great and I'm not going through huge effort to color correct these photos, so please expect some differences in real life!

Our Evergreen yak wool is currently getting carded in the first stage of processing.

Our mahogany yak wool is just getting started today. Here's a very quick clip of it getting ready for the spinning oils:

I'm hoping to get some nice videos of the entire process this season. I'm still hoping to capture the plying process and a bit of the handwork in the skein twisting and labeling.

Our mulberry yak is already all spun up as well!

The only colors left to start the spinning are the gold and moss camel wool as well as the aegean sea sheep blend. We should be all yarn in the next week or two!

We're definitely ahead of schedule but it's a bit too early to give a more definite updated delivery window. Everything should be a bit more clear by the end of the month or so and I will update everybody with our estimates then.

Backerkit and Address Changes

Surveys are all locked and have been charged for any addons. The next step of the process will be locking addresses for delivery, which will happen a few weeks before we are ready to deliver. If you need to change your address, you can do it anytime by going back into your survey, or you can wait until the delivery time is a bit more final and do it then. There will be plenty of warning time and reminder emails when we are ready to lock addresses.

If you have not received your survey, please email me at [email protected]. Backerkit seems to have issues with apple private relay addresses, so please email me if you used one for this project and haven't received a survey yet.

If you'd like to get back to your survey to see what you've ordered, you can always get back to your survey by following this link: Backerkit

But I think that's it for now! I'll post another update when there's more yarn to show off and we have a more definite picture of when things might be ready to export from Mongolia. If you have any questions or issues, please send me an email at [email protected]

Thank you!

-Jon

August Production Update and Backerkit Lock/Charge Dates
3 months ago – Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 07:09:35 AM

Hey Everybody,

Sorry for the delay in updates but I was waiting for a fiber processing and deliveries to finish before sending out an email. In short, we've already got all of our cashmere spun up and we've received all of our fiber! I was checking last year's dates and we didn't get our sheep and yak wool until October, so we're definitely well ahead of schedule.

Here's a few more shots of our cashmere, although it's really difficult to get the Azalea to show up properly in photos! It's still right on with our planned swatches.

The plying into our weights and handwork to make the 100g skeins and labeling will come next.

As for the other fibers, this was our yak wool and camel wool. The ring of fibers!

The dyeing started for the gold camel today, which will be followed by moss camel, then the sheep wool blends, then the yak wools. I'll have plenty of pictures for those as they come out. I'll also have more pictures/videos of manufacturing as the other fibers get into spinning tomorrow (for the dark chocolate yak wool) and camel wools to follow.

All of our labels are also ready, waiting to hug their skeins!

Backerkit Lock and Charge Dates

We're still on track to finalize orders on Backerkit on August 30th. There will be a 72 hour email going out from Backerkit tomorrow and we will finalize orders and charge credit cards for any addons that were made. If you did not select any addons, there will be no further charges to your card.

If you would like to get back to your survey to make any changes, you can follow the link here. If you have any issues with your survey, please send me at email at [email protected].

But that's about it from me! I'll have another update in a couple of weeks after all of our dyeing has finished up and can show off the rest of our colors. Historically, getting non-cashmere fiber through processing and delivered has been the cause of most delays, so I'm quite excited that we already have everything.

THANK YOU!

-Jon

July Production Update
4 months ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 03:52:22 AM

Hey Everybody,

It's been a few weeks and wanted to share some pictures and videos of the spinning and dehairing process for our cashmere and yak wool, as well as update on getting some extra yak wool for another batch run of Mulberry and Natural Platinum Gray to add to this year's selection.

Mulberry and Platinum Gray Yak

Long story short, we will be making another batch of the Mulberry this year, but I could not get anymore platinum gray fiber.

I apologize for the confusion with these two options. I still had extra inventory from 2023 that I wanted to offer, but in retrospect I probably should have just left them off the campaign as 'available stock' as there wasn't enough to go around, especially for the Mulberry. It's something I'll need to figure out a solution for in the future so I can still offer past stock for Kickstarter selections.

For the Mulberry, I was able to pull enough fiber from the Evergreen and Mahogany batches to make a Mulberry batch in DK and Fingering. I was unable to source anymore fiber in general, and without having any gray this year to begin with there isn't anything I can do for the platinum. Again I apologize if you were completely set on that color. If there's nothing else you'd like in replacement, please send me an email at [email protected].

If you'd like to add the mulberry to your survey, you can visit the link here to get back to your survey.

Spinning and Dehairing

Our cashmere is already being spun up into yarn! Here's the first steps with the carding machine and a bit of spinning in the end. After this will be plying, although we weren't quite there yet when I was there.

Here's the warm gray cashmere:

Here's the dark chocolate yak in dehairing. From start to end you can see the difference in the amount of dandruff/organic matter/guard hair in the fiber. The dehairing process is practically a repeating process of drums and combs to separate the waste and guard hair from the fluffy stuff we use.

The camel would should be getting into dehairing shortly, followed by the sheep wool later this month.

Backerkit Lock and Charge Date

If you'd like to make changes or add on to your survey, there's still time to do so. We will lock survey choices and charge cards for any add-ons on August 30th. I will send a 72 hour reminder as well.

If you didn't make any add-ons, there will be no further charges made. If you'd like to get back to your survey, please follow the link here.

Here is an updated list of available options. There is no longer platinum gray yak or autumn teal cashmere available.

But that's about it for me! As always, feel free to write an email to [email protected] with any questions or if you are having issues with backerkit or your survey. I'll post another update when we have our dyed yak wool in hopefully a couple of weeks!

Thank you!

Jon