I know this doesn't look like much but can you guess what it is???
It made this ... Isn't it cool???
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So does anyone remember this post ... Click Me .... Well the time has come. I haven't heard anything on the grant I applied for but for the first time in months we have located a Dorset Ewe that is for sale. I really want her but the Mill bill is coming due in the next two months so all the money I have is earmarked for that and Mom and Dad will be making up the Difference as this is my inventory. That means this product isn't prepaid. As you know with inventory I have to pay the mill and then get my money back when the product sells. I am sure you all get the drift and know how this works.
What that also means is that if I want the new Dorset, I have to find another way to come up with the cash for her to grow my Carrie Clothes line. Well, That means I need to know how many of you would be 100% in if I post the shares. If I don't have enough investors we don't get this Ewe. There is one catch though. This Ewe is a bit higher as she is suppose to be BRED! That means she would be having a little one sometime in September. That also means that I might be able to take on a few more shareholders in the future because we will have 3 Dorsets if all goes well. So with all this to think about please email me at rj@barnontheweb.com As soon as possible and let me know if you are interested in A Share of Carrie Clothes for 2014. Today was more cleaning up and I have to tell you I am loving this weather. Well, okay except for the wind coming in at 25 mph out of the south. That I don't find so pleasing at all. I did take some time to fit in some riding when Mom was done having me clean up different stuff. Dad and I just have the wood pile to get cleaned up and then the backyard is Done!! (Yes, done to Mom's liking which is much cleaner then Dad and I would do it regularly)
I also took some me time to think things over. I am sure by now everyone knows that we lost Juneau (reasons unknown) and that I am not happy about the goats and the Vet's recommandation that they not be bred. I am also sure that most of you know I am "rethinking this whole thing" too. Well, I am rethinking it and I have come to the conclusion that I need to change a few things. I have decided that I will sell shares a bit differently now. So like all good businessmen I started with a little research. Okay, I tried to start that way but things got complicated right off. Let me explain. I have decided I no longer want to "gamble" with your money. I am always worried when something happens on the farm that reducess the amount in your share. I feel like I have let not only myself, my family and the animals down but I feel like I let you the shareholder down as well. No, no one has ever said that I let them down but I do see a different group of investors now. It makes me wonder ... Were the old shareholders unhappy with the product? The amounts they got in their share? How I handled things??? This brings me to the shares. We have not sold shares for the Alpaca for 2014 yet and to be honest I don't know if I will. The fleece that was just sheared is spoken for and is actually being weighted and skirted and gotten ready to get in the mail to the shareholders. Right after shearing however, we lost Juneau and that means we lost an entire fleece for next year. Last year we lost Curry. While I care more about the loss of the animal Both losses effect the amount of fiber in each share and that is what the shareholders care about. So what am I going to do? Well, I started looking at other CSAs and seeing how they handle it and what I found shocked me. CSAs very so much that in order to compare anything you have to do so by price per a yard or oz. And even then they very by breed so much that getting apples to apples just isn't possible. What I found was it was the only way to compare anything close enough to study price ranges at all. Even then I was Shocked by the difference in prices across the country. Most yarn shares came out at about $.13 a yard undyed. (They cost even more if you get a naturally colored share or if the producer dyes it for you) And some Roving shares came in better then $12.00 per an Oz. In the past our shares have had at least 8 oz of roving each time and I think our yarn shares have had about 1000 yards of yarn. On average that is about 9$ per on Oz of roving (That price is in the middle of the price scale) and I think there has been enough yarn to make at least a small sweater for an adult depending on the pattern. Or if you prefer you can say it was about $.11 a yard of yarn. (also in the middle of the price chart) All in all I think our amounts have been fair for the price I charge. I know some people get more in other CSAs but they also pay more. And most CSAs charge an extra free for shipping and handling. I don't add extra charges (that is why if you noticed our shares went up a bit this year due to shipping cost increases and mill bill increases) You pay one price for everything. So if you take out the $15.00 it takes to mail your share that comes out even lower in cost per an oz or yard. However, I want to make sure the customer knows more about what they are getting so that I can check off that question on my list from above. The amount you will be getting for your money will no longer be in Question. And it should not be a reason for me lossing customers and I will know it. What am I going to do with any left over skeins of yarn or bumps of Roving?? Well, sell it at the show in my booth or I may list it on the internet. As of right now, I have not worked out exactly how it will be for sale but it will be ... Any suggestions?? Now if I lose customers it will only be because of the product or me. Not something out of my control ... like weather or death or something like that. As for the products ... I try to make the best product I can and when I see something I don't like I try to make it better. The truth is that everyone's idea of the perfect product is very different. Some people have said that soft is best ... others say long wearing is better ... I want both and while I try my best I don't always get that done. (like our Mohair/southdown roving. The roving was soft but didnt' spin the way Mom wanted it to.) And I know that "You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time". We will continue to try and improve our products until we get something that pleases both us and the customer. That leaves me ... I handle each situation (with the help of my parents) the best I can. Just like with Juneau, I know he had the best of care (between the vet and being on the phone to the university, they left no stone unturned) and everyone can give me all the advice in the world but without being in my shoes and living it as the event unfolds ... no one can say that what someone else would do, would have made the outcome any better. I can't control what people think of the way I handle things or what they think of me in general. As Mom says "I am who I am meant to be" I try my best to be fair as well as Honest and Righteous. Yes, I am still a kid. So no, I don't always manage to get through things with my Big Boy pants on but I do try. So today I am proud to announce that we know what direction our Carrie Clothes Shares are going to take. And I am hoping everyone is as excited as I am. This is our first Share that will not only include The animal information and farm visit but It will have a very special extra. I am not really sure how to explain this in a way that flows so if I am all over the place sorry about that. Here it goes. We have very limited shares of Carrie Clothes so to make it special we have thrown in some extra special things to make it the best shares that we can. If you remember Carrie is a Dorset Ewe that we know from the ground up. She is 100% natural Oklahoma born and raised and after her life as a show lamb was over Bailey (Carrie's then owner) wasn't sure she wanted her to go for slaughter so I purchased Carrie for her fiber and Introduced my part of the world to Carrie clothes. Her wool will be turned into sock yarn. Well, I have great followers, and they snatched up her shares knowing I was flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Carrie is so tame and loving that I just couldn't let her go for Slaughter but I really hadn't thought this all out either. Anyway, shareholders bought into a concept that was in mid developement. To those people, Thank you for having Faith in me and I hope you are please when you find out that your share will also come with a pattern and one skein of Hand dyed yarn. Yup, you read that right. Your share will have a secret pattern for one item of clothing. The pattern will come to us from Designer Cricket Toomey of Woolycricket.com She is known as woolycricket on Ravelry and is known to her friends simply as Cricket. She has had patterns published in magazines and we are very happy to have her on board as the exclusive designer behind our Carrie Clothes concept. She has been hard at work for us charting the one thing that will be excusive to Carrie clothes. That Item is a single feather. As you all know I am part Cherokee. To the Cherokee people different feathers mean different things but all are sacred to our people as birds are messengers between the earth and the sky. So all Carrie Clothes will have the same feather chart in each Item. The Item will change with each years shares. And since the feather pattern is knitted in two colors. Each year the share will include one skein of hand dyed yarn, dyed by Tempted Yarns herself. Each year not only will the pattern change but so will the color. This year's color will be blue. (Really did you not see that coming??? Is there any other color it would have been?) With the new improvements however there is a few drawbacks. First, this Share will now be run more like a club in the aspect that if you are a shareholder now, you will be offered shares first before they become available to the public. This is being put in place so that those that had faith in us have a chance to get the entire collection of Carrie Clothes patterns, if they so choose to do so. When we hit the end of the pattern rotation you will be notified that you have all the patterns and asked if you want to continue with the share. If not this will open a slot to the public. It will be your choice but we only have certain pattern items we will be offering with this share and they will never be available at this point to anyone but shareholders with Carrie Clothes shares.  |
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