A Pleasant Surprise

This was quite a weekend, and it was topped off with a wonderful surprise Sunday morning. We had a pretty full house to experience it.

The weekend – Friday night we drove up to Shelburne Museum with Kate, Colin, Lori and Jason for a wonderful outdoor evening concert by Nickel Creek. Saturday morning the gang got a pretty slow start, but by noon they were in a pitched battle for world domination via Risk: Legacy (I watched for awhile, it is nothing like the Risk game Peg and I grew up with). By 3 pm we were all on the White River on tubes rented earlier in the day by Peg. We had a delightful two-hour float interrupted only by Peg flipping over while hitting a high wave in a set of rapids and only slightly spoiled by me losing my car keys in the river. Saturday evening we played about a half game of croquet, enjoyed hamburgers and sweet corn, and welcomed Ari and Jenna. Cards Against Humanity was played, but only after Peg and I retired.

The surprise – Sunday morning, while I was still lazing in bed, Peg told me she was off to return the tubes – about an hour’s chore. About a half hour after she left, the phone rang:

Me: “Hello?”

Him: “Is this Todd?”

Me: “Yes.”

Him: “This is Michael Hampton at Hampton Fiber Mill.”

Michael was calling to say he had just emailed over an invoice for spinning all our wool into yarn, but better yet, he and James were on their way to visit another customer in New Hampshire, and could he drop off the yarn and roving on the way? Heck yeah. Michael’s mill is about a 75-minute drive from the farm (in fact we drove right by it on Friday night), and delivery would be wonderful. He thought he would arrive around 11 am.

The rest of the gang started rousing and drinking coffee, and I told them about Michael’s call. We agreed to keep the impending yarn delivery a secret. Peg came back home, I made the gang blueberry waffles, and somehow the conversation turned to yarn. Peg even said “Do you think we could drive up this afternoon to pick it up?” Ari and Jenna were about to leave when I saw headlights coming up the drive. I held back as Peg went to the front door to see who was arriving unexpectedly. She was stunned! It was great! Impressively, Peg invited Michael and James in, offered coffee, and we sat on the porch chatting for at least 20 minutes. She had no idea what was sitting in the back of their car, but was able to control her excitement and be a gracious hostess.

What we now have (more than a month ahead of schedule):

Eighteen large plastic bags filled with yarn and roving

Eleven “lots” of yarn – six from individual sheep, four from pairs of sheep, and one from a trio

Three shades (almost 9 pounds) of roving

Rita and Henrietta (7533) – 2.6 pounds of white

Martha and Dolly – 3.4 pounds of gray

Nash and Ella – 2.7 pounds of almost black

Seven shades of yarn (from lightest to darkest); 57 pounds; almost 500 skeins

Eleanor – 7 pounds, 56 skeins; Rita and Henrietta – 3 pounds, 26 skeins

Hannah – 5 pounds, 39 skeins

Hillary – 5.25 pounds, 42 skeins; Louise – 4.25 pounds, 35 skeins

Jackie – 4.75 pounds, 39 skeins

Rosie – 4.2 pounds, 34 skeins; Martha & Dolly – 3.75 pounds, 35 skeins

Willow, Scampy & Cedar – 10.4 pounds, 83 skeins; Chuck & Ralph – 9.2 pounds, 74 skeins

Nash & Ella – 3.5 pounds, 29 skeins

So now we’ve got lots of work to do. Because we have so many colors, we need to tag each skein. I’ve printed up labels and ordered tags from Amazon. The label provides name, breed, weight, yardage, and our URL, e.g.:

Hannah – Cormo
2 ounces / 57 grams
142 yards
www.savagehartfarm.com

We’re mulling over our pricing strategy. I emailed Michael asking for his thoughts, and he replied that Hillary, Jackie and Louise are a unique color and could justify a higher price. He also thinks that Eleanor and Rita/Henrietta “are tactilely and visually special and could also be priced higher.”

Additional thoughts from Michael:

I would say that if you are the only yarn vendor at an event, mark that shit up.  More modest margins might be appropriate for the Sheep and Wool festival though, where competition is more fierce. Yarn sales can be tough.  Don’t take a single customer for granted. Get their contact information so you can let them know when you get a fresh batch of yarn and roving each year. Sell out BEFORE your yarn is processed!

If only…

Todd