Group Buy: Turtlenecks, Made in NYC

[ballmouse]

Spoke with the owner today. It seems they've permanently downsized due to COVID and have changed their business model to only work with existing customers. That's unfortunate as they made some really nice sweaters and I can't imagine too many other manufacturers in NYC with their quality and prices.

But I do have more contacts now than when I first started making sweater samples so there is hope that I'll find someone who can do a similar job. It won't be quick though, so please don't expect anything for this project.

Sorry for the bad news. It sucks, but hopefully the dream will continue at a later time.

I have however been working on some other pieces (trousers and coats) that seem nearly as good as I'm ever going to get them (I've spent ages on them, probably 2-4 times as long as I did on the sweaters), and I'll probably start a separate thread on them soon to gather interest.

 

[ballmouse]

The latest sample in Navy.

I had to essentially redo the whole process from scratch when I found another factory in NYC, but the sweater is arguably nicer (the new factory has machines that eliminate the seams on the insides of sweaters).

The price is going to be a bit higher (probably closer to $180 now - that includes shipping). Unfortunately due to the pandemic, the yarns I need are completely out of inventory and need to be reordered in bulk with a estimated delivery time of 6 months. So I need to figure out what 2 colors I need...6 months in advance.

For anyone who's interested, can I get a quick show of what colors below (max 2) would interest you? It would be of help just to get a sense what colors folks actually want. (This is not a commitment. Since I'm limited to 2 colors only - unless I get 200+ pre-orders - I would prefer to pick colors folks want.)

(Also, is the editing option disabled? Can't for the life of me find the button so I can edit my original post.)

 

[nmprisons]

red or blue

 

[HKTenor]

Blue / Green / Burgundy

 

[mina262]

Burgundy/blue

 

[emptym]

I'd be interested in a dark, cool navy. The pics look a bit bright and warm/purple/red, more of a royal blue than navy, but maybe that's just the lighting or camera. Are the yarns still from Maine?

If we focused on just one color, might the wait be shortened to like 4 months? It'd be great to be able to wear it this winter, and 4 months would put it at mid Jan.

Sorry about the inability to edit. The system only allows edits after a week or so, I think.

 

[ruvort]

I'm glad that you didn't give up on this.

I'd be interested in burgundy and white.

 

[bobby jonathan]

What of, Pronto Uomo, mock turtleneck.

It's fashion.

bobby jonathan

 

[bullethead]

Bottle green, navy

 

[ballmouse]

I'd be interested in a dark, cool navy. The pics look a bit bright and warm/purple/red, more of a royal blue than navy, but maybe that's just the lighting/camera. Are the yarns still from Maine?

If we focused on just one color, might the wait be shortened to like 4 months? It'd be great to be able to wear it this winter, and 4 months would put it at mid Jan.

Sorry about the inability to edit. The system only allows edits after a week or so, I think.

Yes the sweater photos are slightly bright. I think the images of all the colors is the closest as I copied the image from the vendor page and color corrected (in a very amateur way - hence the white looks faded) the image to match the physical yarn cards I received from them.

Unfortunately, the number of colors has no effect on the lead time. It sucks, but this essentially means the sweaters will be ready next summer. Although on the plus side it'll be ready for next fall and winter (and I guess if anyone is ordering from the southern hemisphere you actually will get it in your winter).

On the plus side, it seems like everyone likes navy. I was going to commit to mostly navy yarns because that's what I figured and I'm glad I actually do know something about what people like. Now the battle for the 2nd color...

 

[Old Red]

I like navy. Second color . . . not green.

 

[Journeyman]

The other colour besides navy is a tough one. I already have burgundy and bottle green jumpers in both cashmere and lambswool (albeit crewneck, not rollneck).

Any chance of orange or pumpkin, just to be different (and difficult)?

 

[ballmouse]

The other colour besides navy is a tough one. I already have burgundy and bottle green jumpers in both cashmere and lambswool (albeit crewneck, not rollneck).

Any chance of orange or pumpkin, just to be different (and difficult)?

Yes that's an option as are some other colors. I limited it to green, red, and white because I thought they'd be the most the most popular along with navy. But maybe that's not necessarily true.

I took a photo of the yarn card with all the available colors. Since I'm not getting any heavy favorite, maybe I should open it up for any of the others? Can't possibly make the decision any harder, right?

 

[ballmouse]

A bit of a curveball here. There's actually a decent amount of navy about to be ready, but not enough that the factory can start production. However, if we supplement the navy with any of the following, we could start the order in January and get them out by March/April. Essentially we'd get the sweaters 3 months earlier.

The 2nd colors would be:

• Black
• Natural
• Pewter
• Plum
• Turquoise (ha...I don't think this one is happening)
• Vanilla
• White

Natural wasn't on the card sheet (see previous/above post with the sheet), but it looks like a more subdued (better) white to me. See below:

I'm leaning towards one of Black, Natural, or Plum as those seem the most appealing. Curious as to other folks' thoughts...

 

[duffyfluffy123]

I wonder what happened to this