Author Archives: Robin

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About Robin

Owner of Meridian Jacobs, farm and fiber shop. I raise Jacob sheep, teach fiber arts classes, weave handwovens for sale, and manage the store.

Green scarves from blue and red jeans

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I get tired of over-worked words to describe concepts which aren’t all that new. Maybe it’s good when more people start to understand the principles being described. Green is one of those words…and concepts. But I couldn’t pass up using it in the title of this post. I honestly don’t know how this yarn is processed but it is 100% recycled jeans and I wove the scarves with no energy except my own.

The yarn is called Riveting and is sold by Cotton Clouds . The scarves are woven on a Huck Lace threading.

Knitting better

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Today Meridian Jacobs hosted a knitting class taught by superb knitter, Nancy Jane Campbell. The purpose of this class was to evaluate our current knitting habits and work to “Knit Better’. There was pre-class homework.

These are two garter stitch swatches. The difference is that one is the result of knitting every row and the other is knit by purling every row. There is a difference. Nancy pointed out that my purl sample is much more even than the knit sample. The stockinette sample (no photo) also showed that I knit and purl with different tensions, resulting in subtle ridges and uneven stitches.

Lunchtime. We went to the barn so I could feed Nellie. Yes, I named the bottle baby.

We found more lambs.

Soliloquy had twins–smallest lambs so far this year at 5-6 pounds and Victoria had triplets.  I dealt with all of them and went back to the shop for the afternoon session of the class.

Before lunch we had measured and evaluated our samples. After lunch we started working on changing our habits and learning new techniques. The sample above may not be too impressive, but notice the very cool knitted cable cast-on edge.  It looks much neater than my long-tail cast-on. And notice the inch or so closest to the needles. There is a a big difference in the knitting for that inch than the couple of inches below. At the risk of knitting too tightly I have been knitting way too loose. It’s a lot easier to be consistent when there is a little more tension on the yarn and the added benefit is that the stitches aren’t always falling off the needle. This was a great class and Nancy is going to come back and teach a color knitting class later in the year.

 

Today’s lambing adventure

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I really didn’t plan on a bottle baby, but I may have one. Here she is meeting the family.

When I went out this morning Paula had one live lamb and one dead one. As I was doing chores I noticed her pushing some more. I checked and there was a third lamb with the legs and head pointed down inside instead of out. I fished around inside and got everything straightened out and delivered the lamb. It was just about dead when I got it out–completely limp and not taking a breath. I got the lamb breathing but it remained completely flaccid and was losing body temperature quickly. Paula was still licking it so I left it with her covered in a towel while I warmed towels in the dryer. I wrapped up the lamb in the warm towels, tube fed it about an ounce of colostrum, and then brought it to the house and woke up my son so that the lamb could stay snuggled in bed with him while I finished chores. The lamb was still shivering and not trying to get up so I finally brought a crate and a heat lamp in the house.

All that was this morning. The lamb showed enough spunk to try and nurse earlier in the day and I took it back to the barn, but due to the the combination of inexperience on the lamb’s part and Paula’s increasing skepticism that she really had 2 lambs I finally gave up. The lamb is in the house tonight and I’m feeding it.  So far it’s not doing real well with the bottle and I’ve tube fed it a couple of times. I hope that at  the next feeding it will have figured it out.

 

Lambing-Day 4

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Zelda lambed last night with twins sired by Savor.

Look at the horns on this ram lamb!

Moon had twin ewe lambs this afternoon. This lamb was very striking after she was clean and dry–sparkling white and none of the coarser  birth coat that Jacob lambs are often born with.

While waiting for Moon to deliver, Jackie and I first castrated the two lambs that were born in January and then we dealt with one of last night’s twins that died. (If you don’t want to read the details then skip to the pretty yellow flower photo below.) When the lamb was born last night I thought that the umbilical cord was unusually large in diameter. My iodine dip didn’t dry this cord up like it did the other lamb’s.  This morning the lamb looked cold, but finally nursed and seemed to warm up. It was in the afternoon that I saw that she was very sick (near death). She was bloated and there was smelly brown fluid draining from the over-sized umbilical cord. I necropsied her and found what I suspected–her intestine had a dead-end. There was no connection between the colon and the rectum so there was no where for digested food to go. I’m not sure what was leaking out the umbilical cord, but I wonder if it was putrid  intestinal contents that filled the abdominal cavity.  Hopefully this is the only birth defect this lambing season.

It’s a month before spring officially starts so it must be time for my annual blooming acacia photo. How can I resist that intense color?

Lambs!

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Here are the first lambs (except for the unexpected twins last month from a ewe that was bred when I got her).

Posting these photos makes me think of the contrast in my lambing set-up and that of other sheep farmers. My ewes have it pretty easy. When the weather is wet and cold and windy they are able to be in the barn.  My heart goes out to those farmers and their flocks who have to battle the elements. Yesterday I spent time in the driving rain cleaning out the ditches and diverting water away from the barn, but nothing was really that serious. When we had a dairy I always hated winter weather because it was just not possible to get all of the cows out of the mud and rain.  I’m hoping for  milder spring weather soon!

Lift kit for a computer

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If you’re a teen-age boy or anyone I guess who likes big trucks and car stuff then you’ll know what it means to lift a truck (as opposed to the way Superman does it). After a couple of weeks of tax preparation at my computer my back was bothering me. Having had two back surgeries because of sciatica I am very nervous when I have any issues with my back or hip. It’s the sitting that causes problems. A lot of times I’d rather be standing.  I said something about needing one of those fancy desks that rise when you push a button. Here’s my husband’s solution.

Hey, it works! I’m standing right now and I have a bar stool chair if I do want to sit.

Yesterday I went to a class sponsored by the Small Business Development Center. I am going to another tonight on Web Marketing. They offer a variety of classes and also have counseling services for business issues. I found out that there is even someone who will help me get Quickbooks cleaned up! I am so glad to have found this resource. I only hope that they aren’t wiped out by the state’s financial mess.

Learn to Weave class

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I had back-to-back classes last weekend. The day after my v-shawl class I taught a Learn to Weave class. Here are the projects on the looms:

Mary chose 4 bright colors of Jaggerspun Lambspun wool and wove a sampler that looks good enough to wear as a scarf.

Susan wove a twill scarf using natural colored wool.

Dona wanted to weave a wall hanging of green fields, spring flowers, and sheep. She was very creative in her choice and placement of weft yarns and weave structure to depict parts of the landscape. She will embellish the piece with a few flower buttons and wooden sheep.

A very successful class and a fun weekend!

V-Shawl Class

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I taught a v-shawl class last week. It’s always fun to see the variety in these shawls. The v-shawl is warped for double weave. The fronts of the shawl are woven with two shuttles and the back is woven by cutting one pair of warp threads at a time and weaving them in as weft.

Tina chose natural colored Rambouillet and Jacob yarns.

Jackie used brown Rambouillet and a space-dyed yarn for accent.

Marilyn used softball cotton in natural and tan with accents of ribbon and a novelty yarn.

Yolanda has space-dyed wool yarn with a blue stripe.

These are the shawls right off the loom so there has been no finishing of fringes.


The back view shows the designs that you get from the warp stripes.