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.

O’Keefe and Courbet weaving

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Robin

I wove these projects a few weeks ago but just got them finished–that is, I wet-finished them. When a weaving comes off the loom it is not considered finished until it has undergone some kind of treatment. That could be anything from gentle soaking in water and spreading out flat to dry to vigorous processing in the washing machine and dryer. Whatever finishing process is chosen it changes the character of the project, sometimes dramatically. The finishing method should be factored in to the planning of the project.

This is a waffle weave blanket woven in Jaggerspun Lambspun wool that I sell. It is machine washable and won’t felt with washing. It does change character however.

This is the same blanket after going through the washer and dryer. The inspiration for this blanket is the following Georgia O’Keefe painting. I started with white yarn and sprinkled dye powder over the yarn to get the varigated shades.

I love the subtle colors of this painting, but I also love the vibrant ones in the next.

Seascape by Courbet. I used the same washable wool yarn for this project. I wound the warp and then dyed it. Here is the finished v-shawl.

Van Gogh blankets

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Robin

After the ruana project (which still has not been sewn, fringed, or washed) it was a relief to do something easier. This project was inspired by this Van Gogh painting.

I dyed yarn. This is Jaggerspun Superlamb, a washable Merino yarn. I usually don’t leave white spaces in the space-dyed yarn, but there is a lot of white in the painting so I thought that I needed it here.

I warped the loom for two blankets in an advancing twill.

The color in the detail shot is more true. It’s a soft blanket with a nice drape.

Weaving day

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Robin

I spent most of the day at the loom weaving a project that it taking way longer than I expected. I planned to weave a ruana for the show coming up and I based the measurements on the ruana that my daughter wove way back when she was 11 years old.

When I took the measurements of this piece I assumed that we had warped this using double weave–to come up with a double width fabric in the back and two separate layers for the fronts. That was assumption #1 that was wrong. I planned colors of stripes to coincide with two twill patterns. As I was winding the bouts of warp I put them in the raddle for my AVL 8-shaft loom. It occurred to me part way through that I needed 16 shafts to weave the 2 layers that I planned. OK, no problem. Since I hadn’t yet wound the warp onto the beam I could move the warp to the 16-shaft AVL. This was a tedious project to thread. With the help of the computer (and a lot of trial and error) I figured out how to thread this and then have the twill lines reverse on the bottom layer.

I also used the computer to figure out how avoid 3-thread floats between the transitions of the two patterns. This is one layer (shafts 1-8). I did another draft for the 2nd layer (shafts 9-16) and then interspersed the tie-up to create double width and again for two layers.

Here is the fabric on the loom. I am using the Zephyr 50% wool/50% silk yarn that I carry in my shop. The big mistake I made was planning this at double weave instead of just weaving one really long strip and sewing them up the back. My assumption about the original ruana was wrong–we did it just that way, not double weave. I’d have been finished a long time ago if I had woven one long strip. The double width isn’t so bad except that the yarn is so dense that I had to pay close attention to make sure that threads weren’t catching. Here is the system I rigged up for that.

A glance in the mirror each time I change sheds shows if it is clear or not.

The harder part is now that I’m weaving the two separate layers. Two shuttles is much slower than just half the speed of using one shuttle. I think I have another couple of hours tomorrow and then this warp will be finished and I can move on to other projects to finish in the next two weeks.

Here is a weaving project that is very different from the ruana. In a previous post I showed this pile of mohair and yarn scraps that was working on in Oregon:

This is what it turned into. Thanks to the ever willing Shelby for modeling. (Without a model it would probably not look much different than how the fiber looks piled on the table.)

A few days ago I wove another.

This will be in the Artful Fiber show at the Artery to accompany this painting:

There is something about this painting that makes me think of a fluffy boa.

Publicity photos

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Robin

I have been asked to participate in an event at UC Davis on November 20 called New Media: Making Agricultural Marketing Personal. Chris was home so I asked him to take some photos. I had a vision of me sitting in the field with a laptop with sheep all around me. First I thought I’d use the ewe lambs that I’ve set aside for Rusty to use. They weren’t so insterested in just staying with me.

Then I tried the ewes in the pasture (and I bribed them with grain).

A fun weekend away

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Robin

I spent the weekend with Shannon of Kenleigh Acres and Joan of Mud Ranch at Shannon’s place in Oregon. The original purpose of the visit was to pick up Clint, a ram lamb for this year’s breeding line-up.

But Joan and Shannon and I turned it into a private retreat. I taught Joan to spin. Joan gave me photography pointers. Shannon helped both of us with sheepdog issues. I was trying to figure out what Shannon got out of this deal and I realized that it was Houseguests.

Here is Joan spinning away on the Ashford Travellor double treadle wheel, which worked really well for her.

Shannon is giving Joan’s collie, Hank, his first lesson.

Joan’s Dad is getting pointers from Shannon on how to train his Australian Shepard, Harley.

This is the English Sheepdog puppy, Tolo, at the end of a leash held by Joan’s mom.

Rusty waited patiently for his turn.

Shannon put Rusty through his paces.

It could be said that Rusty is a little too enthusiastic. But more to the truth is that Rusty has been confused by his handler (that would be me). It was very helpful to work with Shannon because she saw things that I was doing that are counter-productive to the way I’d like Rusty to behave as a sheepdog.

I spent some time working on one of the many projects that I brought with me.

I’ll post photos tomorrow of what this became.

Shannon felted a bowl and several soaps while I worked on my fiber project.

It rained all weekend. After all, this is Oregon-what did we expect? The rain cleared on Saturday afternoon, but on Sunday it seemed continuous. The rain has its advantages however.

This fence post holds a whole ecosystem on it’s top.

On the way home I felt as though I had changed seasons. After about 3 hours of driving in the rain I was back to California.

Mt. Shasta always is a spectacular scene.

Rabbitbrush in bloom is a colorful contrast to everything else that is so dry and dusty right now.

Solano Grown debut

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Robin

Here we are in our spiffy new shirts standing in front of Chief Solano after the Board of Supervisors meeting in which we presented Solano Grown. If you really want to see Chief Solano you need to see this photo.

Although the presentation was only about 5 minutes we were in Fairfield from 9:30 to about 1:30. We had to wait a few hours until it was our turn and then we worked on a few more things to be ironed out as far as logo use and membership guidelines.

Finally back home, I worked on untangling the gold thread for the project on the loom now.

I have added the gold thread as a supplemental warp in part of the black border, but it doesn’t show up very well.

Lamb Festival

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Robin

The Lamb Festival (used to be Lambtown) was last weekend. I was so busy that I didn’t get very many photos of the event. I have been on the Board and organized the classes for 3 of the last 4 years, but I have already given notice for next year. Someone else can have a turn…maybe someone that doesn’t have quite as many things going on as me. I had a vendor booth, taught, a class, managed the registration table, and showed sheep all at the same time. How? Thanks to my good Farm Club friends and others. Jacki, Shelby, Kathy, Tina, and Anna all helped. Shelby showed the sheep with the help of my husband. Too bad we don’t have photos of that. Granite, the ram lamb that won Reserve Champion at Black Sheep Gathering received a Champion ribbon although I’m not quite sure how the divisions were set up. Here are a few photos.

This knitted vest was awarded “Best Item of 100% Jacob wool”, sponsored by meridian Jacobs. Isn’t that gorgeous?

And here is some beautiful Jacob novelty yarn.

My friend, Nancy Jane Campbell, did a fantastic job of organizing the Sheep to Shawl contest and the Spinning Contests. One of those was a spinning triathlon which included blind-folded spinning as well as spinning with rubber gloves.

The Lamb Festival was on Saturday but we had addional classes on Sunday, three of which were held at my place. While I taught a weaving class and Nancy Campbell taught knitting at the shop, Rebecca Burgess set up in the barn and taught Natural Dyeing. Here are some photos of the class samples.

These are yarns that Rebecca brought with her. Rebecca has a fascinating message and you’ll hear about it in future posts. It’s too late now to explain more but if you google Fibershed you’ll find out about it.

And what was happening at home? I put these 4 ewes in with Savor before leaving for the Lamb Festival and when I came home they were all marked. I think my sheep are ready.

What do I do all day?

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Robin

What have I been doing all week? Way too much to write down and maybe not all that interesting. But I’m so busy that although I’m always taking photos and thinking of good blog posts I just haven’t had time.

Here are bits and pieces of this week.

I finally wove some more baby blankets. I have customers waiting. After I took the blankets off the loom I realized that I had a lot of skipped threads along the left side of many blankets. I know why–has to do with combining 7 threads as one in the warp and trying to use 2 threads wound together on the pirn with a fly-shuttle. Just enough drag on the shuttle to cause it to catch the warp threads. AHHHH. That means a lot of fixing. My $/hour just went WAY down. Here are some of the 17 blankets.

These blankets will be on my website after I get better photos. That’s another thing I spent time on. I tried in the sun and in the shade and none of the photos were very good. Back to the drawing board.

I have projects on three looms right now. Two are for the November show at the Artery. One is for my friend, Irene, owner of Cotton Clouds. That project will be a surprise, but here is a preview:

14 carat gold thread–use sparingly!

This is more of the project. All of these yarns are going into the warp!

In the meantime there are sheep things going on. Savor, one of the yearling rams, had been with a group of ewes and I needed to put him somewhere temporarily. I didn’t want to put him back with his buddy, Tioga, because I figured that they’d have to fight it out first and I can’t deal with that right now. So I gathered up the ram lambs that are left and put them all together. Usually the lambs bow down to the older and stronger ram and leave him alone. There is posturing, but if they know what’s good for them they won’t antagonize the big guy.

At first I thought it would be OK.

They look friendly enough, but finally Savor started threatening one of them more seriously. It happened to be a ram lamb who is already sold for breeding but hasn’t gone to his new home yet. I needed to separate them because I didn’t want to take a chance.

The ewes were all looking hopeful that they would get a chance to mingle with the rams. “We’re ready! Come hither!” Notice the double fence.

Last but not least–someone in this house has no problem taking naps:

Moving hay

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Robin

I went to a Sheep Field Day at UC Davis yesterday. Good program, but that’s not what this blog is about. Look what I found when I got home…

It may not look like it, but this is a good thing. This is what is left from 3 stacks of hay. My husband had started to move it into the barn.

We have to stack all this hay by hand. Notice I say “we”. That’s used loosely. I helped after I got home, but I had gravity on my side for a lot of it. I am good at knocking the hay off the stack. Then I used the hand-truck to move the bales into the barn. Dan did all the stacking. I’m lucky that Dan likes to have a good work-out now and then.

Here is Dan dropping hay off the 4th stack. In 4 stacks of hay there are 320 bales. I bought 20 tons of alfalfa so each bale is about 125 pounds.

All the hay is in the north end of the barn. (The hay in the stall is left over from last year.)

Its good to know that we can stack that much in one end of the barn.

It seemed that a Sunday morning newspaper was a privilege well deserved. Note cat position. It’s hard to get good photos of a black cat.

A welcome sight

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Robin

For the last several years I have been getting hay from a grower north of here. This year I ordered 4 blocks of hay and called several times to make sure that it would get here in time to get it in the barn before it rained. I was wondering if I needed to call again. Then I walked into the north end of the barn and out the south end and was face to face with a stack of hay! The first block was delivered while I was hauling sheep to butcher.