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.

Spring yet?

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It was sunny this weekend and it felt like spring. The sheep have been cooped up in the barn and corral area for two months now. I let them into this small field today. There is a lot of grass to eat, but it is still wet and if I keep them there too long they’ll turn it into mud.

The sheep went right to eating, but the goats continued to race back and forth.

The oldest goat, Stephanie, didn’t participate in the silliness of the younger goats.

Too bad for the rams. They have to stay in their own area. This is Kenleigh’s Savor in front and Meridian Tioga in back, both born last winter.

This is Lola, a lilac ewe.  That reminds me (because I sold her fleece) that we had Farm Day on Saturday. Three people were here to help with sheep chores. It was great to have the help. We vaccinated all the sheep, wormed the young ewes, and put in scrapie tags.

We even trimmed a few hooves. Shelby is trimming while Jackie keeps the sheep from moving around too much. I don’t flip my sheep anymore to trim feet. I’d rather tie them to trim feet. It has the added advantage of sort of halter-breaking.

Everyone had a hand at trimming feet, but this is Shelby again while Tina holds the sheep.

First rag rug`

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Well, it’s not actually my first rag rug, but the first one was so long ago it seems like my first rag rug. When my daughter was home for Christmas we shopped for fabric to make a new cover for her comforter. We didn’t get around to this until the day before Katie left to go back to Texas so I was left with the fabric. She wanted the cover to have 2 different sides. Here’s what the two sides look like.

I had left-over fabric and a small guild I belong to has talked about doing a rug project. We often come up with good ideas for projects and everyone gets excited about it, but some of us don’t follow through. I did it! The only problem is that I mailed the rag rug to Katie so the only proof that I have of my project is this photo.

A Working Vacation

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I left the fog in the Sacramento Valley on Monday and spent a few days in Arizona. I worked with my friend Irene, from Cotton Clouds, on business and with Greg, who designed my website (look for upgrades to that soon). Irene lives in the desert with a fabulous view of Mt. Graham.

We took a couple of hours to drive part way up Mt. Graham and go on a hike. I held the camera out to get our photo.

Here is a Mexican Jay.

I’m back home and inspired to get working.

Warm feet

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What’s better for cold feet than sheepskin slippers with wool socks? Well, I won’t be short of wool socks any time soon. I just got the wool socks that I had made. Unfortunately they weren’t here in time for Christmas, but I think I’ll still have some for next Christmas. There are over 400 pairs!

These are the Jacob wool socks. From left to right: 1/4 sock size 9-11, crew size 9-11, crew size 11-13, crew size 13-15.

These are Rambouillet wool socks in the same sizes.  I’ll be putting these on my website next week after I figure out labeling, etc.

Bare trees

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If you start humming a  Fleetwood Mac tune and visualize the album cover when you see this blog title then you are dating yourself. But it doesn’t really have anything to do with that. It’s just what I see on my dog-walks across the road.

See all those clumps of mistletoe in the bare black walnut tree?

I found this interesting because in this tree the mistletoe is dying. There are mistletoe skeletons in the tree skeleton. I didn’t pay attention to whether or not the  tree is actually dead too.  However, the mistletoe at the bottom of the tree is alive.

Do you see all  that gray sky? I am so tired of dreary, drippy, cold, sunless days. It seems as though the fog will never leave. I hope that the next song title I am reminded of is by the Beatles:  Here Comes the Sun.

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I plan to get back to work tomorrow but I’ve been completely focused on other things, including major cleaning and  reorganizing the house with the help of my daughter who is here from Texas and doing other family things. (We saw Riverdance in San Francisco last night–what a fabulous show!)  Christmas gifts to my kids and other family members included flash drives with labeled and organized photos. I have been busy scanning photos and then trying to keep them organized. I sometimes wonder if it’s only me (as a mom) who loves these photos so much. I don’t know if anyone else can really appreciate them.  I had to include a few of my favorites the 1992 photos that I scanned.

Chris, now 18, taking his first steps.

My mom, who died a year ago, helping Chris with his 1st birthday celebration.

Katie, now age 21, when she was about 4.

Katie with one of Matt’s (older son) cows at the fair.

My mom with Chris and Katie.

Milking.

Chris & tractor.

Katie is lining up dirt clods on the disc.

Last blanket…almost

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I just finished two twin size blankets using a customer’s natural colored yarn and her yarn that I dyed. This will be shipped tomorrow  along with the king-size blanket. I’ve had the heater on in my shop all day so that I can get these dry. I also finished a couple of v-shawls.

The blankets have the same warp. This one is woven with 2-ply light brown weft.

I didn’t have enough of the customer’s yarn for weft in the second blanket so I used some of mine. I took a chance on using 2 strands of singles yarn wound together on the pirn. Normally I wouldn’t try to wind 2 together using an end-feed shuttle, but in this case the yarns wound around each other and I didn’t have any trouble at all.  So this weft is one strand of light gray and one strand of dark gray yarn together. I think it gives a nice depth to the blanket.

I have one more custom order, a king size blanket in several colors, but it will wait until after Christmas. The last time I did that (last year) I broke my arm before I got the left-over weaving finished.

Weaving blankets

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I’m making progress on the weaving orders but I’m not finished yet.  I need to get these in the mail by the middle of the week.

This is a king-sized blanket for a customer in Oregon. I don’t know what kind of sheep she raises, but the yarn is beautiful and the blanket is very soft. It measures 90 x 100″.  The only place I can spread a blanket this size to dry is the floor of the shop, so I have to plan my finishing around classes, open hours, etc. The shop is too cold right now and after leaving the blanket spread out overnight I needed to get it off the floor (partly because I’m teaching a chenille scarf class tomorrow).

The blanket is folded in half and hanging over the loom on which I’m weaving a v-shawl for a customer in Nevada. This customer has Jacob sheep and I’m using her mill-spun yarn and handspun yarn. The blanket below is for the same customer. The stripes are handspun.

Here is a detail from the king-sized blanket at the top of this post. This customer also wants two twin blankets and she wants some of the yarn dyed. Here is the yarn for the next warp.

The next two blankets are woven with singles Jacob yarn. These were in a previous post while still on the loom. They are for sale at the Artery right now and will be on my site shortly.