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.

Farm Club Retreat

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Robin

Last week we had our annual Farm Club Retreat in San Francisco. Six of us were able to get away for 24 hours of camaraderie and relaxation (and one more member joined us for the evening). We started by visiting the Alemany Farm in southeast San Francisco and meeting two of the volunteers. The Farm’s website states: “Friends of Alemany Farm is a volunteer group that manages the horticulture, volunteer, and educational programs at Alemany Farm, a 3.5 acre organic farm ecosystem in southeast San Francisco.” The farm is on city property at the edge of a park and was formerly an eyesore. It has been developed and used by community groups in one way or another for about 20 years. It was certainly nice to see a bit of color since our drought landscape seems so dreary right now. 017 Shelby tasted most of what we saw… …including the pineapple guavas… …which were sweet inside, but you really didn’t want to taste the outside part.A small community farm in the heart of the city.

After the farm tour we drove back to the NDGW Home where we met up with Lisa…

…and later Stephany, who had broken her ankle and wasn’t up for walking the hills of San Francisco. We had a splendid dinner at a Green Chili Kitchen just up the street from the Home. We spent the evening lounging in the parlor with our knitting, spinning wheels, and Mary’s wonderful cookies and pom-poms.

Unfortunately I somehow lost all the photos I took with my iPhone from the pjs and pom-pons in the parlor through the next day’s field trip. BUMMER. The next morning we enjoyed the now traditional Lemon Custard pie (from Green Chili’s)for breakfast and then five of us drove to Berkeley to visit Lacis, a shop filled with all kinds of cool gadgets and featuring a museum. The exhibit in the museum was a private collection of lace complete with the history of the development of lace and it’s impact on European history, as told by the owner of the collection and of Lacis. Fascinating.

I look forward to our next FC retreat in January, 2015.

Robin Goes Shopping

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Robin

I am not a shopper. I once told the guys at Higby’s, my favorite feed store (that carries some clothing), that if either they or Ace Hardware carried underwear then I’d never have to shop anywhere else.

Shopping for yarn and fiber related toys is another story. That’s what the TNNA trade show is all about. It is where shop owners go to find all the products they want in their shops for the coming year. Every year I meet up with my friend, Irene, of Cotton Clouds and we spend the weekend shopping and working on weaving ideas and solving life problems.

This year’s show was in San Diego, but the show was in the Convention Center so no scenic outdoor photos. You don’t get to buy things in the main trade show hall because its set up to place orders for items to be carried in stores. However, the first night they have Sample It, where vendors can sell one or two of their new items and us hungry shoppers can go away with yarn and other goodies. This is the line to get into Sample It. This is the Yarn Wall where you can fill pages with samples of all the distributors newest yarns.The Spinning and Weaving market segment now has it’s own group under the umbrella of TNNA. Spinzilla was a very successful promotion that began in 2013 to raise funds to bring the spinning craft into the Needle Arts Mentoring program. Meridian Jacobs hosted a team last year and will do so again in 2014.There are also opportunities to take classes. I took a class to learn about making felfs. Wouldn’t these be nice in Jacob yarn with a horn button? cardboard sheep

I found sheep without even going outside……in all colors……and styles……and things in colors of sheep. Some will be arriving in my shop soon!Yarn is presented in a variety of ways.Hungry?This one reminds me of gummy worms but I don’t think that is the intent.Unusual colors were inspired by a yarn enthusiast who is involved in cat rescue.But the best thing about going to TNNA is getting together with friends… …during the show… …and after.

Lambs Grow Up

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Robin

Lambs will be here at the end of February and I have been thinking about how fast they grow. Here are some of the 2013 favorite lambs as they grew up.

This is Marilyn with her mom, Hot Lips. 2 1/2 weeks old. First in her class at Black Sheep Gathering, 4 months old. Marilyn at 8 months old. Isn’t she pretty? Santana at 10 days old. About a month old. Not quite two months old. 5 1/2 months old with a great horn spread. Santana with his ewes 7 1/2 months old. That’s Alex on the right at about 10 days old. Not much color on that side. Fortunately he has more on the other. 019 About 4 months old. About 8 months old.Alex after shearing, 9 months.This is Cascade at 10 days old.Two months old. 022 Here she is at 7 1/2 months.

Across the Road at Sunset

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Robin

I took these photos with my i-phone last week. As I was looking into the phone I didn’t think that the phone’s camera was catching the brilliance of the sunset. I snapped them anyway, but then forgot about it. It was only when I saw the photos on my computer that I realized how amazing that camera is.

Across the Road Close-up

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Robin

I just wrote a post using photos that I took Across the Road from our mailbox. I started that to document the changes in the field that we see from our house everyday. The photos themselves are kind of boring and not all that attractive. Here is some of what I see when I walk Across the Road. (And here is Rusty’s version.) Last year the main crop was sunflowers but there is a corner of land owned by someone else. Last summer’s crop on that parcel was corn. Hot dog. Irrigating the sunflower field. Pollenating the sunflowers. Stickers in someone’s fur. Sometimes our road seems like an alfalfa highway. Swarm of bugs. Another hot dog. Irrigation water. This sure looks appealing when it is 100+ degrees.

Signs that I’m not the only one Across the Road. Hope of the next harvest.

Last Year’s View Across the Road

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Robin

We don’t have very much acreage, but across the road is a much larger parcel. We appreciate living here and being able to walk, run the dogs, and just a enjoy the view across the road. In 2013 I planned to take photos from the same location, of the same view, and at the same time each week to document the changes through the year. You probably don’t mind that it didn’t work because who would want to see 52 photos of the same thing? This field has been planted to alfalfa for several years but in 2013 there were sunflowers. Here is the year Across the Road:

January 10 January 25 January 31 March 7 March 26 April 4 April 11 May 5 May 21 May 28 June 13 July 4July 12 August 8 September 30October 10October 18 November 24December 31

There you have it. I stood at the mailbox for each photo. But the photos are obviously now always the same view or even using the same camera.

The most striking thing in my mind is how dry it was last year. The Central Valley of CA enjoys a Mediterranean climate which means hot dry summers and cool wet winters. We rely on winter rainfall to replenish aquifers and reservoirs to provide the water that keeps the valley from being a desert in the summer. This link shows graphs of the average precipitation and temperature for our area. According to accuweather.com the average annual rainfall for Sacramento is 18.5″. We have had only 30% of that (5″ in all of 2013). The hills (and the field across the road) should be green right now with the growth of the annual grasses that germinate from fall rains. Grass started to grow with each of the two (only 2) rainy days that we had but has mostly dried up.

On the bright side, I’m not slogging through calf-deep mud when doing chores and we don’t have to run the sump pump to keep the the water heater in the basement from flooding.

Hoping for a wet 2014!

Amaryllis is a Good Sport

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Robin

Rusty has never been a willing partner in taking cute holiday photos. His friend, Moby wasn’t much better. Nor was Ozzie.Maybe it would have worked with a smaller hat.

Some of the sheep are OK with it. This is Noel.Here is Paulette. But now we have a new star. Spinners’ Day Out was yesterday. Most of the people here were part of Farm Club (which, by the way, anyone can now join as an e-Farm Club member) and they were willing (more like insistent) on getting photos with Amaryllis. Dona and Mary took these photos. “Would you get that thing away from my eye?”

Box of Chenille

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Robin

It may take me years to use up the yarn in the studio part of my shop. But I’m hopeful. Here is an attempt at one box.

I dumped the box of chenille on the floor and arranged the colors. I posted this photo on Facebook and then decided to have a contest. How many scarf warps could I get out of this pile of yarn?

The guesses ranged from 17 to 50 (well, there was one outlier at 502–maybe a typo). I had a good time winding these warps. For me winding warp is the creative part of weaving–at least for chenille scarves. The weave structure is almost always plain weave so all the design comes in choosing colors and arranging the order. This actually became a challenge here. I rarely weave chenille scarves in those light colors. Also, it’s hard to tell in this photo but there are a lot of variegated yarns there. I like to use those, but usually as accents with solid colors. As I worked my way through this pile it became more difficult to put together pleasing combinations. Because I had set up this contest I didn’t want to add in yarns off the shelf–that seemed like cheating. All of the first several warps were long enough to weave 2 or 3 scarves. As I worked my way through the pile I had less yarn in any one color so I made warps for single scarves. I finally got to this:

All those bits and pieces got me three more scarf warps.

It may not look like much but those warps will weave 44 scarves! I wish that I had time to weave them all and then take a photo. Instead I will start weaving but will be putting some out for sale at the Artery as soon as I get them finished. ‘Tis the season…to be selling chenille.

By the way, the winner of the contest lives in Placerville and will be getting a chenille scarflet in the mail!

Shearing Day

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Robin

Sunday was Shearing Day and we sheared 71 sheep (61 ewes and 10 rams and wethers). I said “we”. Not really “we”, but John, my fabulous shearer. The sheep looked great, the fleece looked great and he finished shearing in two and a half hours! Shearing was finished by 11:30.Here are sheep ready to be shorn.Clover.Mary.

John started with the rams……and moved on to ewes.

Farm Club members were the other wonderful helpers who made it all work. Alison spent the morning at the skirting table explaining skirting and helping buyers skirt their fleeces. Shelby and Gynna were our sheep wranglers, making sure that there was always another sheep for John to shear. Mary and Carol bagged fleeces while Anna swept and Jackie worked the exit gate. Linda weighed and recorded fleeces. Other members helped too but I didn’t get photos.What would shearing day be without chili……and Dona’s brownies (and Lisa’s Jacob sheep cookies, Jackie’s corn biscuits, Mary’s wonderful tangy chicken and fancy rice krispie treats and more).After shearing the sheep look so much thinner. This photo looks as though it was stretched vertically, but it wasn’t. Lila. Cascade.

Gynna looks happy with her Farm Club fleece. fleece And look at this gorgeous one!

After shearing we (Farm Club again and other friends) did demos of all kinds of spinning and fiber prep, but that’s another story, especially because it’s too late to write more.

Order Out of Chaos

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Robin

I made all these buttons this week. Here are better photos. I think I have a new audience for my buttons….…How about using them for sorting practice for little kids? You can sort by shape, color, and size. You can arrange them in order of size. So they’re not just for sweaters anymore! But at $6/button this would be a pricey sorting kit.