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CNCH 2025 – Asilomar

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I spent many days (weeks, months?) working towards going to CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers) as one of the teachers at this retreat-style conference held at Asilomar on the California coast. I have taught Learn to Weave many times and can do it without thinking, but the prep is different when I am not teaching at home and when there will be so many people in the class. This is a class presented to people who may have some weaving experience but not enough to warp a loom themselves, people who may have woven long ago but need a refresher, and those who have never woven anything. Many don’t have looms or at least not looms that are portable.

Fifteen people signed up for this workshop. Five of them were bringing looms, five looms were borrowed from local guild members, and I provided five. That’s not just the looms–five warping boards, benches, and all the equipment that goes along with winding warp and weaving. I also supplied yarn, and not being someone who wants to tell people they have to choose only one or two colors, I brought plenty of choices…and in wool or cotton–their choice. This is where I staged what I was to put in the trailer. It doesn’t include the grid wall that was already in the trailer. You’ll see that in use in some of the photos.

I got the classroom set up by Thursday evening. Many thanks go to the person who organized the conference and made sure that I would have two helpers. My two requests for teaching the class were space (this room was great!) and another person (I had two!). With a beginning level class there are a lot of questions along the way one person can’t provide all the answers in a timely manner. There was also the issues of unfamiliar looms getting them set up to work with the class.

Samplers in wool on the left and cotton in the center. On the right are some of my shawls.

One of the perks of teaching this class was staying at Asilomar. My room was at the end of this building.

We set up grid wall to hold warping frames on this side of the room.

The looms were near windows on the other side.

Close up of weaving in purple, blue and gold.
Close up of weaving showing purple and white stripes woven with pink.

These are only portions of the samplers people could weave.

The workshop was Friday and Saturday with finishing up on Sunday morning.

This is a photo of most of us. Thanks to all of the participants and the helper weavers! I hope to do this again. When I teach this class here at the farm I take three to five people. The class is described here.

Part of the prep for this workshop was planning for farm chores. My husband had a knee replacement only a few weeks before and there were limits to what he was supposed to do. Thanks to a good friend and my brother who handled a lot of that.

When I got home Sunday there was a new lamb which was not a complete surprise, but that’s another story.

A Flannel Barn Jacket

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I shared some photos on Instagram a month or so ago about a jacket that I finally mended.

The only thing wrong with this jacket is that I kept catching it on gates and the inner parts of it were getting filled with hay. The top half and the whole back still kept me warm. Why would I throw it away?

I finally fixed it. It’s a relief to not have to worry about getting caught on the gates as I walk through.

Then I decided it was time to mend the overalls. The following post popped on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Same jacket. I guess no one can accuse me of being part of the fast fashion problem.

Pasture and Irrigation Renovation – Part 11

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Yesterday’s post brought us up to November 19 when the work on the irrigation pipeline was almost finished. The field wasn’t yet seeded and significant rain was due that night.

There is a story about the seed. It was a special order to get the quantity and mix we specified. On November 8 we drove to the seed company in Tracy to pick it up to save on shipping cost and so it would be here when Michael was ready for it. The order wasn’t correct so the company was going to ship it to us the following week. It didn’t come on the day it was supposed to, and we didn’t want it to arrive while we were gone. It would be on a pallet which would need to be unloaded and we couldn’t risk the seed getting wet if it rained. So we scheduled delivery for the following Tuesday, the day after we’d be back from Arizona. The shipping company called on Tuesday to say it would be here Wednesday. We needed to get that seed in the ground on Tuesday because of the imminent rain.

Fortunately we were told that the seed could be taken off the truck so we could pick it up. Dan I drove to Sacramento to pick it up at the trucking company location. I texted Michael that the seed we would be back home with the seed by about 2:00.

The air seeder has two long arms that distribute the seeds as it’s being driven.

I don’t know the details of how it is set up but this is a look at the part under the hopper where the seed falls into the black tubes in a measured quantity.

There is a control here where Michael set the amount of seed to apply. He somehow calibrated it to apply 30 pounds/acre when the tractor is driven at 6 mph.

It took only a few hours to apply the seed using this equipment.

This was followed up with ring rollers to help the seed have more soil contact. It was getting dark.

After rolling the main part of the pasture, Michael had to adjust the width of the rollers to squeeze between the new valves that are 30 feet apart. This was to access the north part of the field.

Michael’s son had been riding in the cab while Michael was working. While he adjusted the rollers (and Dan was watching to make sure they cleared the valves) I took Bodie into the barn to feed the sheep with me.

Seeding was just in time. We had almost an inch and a half of rain that night.

The NRCS engineer wanted to certify the pipeline work, but now it was too muddy for people to walk or drive across the field and even on the road to the west. I walked out there by walking on the dried grass to the side of the dirt road west of our property so I could send photos. This shows the work the welder did the previous day when he could drive on that road. He cut out a circle on the horizontal pipe, matched the vertical pipe with another cut, and welded them together.

There is a precisely measured hole in the top of the horizontal pipe. I think the purpose is for air flow to help with water flow.

The finished connections that need to be covered. But, wait, they are not finished. There will be another post that shows a flow meter being installed.

Avoiding the dirt most of the way, this is how my boots looked just….

…walking across the dirt road to get to the corner of the property. I sent the engineers the required photos and these last two to show that it was not a good time for anyone to visit.

A Birthday Hike

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My birthday was last weekend and I wanted to go hiking. I thought about Mt. Diablo or Pt. Reyes or Mt. Tamalpais, all places that I’d like to explore, but the thought of Bay Area traffic discouraged me. Then I realized that I could take advantage of some open space that is closer to home.

Lynch Canyon is in Solano County just north of the freeway between Fairfield and Vallejo. In the 1980’s the property was purchased by a company who proposed a landfill. Thankfully that was rejected by Solano County voters and the land is now owned by Solano Land Trust.

The land is rolling hills dotted with oak trees. We had the first real rain of the season the previous evening so this may start to green up soon. On the morning of our hike the vegetation was all dry.

The trail we chose headed generally west. I wanted to get to the top of the hills for the view.

My brother, Dave, was with us.

This area could be stunning when there are spring wildflowers. The only plant flowering now was tarweed.

The thistles were an interesting contrast.

That’s my brother.

Cattle graze these hills right now.

This was a beautiful day for a hike.

Once we got on top of the hills we had views all around. This is looking southeast over American Canyon and the marsh land where the Napa River ends at San Pablo Bay. If I turned around I could see the windmills along Hwy. 12 to the east.

We could see Mt. Diablo to the south.

An easy 6-mile hike was a good way to spend my birthday.

When I got home I walked Across the Road with Ginny. Do you recognize that mountain in the distance? That’s Mt. Diablo at a little different angle than the phioto from Lynch Canyon.

Granddaughter Visit – Around the Farm

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The weeks between Convergence and State Fair were super busy, but I tried to do as many things with Kirby as we could fit it. She learned to spin. As with most beginners the biggest challenge is understanding the relationship between amount of twist necessary to create a stable yarn and the diameter of the yarn. It helps to use fiber that is easy to spin. Carded Jacob fiber fits that criteria.

Of course we spent time with sheep. Jade is always the favorite. We spent every morning that Kirby was here working with the lambs that would be going to the fair. Maybe I didn’t get photos of that.

I wanted to do some dye projects for my fair display. Kirby learned something about preparing indigo for the dye pot.

I do the cold fresh leaf method.

State Fair time is when the blackberries are ripe.

We picked blackberries together.

It is a challenge when we have irrigated because the blackberries are on the other side of the ditch. Its a good thing that I had an extra pair of rubber boots to share.

Kirby and I spent time in the barn sorting and cleaning the horns and skulls to use for our touching table at the fair.

Kirby likes to catch chickens as well as sheep.

Granddaughter Visit – Raptors

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The day after I got back from Kansas (see Convergence posts) granddaughter, Kirby, flew in from Texas. We had a two week visit planned that would end with the State Fair and then her tenth birthday.

One of the days Kirby was here, the local library hosted a raptor presentation by the UC Davis Raptor Center. We followed that with a trip to the Raptor Center to see the raptors that are permanent residents there due to injuries or other reasons that prevent them from being released.

We first watched as the handlers worked with two turkey vultures in their enclosure. They are learning to enter dog crates so that they can be taken off site when necessary.

This handler had come to the library presentation but was back at the center to show off a 4-year old bald eagle.

At age 5 his head feathers will be completely white, as in the chart below.

The handlers explained the situation with each bird. Most were brought to the raptor center with injuries. Sometimes injuries are treated successfully, and the bird can be released, but not all of the birds would be able to live on their own in the wild. They are exhibited for educational purposes at the Raptor Center and at presentations like the one we saw at the library.

Some birds are also used for research purposes. This is Jack, a redtail hawk that is a resident. Jack had just completed a flight study, being filmed while flying and wearing sensors, before coming to the library.

This barn owl was injured at a very young age when the palm tree in which she lived was cut and she broke her wing. She is a permanent resident.

Kirby comparing her wingspan with these raptors.

We were lucky to have so many volunteers on-site to talk about the birds and let us see them up close.

Convergence 2024 in Kansas – Day 4

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Look here for Day 3 of Convergence. I had not scheduled anything at Convergence for Saturday and looked forward to a day to choose to do anything or nothing. I decided to go to Botanica Wichita, a collection of botanical gardens on 18 acres, not too far from the hotel.

I started with the same route along the river I’d walked the first three days. I got side-tracked by flags along the way. The Wichita Flag Pavilion starts with a plaque about the first “flag”, probably a staff with eagle feathers carried by the Native Americans as a way for tribe members to follow their leader.

There are plaques for each of these later flags starting with the flag that flew over Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria. There are photos of those plaques at this link.

The Flag Pavilion is at the edge of the Wichita Veterans Memorial Park where there are 21 memorials. I wandered through and found the Vietnam Memorial. I am just young enough that none of my friends were drafted, but I was in high school during the last years of the Vietnam war. I think that the Vietnam era is responsible for the culture in which I grew up. It was notable that the word “war” is not on any of these memorials.

From Britannica.com: “Congress authorized troop deployment in Vietnam, but, because it did not issue a declaration of war on North Vietnam or the Viet Cong, the Vietnam War is, technically speaking, not considered a war in the United States.” Maybe that is why there was such an impact on us. We sent our young men half way across the world to experience atrocities and die for what reason? We were not at risk, and this “conflict” had no bearing on our safety at home…but I digress.

After I left the Veteran’s Memorial Park I continued along the river path following the map in my phone until I saw the marker for the Wichita Gardens,

This marker was deceiving. It is at the edge of the gardens but as I walked along the path that bordered the gardens I found gates closed. The trail looked as though it was going farther away from the garden. I think eventually I would have found a street that brought me to the main entrance, but since I was on foot I wasn’t sure how far afield I should go. I stopped and called the number listed for Botanica. Amazingly, a person answered the phone. She told me I had walked too far, and I went back the way I had come, turning at the Art Museum and worked my way through a neighborhood to get to the main entrance.

To be continued…

Convergence 2024 in Kansas – Day 3

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This is Day 2, when I taught the Clasped Warp class. I signed up for some sessions on Friday and Sunday.

I went out early on Friday morning to walk along the Arkansas River. There are paths on both sides.

This is the Exploration Place. From a quilt on this side to a helicopter inside on the opposite wall it looks as though there is something for everyone here. The bridge that you see is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers at the confluence.

This is another view of the statue you see in the distance in the first photo. It is known as the “Keeper of the Plains” and was donated to Wichita in 1974 by the Kiowa-Comanche artist, Blackbear Bosin.

There is a small pavilion behind the statue and where the rivers meet.There are several displays about Plains Indian culture and beliefs.

Back at the hotel, I took a morning class from Robyn Spady about cool things you can do weaving with four shafts.

In the afternoon I had a short session about ice dyeing with indigo. I did a lot of that last summer but never had all these colors. Since I’ve been home I tried to get purple and failed. I’ll try again.

After this session I wondered through the fiber arts exhibits and the vendor hall. I have a lot of photos but will include only a few here. As usual, I am frustrated that I will never have time to weave all the things I already have in my head and now there are more!

Great boots!

Beautiful wedge weave rug.

The following pieces are just a few that were in the previous day’s fashion show.

The Noh coat. This refers to a style of coat that I remember reading about a few years ago. It would be interesting to weave fabric for this. I’ll add it to my list.

Woven in tencel.

Cotton top with the gradients of color different for warp and weft.

Remaking a jeans jacket.

I spent some time in the vendor hall. Lunatic Fringe took the Kansas location to heart with the yellow brick table drape and the legs hanging from their banner. They also wore witch’s hats the first couple of days.

In the evening I walked with a friend back to the Keeper of the Plains where fire is lit for 15 minutes every evening at sunset.

Blogging Experiment

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Now that I’m back to blogging before I get any more behind, the interface seems different and I’m not sure that my post will go in the right place. I don’t want to spend a lot of time doing this if it’s not going to work so this will be a brief interlude.

This is the indigo before I left for Convergence. It has been so hot and dry here that I wasn’t sure how it would look when I got back. There was no time to use it but I thought I’d experiment with freezing some. After all when I use it for the fresh leaf method I’m using ice water.

I froze a few containers of indigo leaves in water.

I have done some indigo dying since I got back but it’s been in a rush to have it ready for the fair this week. No time to experiment with this.

Now we’ll see how this experiment of my blog post went. It’s supposed to be at meridianjacobs.blog, but I can’t tell that it will post there.

Black Sheep Gathering 2024

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I’m already on my next adventure, but need to catch up with the last one. After the quick trip to Idaho I decided against going to Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon the following weekend. I had not planned to take sheep this year and had not entered wool, fiber arts, etc. But half way through the week I changed my mind. Without entering any shows I didn’t have to be gone as many days, so I left Friday morning. I will admit that two hours into the drive I thought about turning around and coming home because I had so much to do at home before the next event (where I am now). However I had told a friend in Oregon that I’d visit along the way, so I kept going.

Here is where I stayed the three nights I was there. As I set up my tent I realized that I think I’ve had this tent and my sleeping bag since my college days or shortly after.

I took very few photos in the barn, but here is one–a Valais Blacknose. There was a new Jacob breeder there and I helped her show. Because she was the only person with Jacob sheep she had to show in the All Other Breeds class, as I did last year. Maybe I’ll enter again next year and we’ll have a Jacob show.

I took a few photos in the exhibit and vendor hall. These are the main award winners in the Fiber Arts Show.

I spent a lot of time with a few vendors and tried to make time to see the rest.

I met this vendor last year at this event. She lives in Sacramento and I encouraged her to sell at Lambtown last fall. Her booth was next to mine. Even though I specialize in locally grown wool, including my own, I was intrigued by her yarns, many of which are not natural fibers and are certainly not local. But they sure are fun! The larger skeins are all lengths of yarns that are tied together. I had bought a few of these crazy mixed fiber skeins and brought the scarf I had just finished to show how I had used the yarns. I plan to create a class using this idea.

I spent time with one other vendor, business name of Shuttle Creek. Annie is a weaver and was working on a loom in her booth, She sells her mostly cotton garments at local shows I think. I just looked at the website and there are some gorgeous items there but blog and Facebook activity seem to stop in 2021 and I was thinking that she said she doesn’t do much online. Anyway, after talking to her a long time she pulled this piece off a hangar and put on me. I bought it and that’s what wore all day at the weaving event where I’m teaching (next post). I need a button that “no, I didn’t weave it”.

I spent part of the day at the vendor hall, helped the other Jacob breeder show sheep, visited with friends (most of whom are from California), and watched Spinners’ Lead. I packed up fairly early on Sunday and started home.

I’ve seen the sign for the covered bridge every time I’ve driven to Oregon but I’ve never stopped. It’s not far from the highway and an interesting site. There is a museum nearby but it wasn’t open on Sunday morning. The bridge was built in 1920 and the sign talks about the history of the area when white settlers came there in the 1840’s and 50’s.

I always at this site in California.

This means I’m almost home. (Sort of.)