Close to Home…Post #11 – Herding-4-Ewe

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Robin

Sometimes I wind a warp using a lot of different yarns and then realize that I don’t have enough of any one yarn for weft. This usually happens when I’m making a mixed warp to use up odds and ends of yarn that I have around. That happened with a couple of the pieces for Close to Home and I found some yarn left over from other projects that worked just fine. These blankets are not in the show but they use yarn that I had made from Herding-4-Ewe’s wool. I happen to still have some on the shelves. Story: Herding-4-Ewe is just around the corner from my farm. Debbie Pollard keeps a flock of mixed breed sheep to use in training dogs (and, just as important, dog owners) the art of herding. My Border Collie, Rusty, and I took lessons from Debbie for a few years.

Now most of the sheep Debbie uses are hair sheep, but at the time I was there she had many more woolly sheep and I acquired some of the fleeces. I skirted and washed the wool and had it spun at Yolo Wool Mill in Woodland. I have woven many blankets from this yarn (including one for Debbie in which I incorporated yarn I spun from the hair of her favorite dog) but have some of it left.

Here are a couple of the projects in which I needed to find some other yarn.This blanket uses my Mom’s yarn in the warp and Herding-Ewe’s yarn, dyed with black walnut, in the weft.This is a CVM shawl using the same yarn as above for weft.

I don’t have any photos taken while herding at Debbie’s but here is one of Rusty working at home:

An August Morning

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Robin

(Note: I don’t know why the photos imported smaller and the spaces between text and photos are so large. I don’t think I did anything different than usual. Sometimes this computer stuff drives me crazy.)

I have plenty to do but when I take my camera with me life slows down. Sheep behind barn

View behind the barn in the morning.

Cattle egrets roosting at the edge of the pasture. white tailed kite, adult and juvenile

White-tailed kites in the tree at the other edge of the pasture. I’ve been hearing a lot of squawking out of them the last few days. The one on the left with the brown feathers is a juvenile….”Dad, pulleeze let me have the keys.”

Views from the pasture.

This is the ewe lamb born last at the State Fair.

BFL cross ewes.

Hay truck whizzing by. Won’t you stop here?

One of my favorite flowers because it is so good in the pasture. Birds foot trefoil.

Mockingbird behind the barn.

Phyllis is the oldest sheep here.

More Leaping Lambs

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Robin

This is why I get distracted at chore time.

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.

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.

Fall Color

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Robin

We really need rain, but I must admit that the weather is sure nice. I spent an hour in the pasture yesterday morning enjoying the fall color.

It’s not just the trees that are colorful:Red and yellow and green are pretty……but black and white are two of my favorites.

National Heirloom Exposition

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Robin

I forgot that Sonoma County could be drizzly and cool, even when northern Solano County is sweltering. I spent 3 1/2 days as a vendor at the Heirloom Festival in Santa Rosa. It was nice to be out of the heat, but I would have welcomed a little sun on Days 1 & 2. I brought sheep as well as the booth, so I used 2 canopies as well as the sheep pen area. Since we were outside we could spread out as much as we wanted to. Just beyond my booth was an area where other fiber vendors/artists, representing Fibershed, were stationed.Jackie demonstrated the peg loom and Colleen demonstrated needlefelting.Mary and Chris, the “zoomers”, wove on the Zoom Loom, as well as demonstrating other fibery skills throughout the show.

There was a lot to see at the Heirloom Expo and I took advantage of the hours in the morning before the gates opened to the public to look around. My sheep spent the night in the barn and were in the pen at the booth only during the hours of the show. There were a lot of bee and honey displays. Vertical gardens. A great use of old doors. Notice the screen to the right as well. Are Dona and Jackie solving the problems of the world? Or just satisfying their caffeine addictions?

Red and Purple Field Trip

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Robin

There was a fun field trip here today. About ten women from the Red Hat Society chapter in Sacramento came for the morning. We started out in the barn visiting the sheep and Amaryllis, but I didn’t get any photos. I did get photos of Rusty showing off sheep herding skills, but he will use those in his blog.

I had planned a simple needlefelting project in the shop. I provided felt and colorful fiber and, although, I had prepared some simple sheep and chicken outlines, most people created their own designs. This was a lively group of women who were very interested in the animals and the farm and who seemed to have a good time here.

What is wrong with this picture?

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Robin

I see something wrong here. This may not be obvious to anyone but me. How about in the next photo?Look more closely.I wish that I could draw arrows on the photo but I don’t have the right software. See the sheep on the left? How about the sheep in the back with the white horns. And the sheep in the right center with his head down. Yes, those are rams in the pasture with the ewes. And Amaryllis is in the ram pen. OOPS! Someone didn’t latch the ram pen gate after she cleaned out the feeder.BUSTED! You guys have to go back in.Sorry, boys.

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Life on the farm and at the loom.

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