The Holidays

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Robin

The holidays are upon us. I finally got a newsletter out. I usually get to it about once a month, but if I expect to sell anything at this time of year I need to do it more frequently. You don’t sell things if no one remembers that you exist. So the first one is out, announcing a Holiday Open House in a couple of weeks with two other local fiber vendors and… …a holiday craft project (above) and… DSC_0889Jade in hat …a photo op with our friendliest sheep dressed in her Christmas garb.Here are some more ornaments that I made from locally grown and dyed wool.

By the way, if you’d like to get my e-mail newsletter let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

Close to Home…Post #15 Left-overs

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Robin

My husband says that we are hoarders. When you’re a farmer you know that you’ll need that scrap of plywood, leftover fencing, rusty but still useable pipe, or roofing panel with only a few holes sometime, somewhere. So you keep it. What about the weaving studio? If there is warp left on the loom after finishing a project I weave it off and these pieces pile up. The Artery show gave me the incentive to finally use them.

These are several photos of Before and After felting. The process of “fulling” deserves it’s own post. Fulling transforms weaving fresh off the loom into cohesive cloth by using a controlled amount of agitation in hot soapy water. Felting happens when you take this process further. I used the washing machine and sometimes the dryer to maximize the effect of shrinking wool fabric into something much denser. (Another method is needlefelting, described in this post.) The four fabrics in this photo are the same as in the photo above it but after felting.This is another pair of before and after photos. The piece on the left is a blanket after fulling and the one on the right is the left-over piece of fabric after felting.Why felt this fabric and not use it as is or with only fulling? Felting creates a very dense stable fabric, good for a variety of projects where you don’t need (or want) the fabric to drape. Also, the fibers are so entangled that you can cut this fabric without worrying about it coming apart or fraying. I planned to use some of this fabric for pillows, but worried about staying true to the theme of locally produced fiber. I did use commercially available synthetic pillow forms (at least USA-made) for some of the pillows but for about half of them I made my own pillow forms using Suffolk wool from the Phillips Farm. I tracked down American Made Brand cotton fabric at two local quilt stores and used that for the covers and for the fabric backs of the pillows. P-4 and P-5 Fabric left over from blankets that I wove years ago.Fabric left over from the Barinaga blankets.Fabric I wove using Mom’s yarn several years ago.These pillows use fabric spun and woven by my Mom.

Friends gave me another idea to use some of this felted fabric. In fact one friend helped sew some of the pillows and another dipped into her fabric stash and did the sewing in these organizers. There are about 20 organizers and they are all different. It may be hard to tell in these photos but there are fabric pockets of different sizes in each. These two use handspun, woven fabric that Mom had basted into a jacket but never finished. After felting that fabric made 3 or 4 organizers.

The three photos above all use fabric leftover from Jacob blanket warps.

I still have left over fabric so there will be more of these to come.

Close to Home…Post #13 Felt

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Robin

In my fiber pursuits I consider myself first a weaver. That’s the predominant technique for the pieces in the show, Close to Home, at the Artery which, by the way is up through December 1. (If you’re just tuning in to this blog you can read here about the concept behind the show.) There are over 140 pieces in the show and most are woven. However, one end wall is devoted to felt.Felt, according to the dictionary, is a nonwoven fabric of wool, fur, or hair, matted together by heat, moisture, and great pressure. “Nonwoven fabric” is the key here. Most of the felt in the show is “matted together” by needle felting instead of the heat and moisture part.

Just in case you are picturing me with a felting needle and a pile of wool I want you to know that there is a shortcut–thanks to a friend of mine who has a felting “loom”. That’s what they call it.You feed a carded batt of wool in one side (over a light table)……and out the other. The action of hundreds of barbed needles turns the wool into felt.I fed each thin batt of wool in once and then layered them together to become a thicker piece.The final piece went through the needle loom about a dozen times. For several of my pieces I “wove” strips of roving and applied those to the felt part way through the process. I ended up with lots of placemats, trivets (the thick ones could double as stadium seats), and coasters.

After cutting out the placemats and other items I had felt strips left over. I wove those into wall hangings.

There was one piece of felt that my friends convinced me to leave alone and not cut up. I hung it on the wall at the Artery and it sold as a wall hanging.I did use the soap and hot water method in addition to needle felting to create these balls. They are sold as dryer balls (3 in the dryer help reduce drying time and soften clothes), or juggling balls, or cat toys, or therapeutic aids (at least that’s why one friend bought some).

By the way, the wool for all of the felt items comes from either the Suffolk sheep on the Phillips Farm (see Blog Post #9) or the coarser britch wool of my own Jacob sheep.

Close to Home…Post #9 – Phillips Farm

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Robin

The Phillips Farm is about a mile down the road from my place and I used their wool in the show at The Artery. Story: The Phillips family lives down the road from my farm and they raise a small flock of Suffolk sheep for lamb and meat production. For the last few years I have acquired their fleeces and used the wool in woven blankets and for felt projects.

Suffolk sheep are an English breed developed in the early 1800’s and brought to the U.S. in 1888. Suffolks are large black-faced sheep that are often used as a terminal sire for range flocks. They produce a lofty, medium grade fleece measuring 25.5 to 33 microns.

I sort the fleeces and have the softer wool spun into yarn for use in blankets and shawls. The coarser wool is carded into batts at Yolo Wool Mill in Woodland that are used for felt projects and pillows. The natural springiness and loft of Suffolk wool makes it the perfect pillow stuffing. I sent these fleece samples for testing and the result came back 29.4 microns. In the past I have used this wool for blankets but with access to a friend’s felt loom (machine for needle felting) I decided to use most of it for felt this year. The felt I made is a combination of the Suffolk wool and Jacob britch wool. I made three series of placemats (10 to 12 in each). I also made larger (door) mats and smaller (mug rug) mats.Cutting up all that felt leaves odds and ends of felt. What is better to do than to turn them into weaving projects? So I made these woven felled wall hangings… …and dryer balls. I delivered the prototypes of these to the Artery last year and found a customer who wanted to juggle with them. Here’s a short video of that.

…and dryer balls.

Felting Field Trip

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Robin

Today I hosted a field trip of 4-Hers led by Carol of Joshua Farm Shetlands. They came to talk about Jacob sheep, pasture management and the fiber business and to do a felting project. The morning started in the pasture. Most people that come to see the farm want to spend time with sheep, but it is very important to understand that we should think of ourselves as “grass farmers” first. I couldn’t possibly have the number of sheep that I do without irrigated pasture and intensive grazing management.We discussed sheep, facilities and ended the livestock part of the tour by looking at the Dead Zone (I just thought of that name). There are ram skulls in that fence in various stages of decomposition. As we explained to the kids, we want to sell every part of the animal we can. We came back to the shop for lunch and then a felting workshop. The idea was to felt a sheep. Some of the sheep had morphed significantly into other life forms: Snail. Duck.Aren’t these cool?

Before they left the 4-H group was gracious enough to help my son out with his photography assignment. He is supposed to submit an interpretation of Social Awareness and decided to stage a family picnic in which it is obvious that everyone is more involved in their electronic devices than each other.

No one seemed to mind the time for this, but the girls crowded around the iPad kept asking for the password.

A Shopping Weekend

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Robin

TNNA is The National Needlearts Association. The annual winter trade show was in Long Beach and I spent the weekend there with my friend, Irene, from Cotton Clouds and thousands of other yarn store owners, designers, and fiber lovers. This kind of a show has a different feel than the typical shows where I go as a vendor. Part of that is certainly because I’m on the fun (buying) side of the table instead of the work (selling) side. But it is also because this is where the manufacturers and producers go to sell their fiber, yarns, patterns and accessories to yarn stores and other retailers.

Irene and I always look forward to this weekend because, although we collaborate on the phone and by e-mail all year its nice to be face-to-face (and share a room at the hotel). There are a classes offered and I had fun making this needle felted bird. It’s good to find out how other people teach topics that you already offer.This is a crocheted coral reef in the lobby.There are autograph sessions for authors with new books. Mom wrote this book, but it features Ava (aka Annie), who knitted the scarf, and also signed every book.

Isn’t she adorable? Reminds me of Katie.

For the most part photography is not allowed on the show floor, but usually vendors don’t mind if you are going to buy their things. Here is a glimpse of some of what UPS will be delivering soon.

Are you as excited as I am? Make sure you sign up for my e-newsletter so you will know when these new items (and more) arrive!

Let there be light…of the right color

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Robin

One of the things on my Christmas list was a light reflector for helping with photography. This is a big round disc with changeable covers to give reflect light in different ways. After figuring out how to get better product photos by using manual settings on my camera, I was still limited by being able to direct light in the best way. I still have a lot to learn, but this is a start.

These photos are of a beautiful Targhee yarn that I just got back from the mill.

The photo above was taken using my camera on automatic. Yuck.

The yarn is in the same place but I have the gold cover on the disc. I also changed the camera to using manual settings for aperture and shutter speed, but I kept those the same for all the following photos.

This is the photo using the gold. It’s a pretty photo, but probably doesn’t show the true color of the yarn.

This is the cover that is not reflective, but diffuses light as it shines through.

Here is the yarn using that diffuse light. Not bad.

Here is a white reflective cover…

and the yarn. The yarn looks ok but there is more of a blue background.

How about the silver reflective cover?

This is the photo using the silver cover.

There are other variables of course–especially how my computer monitor displays the color and how your monitor displays the color. Those may be two different things.

And while I’m at it, here is a photo of felt that I got back from the mill last month. This is incredibly soft.

Look at the back side of that felt. Isn’t that cool? I think this will inspire something interesting.

Fashion photos with sheep

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Robin

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Jenne Giles of Harlequin Feltworks in San Francisco who asked if she could do a photo-shoot at the farm. It sounded like fun so we set it up and yesterday was the day. The photographer of the day was Allison Harrell She and her crew arrived mid-morning along with suitcases of props and lots of lighting equipment. Here are some highlights.

I showed everyone the farm and Allison took some time to figure out locations for the various scenes.

First location was a stack of alfalfa. The model here is Kara, wearing one of Jenne’s striking felt creations.

Kara is joined by Emily and one of my lambs.

Next location with new outfits. Emily and Kara were joined by a ewe and a goat in some of the photos.

Make-up artist & hair stylist, Elizabeth, found a new role as she negotiated with Amaryllis to be part of the day’s activities.

A little grain works wonders.

Amaryllis cooperated quite well for most of this portion of the shooting.

Location 4 was the pasture.

Paulette invited her self to be part of this scene.

Doris and her triplets posed quite well also, although I didn’t tell them that this wasn’t all about them.

The last location at our place was the chicken house.

Rusty worked all day to make sure that everything was in control.

It was very interesting to see what goes on “behind the scene” of something like this. My shop was tuned into the dressing room. Jenne’s dresses and scarves were stunning. She uses Merino wool for her felt and the pieces are lightweight and soft. Accessories included everything from dozens of pairs of colored tights to frilly rubber swimcaps. Allison had her laptop with her so that she could show Elizabeth the look that she wanted with the make-up and hair. (Anyone who knows me will understand when I was surprised to hear that it would take about an hour or more to accomplish the make-up and hair part. I’m lucky if I remember to comb my hair when I get to my car–which is where I keep my comb.) While the models were getting ready and changing in between locations Allison was busy getting the lighting just right and setting the scene.

I thoroughly enjoyed this day and meeting all of these delightful women. To see more of my photos you can find Meridian Jacobs on Facebook (become a fan while you’re at it) and also be sure to look at Jenne’s blog. The “real” photos (Allison’s) will be coming later.

Thanks for a fun day, ladies!

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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