John has been shearing for us for years. He is an excellent shearer and a nice person.
I recorded some of the sheep being shorn which I’ll share when I have time. When I record I can pay attention to time. Some of them are right at 2 minutes or maybe even a little faster.
There is no blood. The sheep are in good shape and the fleeces look great! What more can you ask for?
Farm Club members kept up with getting the sheep to John. I got outside and started to take photos of the sheep after shearing. This ewe is Sandie.
They sure look clean now! That won’t last.
Kathleen weighed all the fleeces.
We had two skirting tables available so that fleeces could be skirted before purchase.
This is just a portion of the fleeces that I need to skirt and put out for sale. Give me a little time to get to that. The sooner the better though.
Distraction…there was a lamb born tonight! Surprise! I guess the next post will be about lambing.
Who says we don’t have fall color? I’ll count blue as one of those colors too.
Today we were holding a class in the front part of the garage and I needed to organize the corner where I’d been piling natural dye plants, pots, walnuts, torn sheep coats and more for months. The reason it was on the table is that the shelves along the walls were filled with STUFF–the stuff that accumulates when you don’t have a space to put it and you think you might want it someday…maybe. Or at least you can’t throw it away because maybe it’s useful. I don’t have a photo of the BEFORE. But here is part of the AFTER. I feel so much better after that. I think I should go do some dyeing. Notice those stainless steel containers on the top shelves on the right. My Dad had a lab at UCSF a long time ago. He used those in his lab. They never wear out. Some still have his name on them — R Pratt.
I opened a bag in a cupboard and found all of these bags of various mordants or dye aids and natural dyes that I don’t grow. The two with clothespins are ones I collected (madder root I grew and osage orange across the road).The rest were purchased by someone. Maybe me many years ago. This is the kind of thing you find when you get into deep cleaning. I don’t have a photo of the table full of stuff that Maybe My Kids Will Want. Fingers crossed.
I found these warps of rayon chenille waiting to be dyed. I don’t know how long they have been there in the garage.
So I felt very productive today all the while getting the place organized for the class. Farm Club member, Siobhan, taught her Vegetarian Sheepskin class to five people. they came from Auburn, Pleasonton, and Oakland as well as more local. We sure lucked out on the weather. It was cold but not rainy or windy.
We had roving and fleece for everyone and Siobhan supplied other needed supplies.
Participants arranged the fiber on bubble wrap and netting.
They applied soap and hot water.
The table is a good height for working on the fleece.
Lots of pressing and rubbing…
…followed by rolling.
Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of everyone’s finished pieces. Hopefully they will share photos later and I can include them in another post.
Siobhan spent the previous night here so we could get organized for the class.
She found this book on the Farm Club shelf. I’m not sure where I got it. It’s possible it was donated by another member. Imagine Siobhan’s surprise when she recognized the author’s name.
She recognized the author as her husband’s relative, but wasn’t sure the relationsihip. I gave her the book to take home and it turns out that this author is Shiobhan’s husband’s great-great uncle. How random is that?
I finished the day with a walk Across the Road. That is a view of Mt. Diablo from a spot where i take a lot of photos with the intent of showing the year progression in this field–I just never get around to putting it all together. That didn’t really finish the day. I worked on one of the looms with things I’m trying to finish before Christmas. I’ve been at the computer since just after dinner. I’m ready for bed, but right now hearing a party going on well across the road or up the road or somewhere. That’s unusual. It’s almost always very quiet here.
Three days in a row with a blog post! I’m on a roll.
I didn’t write about my newest yarn because I wanted to have all the details. Here it is, although not on the website yet.
I shared this photo in a previous post. I just picked up the yarn from Valley Oak Mill a week or two ago. This is the last of the 2023 Jacob fiber.
The first thing I need to do before planning a weaving project and before listing the yarn for sale is evaluate the yarn. Measuring wraps/inch (WPI) is one step.
Look at what I finally figured out–how to put photos side-by-side. It only took 20 minutes of trial and error and I don’t know if I can do it again. Now if I could just figure out how to change the size of the spaces .
The point of this is to show the wpi measurements for the same yarn before and after wetting. The yarn on the left is wound straight from the cone. The sample yarn on the right shows the WPI after the yarn has “bloomed”. I soak the skeins in water for about five minutes and then spin them out and let them dry. It is important to plan a project based on what the yarn will look like when the knitted or woven or crocheted project is wet finished. In the case of all these yarns they measured 17 WPI when wound from the cone and 12 WPI after washing. That’s a big difference.
Here is how the black yarn looks.
Here is this yarn on the loom. I sett it at 8 epi (ends per inch) based on the 12 WPI measurement. It looks very open but remember that the yarn is under tension on the loom and it has not been wet finished. It will bloom as in the photos above.
The stars appear due to alternating 6 dark threads and 6 light threads in warp and weft AND the weave structure. Without the two colors you wouldn’t see stars and without the weave structure (tie-up and treadling) you would see a plaid. There is a trick to weaving this without cutting the yarn every time you change color and keeping the selvedges neat. I put boxes at the right height at each side of the loom and rest the unused shuttle there where I can reach under the yarn when I catch the active shuttle for six picks.
This is how the scarves look off the loom, not yet wet finished. The stars are black on one side of the scarf and white on the other.
Here are the finished scarves. I have two of the stars scarves and one of the stripes. They may be sold this weekend but I can make more before Christmas. I wonder if I should try other colors. I could use the Timm Ranch naturally dyed yarn or Ashford yarn. I’d like to weave some in cotton as well. Too many ideas, too little time. If you’d like one let me know soon.
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