Dyeing with Cosmos

Posted on September 30, 2026 by Robin

Cosmos flowers are gorgeous and the cosmos dye is one of the most reliable and easy-to-use natural dyes I have found.

Bright orange cosmos flower with green leaves behind.

I have grown cosmos in my dye garden for at least three years. I don’t plant them now. They are already growing by springtime, and at that point there are so many that I need to thin them aggressively.

Bright orange and yellow cosmos flowers after picking.

I pick off the flowers every three days or so to keep them flowering. I use some myself and I dry the rest to package for sale.

I wanted to do as valid a test as I could for this year’s cosmos collection. The three pots have two skeins each–Brown Sheep Co. Nature Spun wool yarn and Timm Ranch wool yarn. Nature Spun is U.S. grown and spun and Timm Ranch is even more local, five miles away.

These are the yarns in no particular order after hanging them to dry.

I’m glad that I kept such good track of the yarns and the process because I was surprised by what I found. Each pair of yarns in this photo were in the same dye pot. The darker yarns are Nature Spun and the lighter yarns are Timm Ranch. They all had the exact same treatment. In fact I had tied each pair of skeins so they stayed together through the whole process including the final rinse.

Every time I picked flowers I weighed them fresh and dried. I used all those values to calculate the ratio of dry to fresh flowers and found that dried flowers are 18% of the weight of fresh flowers. If I want to use 100% WOG (weight of goods) I would use 10.2 grams dried flowers for a two ounce skein. To dye with 75% WOG, use 7.65 grams, and to dye with 50% WOG, use 5.1 grams dried flowers. I wound 210 yards from cones for each skein, based on the yards/pound of Nature Spun yarn. The actual weight of each Timm Ranch (TR) skein was 2.3 ounces for 210 yards. I used the actual weight to calculate the amount of flowers for each pot.

Here they are grouped by type of yarn. I can’t see a difference between the 100% WOG and 75% WOG dye pots. The third skein of each group (50% WOG) is somewhat lighter, but not by much. That dye pot had little color left in it at the end. It looked as though there was still dye in the 100% WOG pot and after I finished rinsing these six skeins I added a four ounce skein that was already mordanted.

That four ounce skein is the one at the top right in this photo.

For more fun with cosmos try shifting parts of the skein with a dip in base or acid. This was a previous batch that I dyed. These are all TR yarn and the skein on the left is right from the dye pot. The middle two were dipped in a dilute lemon juice solution and the two on the right were dipped in a solution with the addition of washing soda. Yay!!!

The previous batch of cosmos dye flowers are sold out. I will have the new ones at Lambtown and on the website sometime next week.

Black Sheep Gathering – 2

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Robin

Here is the first post about this year’s Black Sheep Gathering.

I ended that post with a photo of Sparky ready for the Spinners’ Lead Contest. It is so difficult to get decent photos in the showing that I’ll share just this one, taken while waiting for the contest to start. The Spinners’ Lead Contest is a sort of like a fashion show, but with a sheep representative of the piece that is entered. At BSG, all entries use handspun yarn or are felted.

I took this photo at home. This is what the shawl looks like from the back. It’s handspun Jacob yarn arranged in color order from light to dark.

I have lost track of which was first and second, but they are the pieces in the photos above and below. They happen to be knit by a mother (below) and daughter (above). The sheep image on the sweater above was identical to the sheep being led in the show. These pieces were also entered in the Fiber Arts contest.

The next day I wandered around the vendor hall for a while.

This is another entry in the Fiber Arts Contest.

I took a few photos of things that I want to remember. At this booth there were some beautiful rugs woven with core spun yarn.

I have been getting core spun yarn from the mill spun using the coarser britch wool. I think I will sell it better as finished rugs than as the yarn itself. This makes me think about dyeing some of it.

Sheep are released at 4 and we were ready to leave at 4:20. We got to California at 8:30 p.m. I like having Mt. Shasta in sight.

The full moon made for some cool photos of the mountain.

We made only two stops for gas on the way home and pulled in at 1:12 a.m.

I don’t need to buy yarn or fiber. This is what I brought home. The two bowls add to our collection of this potter’s kitchenware. There is a BSG tie-dye t-shirt under the bowls. The book, two items at lower right, and one skein of yarn were my prize for Spinners’ Lead. Everyone gets a bag with goodies supplied by vendors. When I went by to thank the vendor who supplied the green yarn I thought I should buy another to go with it. The punch needle kit was a last minute impulse buy. I have always admired the colorful pieces I’ve seen at this booth. I didn’t have time to do the on-site lesson…and do I really need to learn another craft to distract me from all the other stuff I should be doing? This kit had all the necessary components and instructions to get started and I decided it was something I could work on while we were driving home. I got to the point you see before it got too dark and hopefully I’ll finish it one of these days.

I mentioned that Sparky wants to tell her impression of the show. That will have to wait awhile, but it will be soon on the blog that we are resurrecting that Rusty used to write.

Farm Club in the City Again

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Robin

I have to look back at my blog posts to know how long it is that Farm Club members have been going to San Francisco for an annual one-night retreat. It seems that the first one was in 2011 so this is the seventh. As always we had a fabulous time.

Eight of us met at the NDGW home Friday afternoon (see this post for some views of this fabulous home) and then went to FC member Stephany’s home in the Glen Park District of San Francisco.

Stephany and Ian invited us to see the recent addition to their yard, half of which has been inaccessible since they have lived there except for going half way around the block and through the property behind them.

This spiral staircase, which was lifted OVER their house by a crane a couple of months ago, gives them access to the upper level.

From the top of the staircase you cross this bridge to get to solid ground.

There is a spectacular view of the city and the bay and Stephany and Ian have a wonderful garden spot with a sunny exposure that is often above the fog line.

After enjoying afternoon snacks with Stephany she led us on an urban hike. The first point of interest was this tiny garden.

Only two blocks from Stephany’s home we saw the 78-acre Glen Canyon Park.

I had no idea that something like this exists in the middle of San Francisco.

Note the rock climbers on the smooth face of that rock.

This is us on the other side of that same rock.

We walked a loop trail and returned to Stephany’s for more scones and brownies. We had dinner at Green Chili Kitchen, only a block from the NDGW Home…

…and spent the rest of the evening knitting and spinning in the parlor.

Janis showed off her snazzy handspun/handknit socks modeled after the sheep-motif Baable Hat.

Three of us are knitting the Fleece Flight KAL. Mary is working on the third triangle. Stephany’s is in blue and mine is the small one in Jacob wool.

Our plan for Saturday was to have No Plan.

Well, there was one plan. Every year we have lemon pie for breakfast. We have bought pies across the street but this year Janis offered to bake them. I think this is now our regular routine. Lemon meringue, blackberry, and apple. Way to go, Janis!!

The serving line. We each had a piece of all three pies. Of course.

And while not eating pie we chatted and worked on projects. Amy almost finished a sock…

…and I made progress on my Fleece Flight shawl.

What an inspiring, fun 24 hours. We may expand this to a whole weekend next year.

Timm Ranch Yarn

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Robin

I bought 200 pounds of wool at the Timm Ranch shearing last April. There are photos of the sheep and the ranch in this blog post and more photos and shearing action in this video.

Due to health issues at the mill where I sent the wool it took longer than usual to get it back, but it finally came in late December. I hadn’t had a chance to do anything with it until recently. The first step was to gather some information. TR -balance The McMorran yarn balance is one tool to do that. You trim the ends off a strand of yarn until the arm balances.Then you measure that length of yarn and multiply by 100 to get ypp (yards/pound). I repeated that a few times to get an average–1500 ypp. Timm Ranch yarn-15 wpi Another measurement is wpi (wraps/inch). This yarn measure 15 wpi. However, from past experience I know that this isn’t quite accurate. Most yarn is scoured (washed) and skeined before it is sold in yarn stores. That can have a dramatic effect on the yarn. The yarn that I got from the mill on cones has not been scoured yet, so it is not really “finished”. TR yarn measurement 3 Look at the difference a soak in warm water makes. Now this yarn measure 1200 ypp (which is what the specs from the mill were)… Timm Ranch yarn-10 wpi and it is 10 wpi. Based on those measurements I wove some samples.

Here is a brief weaving lesson (and maybe more than you really want to know). If a yarn measures 10 wpi an approximate plain weave sett (that’s the number of warp threads) for a balanced weave structure may be 5 or 6 epi (ends/inch) because you must allow for the weft yarns to go in between each of the warp yarns. In weaving a pattern you would use a denser sett (maybe 8). I wove samples at 8 and 10 epi. TR 8 epi, 8 ppi These samples look pretty open on the loom……and I had to be careful to not beat the weft yarn down too much.This is how the samples look off the loom. The 8 epi samples are in the top row. TR samples after washing And here is how they look after a quick wash. Dramatic difference from the loom to the finished fabric. Timm Ranch yarn Here is how I had them displayed in the shop at the recent Shearing Day. The skein on the left has been washed. But these yarns aren’t just for weaving. My friend, Mary, bought some, washed it, and then used it for a Mystery Knit Along. Here is the shawl she knit. Mary's shawl (1) This was knit over a few weeks with a new direction given out each week. Mary's shawl-detail 1 (1) It is gorgeous in person and has a wonderful hand. I can’t wait to get some of this yarn on the loom and get to work with it.

The yarn is listed here on my website.

Farm Club’s Annual Retreat – Day 1

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Robin

I think that this is Farm Club’s fifth annual retreat to San Francisco where we spend the night at the Home, designed by Julia Morgan and owned by the Native Daughters of the Golden West. If you search for NDGW in my blogs you will find photos of our activities during past retreats and of this gorgeous Home. We usually try to find a farm-related activity for Friday afternoon, but couldn’t come up with one this year. Since a big storm was predicted we decided that it was just as well to curl up in the parlor for the afternoon and evening with our spinning and knitting projects. And that’s just what we did.We arrived in the early afternoon from the North Bay, East Bay, South Bay and Solano and Yolo Counties. Since there were to be 14 (!!) of us for dinner we scoped out our favorite restaurant and the pie place (where we get pie for the next morning’s breakfast), were assured that there would be room for all of us at dinner, and returned to the Home (only a block away) to spin and knit for the afternoon.This is an example of one of the 30 rooms that can be reserved for NDGW members and their guests. Each room is decorated and maintained by one of the many “parlors” around the state.The rooms are on the third and fourth floors. This is looking down the stairway to the second floor. To the right is the dining room and a huge kitchen available to all who stay there. The atrium is directly across from the stairs and I found out on this visit that originally there was a glass pyramid in that area directly over the museum that is beneath. How wonderful that natural light must have been on the lower story. There was also decorative painting (I have just blanked on what that is called) on those columns and around the ceiling. To the left is the parlor where we spend our time socializing (albeit in pajamas instead of flowing gowns).We walked up Baker Street to Green Chili Kitchen……where we had an early dinner, which left us plenty of time for our evening of sitting around in the parlor in our pjs.There was a record 14 of us! Here are some of our projects:

Alene spun Teeswater wool. Amy began a knitting project with help from Shelby. Betty was knitting a shawl.Wandering around the room to take a stretch break from projects one can find all kinds of interesting things. This is from an oversize journal in which donations to the Home were recorded. “Wool” caught my eye here. Other donations included tea towels, dishes, and preserves. Look at that penmanship!

Carol brought spinning and knitting.Kathy set to work on deleting what may be an embarrassing number of emails that were bogging down her computer. She worked diligently on this all evening and made good progress.

Another break time with yoga for Amy and Shelby.I worked on the Zoom Loom and on spinning Raquel’s fleece, bringing far more than I could possibly spin in a week.Joy needlefelted a guinea pig.Polly worked on rug-hooking while Janis took photos and worked on her computer.

Another break. This is a book on the coffee table edited by John Muir.

Kathleen finished a handspun knitted sleeve. Only one more and a body to go!

Lisa spun and knitted. If you look closely you’ll see someone else also wearing sheep pajamas.

Mary knit a colorful sock.

Shelby knitted and……Stephany worked on a sweater. She is wearing a Jacob sweater that she finished last year.

Stay tuned for the Saturday adventures of Farm Club in the City.

Fibershed project

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Robin

Last year I met Rebecca Burgess when she taught a natural dye class at my place. She told me of her Fibershed project and she describes it much better than I can:

“The Fibershed Project is a challenge: To live for one year, in clothes made from fibers that are solely sourced within a geographical region no larger than 150 miles from my front door; this includes the natural dye colors as well!

Why? The textile industry is the number one polluter of fresh water resources on the planet, as well as having an immense carbon footprint. The average CO2 emitted for the production of one T-shirt is up to 40 times the weight of that shirt. The goal of this project is to both show and model that beauty and fashion can function hand-in-hand with sustainability, local economies, and regional agriculture.”

Rebecca visited today along with designer, Kacy, and photographer, Paige. I donated some yarn to the project last year and Kacy designed a sweater as part of the wardrobe.

This is Rebecca wearing her Jacob sweater and showing off her new book (with photos by Paige) which will be out in April. I will have some here.

The three creative women who were here this morning. You’ll be hearing much more from these three.

In the meantime while we were busy Dora lambed with twins:

Knitting better

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Robin

Today Meridian Jacobs hosted a knitting class taught by superb knitter, Nancy Jane Campbell. The purpose of this class was to evaluate our current knitting habits and work to “Knit Better’. There was pre-class homework.

These are two garter stitch swatches. The difference is that one is the result of knitting every row and the other is knit by purling every row. There is a difference. Nancy pointed out that my purl sample is much more even than the knit sample. The stockinette sample (no photo) also showed that I knit and purl with different tensions, resulting in subtle ridges and uneven stitches.

Lunchtime. We went to the barn so I could feed Nellie. Yes, I named the bottle baby.

We found more lambs.

Soliloquy had twins–smallest lambs so far this year at 5-6 pounds and Victoria had triplets. I dealt with all of them and went back to the shop for the afternoon session of the class.

Before lunch we had measured and evaluated our samples. After lunch we started working on changing our habits and learning new techniques. The sample above may not be too impressive, but notice the very cool knitted cable cast-on edge. It looks much neater than my long-tail cast-on. And notice the inch or so closest to the needles. There is a a big difference in the knitting for that inch than the couple of inches below. At the risk of knitting too tightly I have been knitting way too loose. It’s a lot easier to be consistent when there is a little more tension on the yarn and the added benefit is that the stitches aren’t always falling off the needle. This was a great class and Nancy is going to come back and teach a color knitting class later in the year.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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