Big, Round Sheep. Is it Wool or Lambs?

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Robin

After all the thoughts I had about keeping up with blog posts I see that the last post was the day after Christmas. I sure write a lot of blog posts in my head and even take the photos. Best laid plans and all…

We are shearing on January 21 and I like to take photos of the sheep in full fleece so I can update the website. I just updated the Ram page and the Ewe page. I moved the lambs that I kept in 2023 to these pages so that is a record of the whole flock now.

Shearing is only 11 days away. If you are a fiber fanatic and want to attend shearing day contact me. Or maybe if you’re part of a fiber guild you have already seen an announcement. First lambs are due two weeks later.

Zora is the first one due and is pregnant with twins. Due date is February 5. All the others will start a week later.

Bessie sure looks big enough to have multiples, but the ultrasound showed one. Is it all wool?

Sweetgrass Eilwen is due at the end of February and has twins.

This will be Rose’s first lambs. She is carrying triplets and is due February 11. Eight ewes are due that first weekend. That is why I will not be demonstrating at the Sacramento Weavers Open House that weekend.

Janna is also due on the February 11 with triplets.

Patchwork Amara is the third ewe that according to ultrasound is carrying triplets. Her due date is the 21st.

Bide a wee Trista is due the 17th. Ultrasound notes say 1+. That means that one lamb is confirmed, but they couldn’t say for sure that there isn’t a second.

Columbine has twins and is one of the 8 ewes due on February 11 or 12. Of course the due date is only a guideline. Lambs could be a few days before or after that date. I have to be paying attention. Looking at this photo, I remember that she had a wool break early in the year while nursing 2023 lambs. You can tell that some of her fleece is shorter than the rest. So this will not be a prime fleece. It’s possible that it can be salvaged. If not it will become part of next year’s Gardener’s Gold, a soil amendment for houseplants or the garden and made just down the road! It is available on line or here at the shop.

We have 45 ewes that will all lamb in February. The barn will be full!

Shearing Prep

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Robin

In my last post I talked about the project of fixing up my office and all the prep involved. The prep isn’t usually the most fun part of a project, but is necessary. My prep for shearing has been spent mostly doing major clean-up in the barn, but a few weeks ago Farm Club came for part of the prep.

It’s hard to imagine now with unseasonably low-70’s daytime highs for the last few days and predicted for the next week, but during most of January we had fog and drizzle. On he morning of our Farm Day this was what the brush pile looked like–a wool flower forest.

I don’t really like to see this because it means the sheep are rubbing on these branches. 16062 Cindy-2 We are shearing tomorrow. This is Cindy in full fleece. 15078 Catalyst The lilac ram, Catalyst. 15567 Shelby I love Shelby’s blue eyes. We caught each sheep and inspected their fleeces. Farm Club members get first dibs on fleeces on Shearing Day and they can pre-select them on our Farm Day.

We also clean the ear tags so that they will be easy to read on Shearing Day. That’s Carole with the towel working on the tag.

Mary makes sure that fleece reservations are recorded on cards and that the ear tags match the ID on the card. Another great day with Farm Club. I noticed that white line in the fleece of Terri, a 2017 lamb. I don’t have an explanation for that.

IMG_E4317 I love the ability to write on the photos on my phone.

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Are you as excited about Shearing Day as we are?

Fleece From Start to Finish-Lauren

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Robin

This is Lauren.

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Before …

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…and after shearing last February.

I came across her washed and partially carded fleece yesterday and decided to finish it before this next shearing. The funny thing is that I have looked several times for this sheep as I was taking photos of all the sheep for my annual Flock List for Farm Club. I couldn’t ever get a photo of her but I could have sworn that she was on my breeding list. Looking back through my blog posts to see if I had written about keeping her fleece I found this post in which I said that I hadn’t planned to but I traded her for a sheep when I was at BSG in Oregon. No wonder I couldn’t find her! I also see that I never wrote the story of Fleece from Start to Finish about Honey’s fleece. That will be another post.

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This is Lauren’s fleece spread out on the skirting table.

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This is what the underneath side looks like. It looks browner in the first photo because the tips are sunbleached.

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Here is what the staples look like.

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Here it is after sorting into colors before…

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…and after washing.

That was all done in the spring and I had started to card it. Today I finished the carding job (I thought). I had a lot of black wool and a few batts of white and gray.

I spread out the white and gray batts as evenly as I could so that some of each would go with each the black batt.

Then I carded a third time keeping the white somewhat separate from the black.

The pile on the right is 3 of the finished batts stacked up. I kept all the other batts rolled up in the sleeves that come with the Clemes & Clemes batt lifter. That’s 11 batts next to a pile of three! It totals about 1 pound 5 ounces.

I felt very productive now that I was ready to spin all that wool. But look at what I found shortly after:

I thought that the proportion of black to white wasn’t right. This is the rest of Lauren’s fleece that I hadn’t picked yet.

There will be another report later, hopefully when I finish spinning this BEFORE the next shearing day on February 5.

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.

Many Hands

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Robin

More About Shearing Day

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Robin

I’ve written a couple of posts about shearing day already, but I have so many photos to share. As John worked through the main flock I brought in the sheep from other areas. The two ewes with two-week old lambs were shorn (last post) and then the three Jacob rams.This is the yearling ram, Rotor. IMG_8597 lilac and black rams A good comparison of a lilac Jacob (Nash) and black & white (Rotor). Rotor fleece This is Rotor’s fleece.They aren’t all spotted. This is one of the BFL-Jacob cross ewes.Lots of people help to make Shearing Day fun and easy for me. Kathleen weighed fleeces. DSC_5273-Stephany Stephany and Gynna wrangled sheep all morning.Alison and many others helped at the skirting table.People are welcome to skirt their fleeces before buying or ask for advice about fleeces.

It was a great day to stand in the sun with your hands in freshly shorn wool.One more ewe to be shorn and then it was Faulkner’s turn.His buddy, Jerry looked on. Faulkner weighed in at 235 lbs (down about 30 pounds from what he sometimes weighs in the summer). DSC_5387 Jacob fleece Fresh Jacob fleece. Faulkner's fleece Faulkner’s fleece.While the shearing and wool sorting was going on, friends were helping buyers in the shop. Farm Club group photo Later we got everyone (almost) to the barn for a group photo. That’s a lot of enthusiastic friends!

Almost Shearing Time

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Robin

We’re less than three weeks away from shearing. I used to shear in February, but several years ago I shifted shearing day to November thinking that I’d shear before I started feeding hay in the winter. For several reasons I decided to go back to February shearing but I didn’t want to make the shift all at once and risk having the fleeces ruined. Last year we sheared the first week of January and this year we will shear February 7.

Here are some of the sheep in full fleece. 12018 Sonata Sonata.

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Jean. She was Champion Jacob Ewe at Black Sheep Gathering in June.

13068 Cascade

This is Cascade.

13044 Ears The BFL-cross named Ears.

Isadora This is Kenleigh’s Isadora.

14054 Vanessa Vanessa.

15077 Wilbur Wesley is one of three wethers that are part of Ginny’s sheepdog training flock. 15080-15081 Wesley and Wally are BFL-crosses and the other two wethers in Ginny’s flock. They were all born at the fair in July. 15078 This ram was also born at the fair. I’ll have to decide about shearing them since they will have only 6-month fleeces and it will be more of a stress on them.

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.

The Latest from the Loom

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Robin

In preparation for Fibershed’s Grow Your Jeans event I wove six shawls using locally grown Timm Ranch wool yarn. I showed photos of these before they were washed in this blog post. Quite a dramatic change. With the exception of the second blanket the weft is all the same as the warp, but naturally dyed. From left to right: Osage orange (exhaust), Jacob wool, osage orange, black walnut, pomegranate, not dyed. One shawl will be worn in the fashion show and they will all be for sale at Grow Your Jeans. After that they will be for sale at the Fibershed Marketplace website and at the Artery in Davis.More locally grown wool. These scarves are woven using Solano County Anderson Ranch wool. Not locally gown, but one of my best sellers–chenille scarves. You’ve seen this before but I hadn’t taken a photo with the magazine cover.Here’s is one of my photoshoot locations. Hard to find a smooth surface in the shade.

Shearing at the Timm Ranch

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Robin

Here is where Colleen (Fiber Confections) and I spent last Sunday. I first got fleece from the Timm Ranch, just a few miles from here, last year in preparation for my show at the Artery. Here is a blog post with info about the ranch and photos of the blankets I wove with the wool. This is a view to the northwest taken while driving through the ranch.Much of the 2700 acres is leased for cattle grazing.The last gate before the ranch headquarters.There were about 90 ewes, several lambs, and five rams to shear. One group of sheep was already in the barn when we got there but I helped with the second group. These are a “ranch mix” developed many years ago and are a blend of Rambouillet, Targhee, and Polypay.

The sheep are brought into the barn (on the left)……move along a lane in the north side of the barn……and end up in the pens in the middle where they are visually contained by burlap drapes. The shearer pulls the next sheep to shear through the drape and when he is finished the sheep is released and…

…it walks out the door to the back.The wool is pushed through the window of the barn into a pile where it is later loaded into a wool press that compresses the wool into bales.These bales can weigh 300-400 pounds.

In this case Colleen and I diverted many fleeces to our piles and inspected, bagged, and weighed them. I had bagged up my predetermined amount of 200 pounds and was ready to leave (having been battling a cold for days and at this point in the day had completely lost my voice). But then it was time to shear the five rams.I figured that I’d been there this long. What’s another half hour?

I’m glad that I stayed.

The ram fleeces were gorgeous. Whereas the ewe fleeces weighed 5+ to 8 pounds the ram fleeces I bought weighed 12 pounds (two mature rams) and 8 pounds (the yearling ram with the horns).

Last year I had the wool spun into yarn and put on cones (easy for weaving). I think that I’ll have this year’s fiber put into skeins because of the appeal to knitters. Last year’s fiber tested at an average of 23.5 microns. I think I’ll send some more samples in from this year’s wool. Be looking for this yarn in a few (several?) months.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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