Close to Home…Post #4

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Robin

Another flock represented in my current show at The Artery is The Timm Ranch north of Vacaville.Here is their story:

The Timm Ranch is north of Vacaville on the east side of the Vaca Mountains. Susan Timm’s grandfather bought the ranch in the early 1900’s and, although much of the ranch is leased to a cattle rancher, Susan runs about 85 ewes there. Lambs are born in the fall and sold to individual customers and to Chuck’s Custom Slaughter of Dixon.

Susan’s father started with Targhee sheep and then added Polypay and Rambouillet rams to the flock. Susan’s sheep are descendants of this blend of breeds and produce a fine, soft wool.

I took home about 65 pounds from last spring’s shearing (average fiber diameter of 23.5 microns). After pre-washing (soaking and draining in cold water) to reduce weight I shipped 39 pounds to Zeilinger’s Wool Mill in Michigan, one of the few mills in the U.S. that can accommodate fine wool in small quantities. They washed, carded and spun the wool into 30 pounds of 2-ply fingering yarn.

The yarn comes back from Zeilinger’s unfinished (no final washing) on cones. Washing the yarn or the finished weaving results in a seemingly magical transformation from what looks like string into soft, lofty yarn. The ewes after shearing. Fleeces that I took home. Samples for micron testing.Yarn on cone and skeined. I wove a warp with six throws. The brown yarns are dyed with black walnut and the yellow is osage orange. Both of those plants grow across the road. I also wove shawls. These are a 16-shaft huck.

Close to Home…Post #3…Barinaga Ranch Yarn

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Robin

The first post in this series explains the concept of this show. Blankets woven of East Friesian wool from Barinaga Ranch.

Story of this yarn: Valentin Barinagarrementeria travelled from the Basque Village of Markina to the U.S. in the early 1900’s to make his life as a sheep-herder and eventually managed 5000 ewes and lambs on a range sheep operation in southern Idaho. His granddaughter, Marcia Barinaga, after a career in science journalism, and with support from her biologist husband, began Barinaga Ranch, a sheep dairy, on the shore of Tomales Bay in 2009. Her Basque cousins generously shared their knowledge of sheep dairying and cheese making and her American cousin helps with lambing in the spring. The 800-acre ranch is grazed by beef cattle as well as by the dairy sheep and is part of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

East Friesian dairy sheep originated in northern Europe and produce on the average a half gallon of milk per day during the six to eight month lactation cycle. They are milked two times per day and Marcia uses their raw milk to make Basque-style cheese that is sold all over California. Milk and lamb production (and of course cheesemaking) are the primary enterprises of Barinaga Ranch, but with the help of local Fibershed members, Marcia is developing her wool market.These are East Friesian ewes and their lambs. They graze the hills in Marin County but spend some time in the barn at lambing time and they were in for our Farm Club field trip. The wool is not as soft as some of the other wools I used in the show but it is a medium grade and just fine for blankets. They have great loft and dynamic color.Can you believe that this blanket… Barinaga Sheep Ranch …and this blanket are the same weave structure? The top one uses dark weft and the bottom one uses white. I have a little of this yarn left and look forward to more blankets.

Close to Home…Post #2

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Robin

I explained the concept behind my Artery show in the last post. Here are some more photos. I’ll start as you walk in the gallery. I have a photo and a story for each ranch whose yarn I used.Columbia sheep at the Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon.

The story: The Imperial Stock Ranch is located on 32,000 acres in Oregon’s high desert and is owned and operated by the Carver family, who raise sheep and cattle and produce grain and hay.

In the late 1990’s the U.S. processing and manufacturing industry drastically declined (moving overseas) and the ranch, like thousands of others, was unable to sell their wool through traditional commodity channels. If the Carvers were going to continue to raise the Columbia sheep that had grazed the ranch for a century they needed to find a way to market the wool. Jeanne Carver’s response was to create and sell premium wool yarns and the Imperial Yarn Company was born.

The Carvers were thrilled to find out that their home-grown “Erin” yarn was chosen by Ralph Lauren for the 2014 Olympics Opening Ceremony sweaters. I saw this yarn at a trade show and was awed by the rich colors. I knew I had to use this for a Stars and Stripes series of blankets.

The Columbia sheep was developed by the U.S.D.A. in the early 1900’s to create a true-breeding large ewe that would yield more pounds of lamb and wool than the randomly crossbred range sheep. The Columbia is a result of crossing Lincoln rams and Rambouillet ewes and is a very large breed that produces 10-16 pound fleeces that measure 24-31 microns.

Here are some of the blankets that I wove. In another post I’ll explain the process of weaving these blankets. Also look for a later post of shawls using a fine wool yarn from the Imperial Yarn Company.The first blankets that I wove were in blue and white. All of these blankets except the mostly blue ones at the bottom are woven using “color and weave”. The weave structure is the same throughout the blanket but it is the color order of the threads (8 blue/8 white) in the warp and the weft that allow the pattern to show. Where there are solid areas of white or blue in warp and/or weft you don’t see the star pattern. For a true Stars and Stripes theme I needed to use some red. These are the same weave structures as above but with 8 white/8 red/8 blue threads in the pattern area. Artery 2014 In the first two red, white, and blue blankets I repeated the 8-thread sequence throughout. Blanket 885 In the next two I designed blocks, sort of plaid like, where the star pattern would show up. Then I decided that there should be something in this collection that was more restful for the eye. I thought about solid colors but had to throw in a bit of design.In addition to being colorful this yarn is very soft and wonderful to work with for weaving or for knitting. I sell it at my shop and on the website. Next up: Yarn from the Barinaga sheep dairy in Marin County.

Road Trip – 2nd half of Day 8 – Oregon

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Robin

After touring Pendleton Woolen Mill we got on the road again. Just as we were getting on the freeway to head west we saw this scene:Herding cattle next to the freeway and across lawn? Look again. These are beautifully made full-size sculptures.Not far from Pendleton Highway 84 meets up with and then follows the Columbia River. We followed the Columbia River. This is the John Day Lock and Dam. In some places we saw windsurfers on the river, but elsewhere there were huge barges. I don’t have photos but we also saw several bighorn sheep on the rocky cliffs just south of the highway in this area. We turned south onto Highway 97 which would take us all the way to California. More stunning landscape, sky and wide, open spaces. Rolling hills of wheat. Isolated ranches and distant mountains.

We passed the town of Shaniko (population of 36 at 2010 census) which was known in 1900 as the Wool Capitol of the World. The largest landowner at the time was R.R. Hinton who had first homesteaded in the 1870’s and continued to purchase land until his Imperial Stock Ranch became the largest individually owned ranch in Oregon. The Imperial Stock Ranch eventually ran 35,000 head of sheep in 12-14 bands that would winter on the home ranch and be trailed to summer range on Forest Service land. Hinton was involved in breeding programs that led to the one of the first sheep breeds developed in the U.S., the large-framed, fine-wooled Columbia sheep, originating from Lincoln and Rambouillet ancestors. The newly formed town of Shaniko (built as the railroad reached the area) was less than 15 miles from the Imperial Stock Ranch’s headquarters, and its wool warehouse shipped 4 million pounds of wool by rail in 1901.Imperial Stock Ranch is now owned by Dan and Jeannie Carver and they have developed the Imperial Yarn Company using Columbia wool produced on the ranch and elsewhere in the state. This is some of my favorite yarn in the shop and I have recently been using it to weave blankets. Since we were going to be driving through this part of Oregon I had asked if we could visit the ranch. The photo above is the road into the headquarters.

Keelia, lives on the ranch and was there to show us around the headquarters. This is the house built by R.R. Hinton, now headquarters of the Yarn Company.The headquarters complex has been entered into the National Register of Historic Places and the history of the buildings and the Hinton family are available for review.

The grain silo. See the detail of the construction below. This is one sturdy building. We also saw the shearing shed and other buildings that are still in use.A few bottle lambs hand out under the house to greet visitors. As we left the ranch headquarters some of the sheep were near enough the road to get some photographs of them in this majestic setting.Back on the road on the last leg of the trip.

Next post: California’s scenery isn’t too shabby either. Mt. Shasta and home.

Road Trip – Day 8 – Pendleton

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Robin

It’s been several days since I wrote the post about Day 7 of our vacation. The vacation wasn’t quite over. We needed to be back home on Tuesday but there were two places to visit in Oregon. (Actually I had marked many others on the map in my head–Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, a friend in Boise, a cousin near Portland–but those will all have to wait for another trip.)

We arrived in Pendleton… …and easily found the woolen mill. There is also a mill near Portland. That is where they weave cloth for the Pendleton clothing line. At this mill in Pendleton they spin and weave blankets. There were about a dozen people there for the tour even at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. It was interesting to see the workings of the mill but now I have a lot of unanswered questions. We all wore headsets so that we could hear the tour guide over noise of the mill machinery but that meant that there was no opportunity to ask questions while we were walking. And the tour was fast. I would have liked to stop and watch what was going on with each loom. Now that I’m looking at my photos I realize that I have even more questions about what I was seeing. I guess I’ll just have to go back!The Mill uses Rambouillet wool from Oregon and surrounding states and Merino wool from New Zealand and Australia. The wool is scoured in Texas and then comes to Oregon for spinning and weaving. The carding and spinning equipment was on the second floor. That room was quite humid. The guide told us that high humidity lessons the quantity of airborne particles so employees don’t have to wear dust masks. Now I wonder if that is the main reason for the humidity or if it makes carding and spinning more efficient (or both). The photo above shows the carding equipment operating behind plexiglass.Pencil roving is spun onto big spools and the yarn is later transferred to cones. The yarn is steamed to set the twist. Now I can’t remember the details. I think it was steamed for an hour or so. This is a view from the second floor looking down on the looms that are on the first floor.Above the looms are the computers that operate them and fans that keep the lint from settling and, thereby, prevent overheating.Here is where I now have more questions than answers. This is one of the Jacquard looms. A Jacquard loom can weave complicated patterns because all the threads operate independently. Notice the selvedge threads that are wound separately.It is only after looking at this photo that I see the selvedges being cut off as the cloth rolls onto the cloth beam. At least I think that is what I am seeing. (This will only have significance to those of you who are weavers.) This is one of the dobby looms. I think that guide said that with their newer dobby looms a blanket takes 15 minutes to weave.The blankets in a continuous roll are inspected for flaws as they roll over a light table (middle of the photo where the bright light is). Blankets ready for finishing touches. Bags of selvedges ready to sell to people who want to make rugs.We left with a few bags of our own. Dan wanted to point out that his purchase (BBQ sauce) fit into that little paper bag.

Next post: Second half of Day 8–sheep.

Weaving More Blankets

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Robin

This was the last order of blankets from BC (Before Christmas). Now there is only one more thing that I have committed to weave for someone else (that’s you, I.S.). Then I can focus on my LVIP (Looming Very Important Project)…pun there, but not intended.

This is six throws on the same warp. I don’t remember what the wool is, but there are some longwools (or maybe it’s mohair) in here as you will see in the detail. They add luster as well as weight to the blankets. They also act very differently when fulled. Some of that has to do with the extra twist in the yarn. The top two blankets in the first photo are in plain weave, but at a glance they may not look like plain weave, in which every other thread is over and under. There are diagonals in here that are not characteristic of plain weave. This is called tracking and is not uncommon when weaving plain weave with yarns that are over-twisted and woven at a relatively loose sett. Detail of a plain weave blanket. You can see that the weave structure is plain weave, but the over-twist of the threads is causing them to migrate and twist after wet finishing.More detail because with this lens I can. Do you see the “hairiness” of those fibers? That is more characteristic of a “long wool” breed. More blankets and details.

At the Loom

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Robin

It hasn’t been all hiking and lambing. I’ve been at the loom too. This is a king-size blanket I wove for a customer who had their llama/wool yarn spun at Yolo Wool Mill. I also wove 2 throws for this person. These are two lap blankets woven of wool from sheep at the Barinaga Ranch, a sheep dairy in Marin County.This is a close up of all four blankets on that warp. The brown weft is Jacob wool dyed with black walnut. I’m always trying to get better photos. The photo above is shot on AWB (auto white balance). The one below, shot on the cloudy setting, isn’t that much different, although on my computer the AWB photo has more of a bluish cast.

But look at the next one. The white balance was set to “shade” which is where I took the photo. What is reality? I think it’s closer to the top two. I just finished a warp for three shawls. This is CVM yarn in the warp with different locally produced weft yarns. Same shawls with white balance set to “shade”. Detail of shawl on the left.

This is on the loom now. An experiment. Hopefully all those holes will fill in when it is finished.

The pieces above will be for sale on my website and at the Fibershed Marketplace after our photoshoot that is in a few weeks.

Spring Shearing in a Big Way

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Robin

A couple of friends and I went to see shearing on a commercial sheep ranch about 30 miles south of here. We got there in just enough time to see the last part of shearing 3000 sheep in 2 1/2 days.The original flock was made up of Corriedale sheep and over the years was crossed with Targhee and other commercial white-faced sheep. Sheep going into shearing trailer The sheep are gathered at the back of a trailer that is hauled from ranch to ranch with all the gear. They go up the chute with the encouragement of……Border Collies as well as people.Here is a view from the other end of the trailer. That sheep in front hangs out for awhile in that position because the other sheep are more likely to go forward if they see a sheep in front of them. Notice how the sheep walk on a raised alleyway while the freshly shorn fleeces are shoved out of the trailer below them.Here is a photo of the inside of the trailer. There are seven shearers at work. The sheep walk forward on the raised alley. Fleeces are pushed out beneath.When the shearer is ready for the next sheep he pulls the door down with his foot and flips the sheep off the alleyway into position for shearing.

After the sheep are shorn they are sent out the doors on the other side of the trailer.

The fleeces are scooped from the trailer and quickly examined by a sorter/classer who determines where they end up. The fleeces are thrown into the appropriate pile. My friends who owns the ranch had requested that the finer fleeces shorn on that day be put aside for us to look at. It turns out that even the not-so-fine fleeces seemed just as nice to us. Last year’s core samples indicated that most of this flock’s wool graded in the mid-20’s (microns) and the finer fleeces were in the low 20’s. For reference Jacob fleece ranges from about 25-35 microns and most of mine is probably about 28 to 29 microns. So all of this wool is finer than what I am used to using. The fine fleece pile is the one nearest the table. The pile to the left are tender fleeces (fleeces that have a weak place usually due to nutritional stress or illness). The pile just barely visible behind the plywood is the “not as fine” pile. We chose our fleeces (all of the fine pile and a lot of the one behind the plywood) and the remaining wool was quickly baled. The wool is shoved into this wool press…

…and compacted… …and sealed into bales that are marked with the pertinent information. I forgot to ask how much these weigh but on-line sources say they would hold 240 to 450 pounds each. Before we left the shearing trailer was pulling out and everyone was getting ready to go to the next job.Freshly shorn sheep turned out to graze.

In about six months I hope to have blankets woven from this wool. They will be available at the Artery and the Fibershed Marketplace.

Marilyn’s Fleece

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Robin

Marilyn is one of seven lambs that I kept from the 2013 lambing season.Here she is with her mom, Hot Lips. 1st place ewe lamb 3007 Marilyn was my choice to take to Black Sheep Gathering last year where she won her class. (Hot Lips was Champion Jacob Ewe at BSG when I took her there!)Here she is at 9 months old last fall. When Farm Club members chose their fleeces “on the hoof” I put my name on Marilyn’s.Shearing Day. Marilyn’s fleece looks brown, but those are sunbleached tips. This is what her fleece looks like from the cut side. Isn’t it gorgeous? Detail of the staples. Last week I carded Marilyn’s fleece on my Clemes & Clemes electric drum carder.

Here are the batts ready to spin. Hopefully there will be a post before too long in which I’ll have photos of finished yarn and a project. To be continued…

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.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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