Tag Archives: wool

Let there be light…of the right color

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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.

Faulkner & Jerry

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I haven’t had time to sort many fleeces yet. In fact, other than those I’ve sold I have only skirted the ram  and wether fleeces.  But I’m very happy with those that I’ve seen.

This is the fleece of a wether, Jerry. He is mostly black, not a good Jacob trait, but he will get to live his life being Faulkner’s companion. Faulkner is the BFL ram and I am not going to subject him to living with a group of rams with huge horns.

Faulkner and Jerry

This is what Faulkner’s fleece looked like “on the hoof”. This photo was taken shortly after I got him so it had grown a lot since then.

This is a lock after shearing.

Less than a minute in hot soapy water.

Silky, white locks!

 

JSBA AGM in OR

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What is that title–alphabet soup? No, it’s the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association Annual General Meeting in Oregon. That’s where I am right now. The AGM is hosted this year by my friends, Shannon and Tony Phifer of Kenleigh Acres Farm. I drove here yesterday with 9 sheep and a truck full of fleeces, dye equipment (for a workshop), etc.

Most of the activities are at Shannon’s neighbor’s place. There is a wonderful barn with plenty of room for all the sheep and people.

Jacob breeders came from as far away as Pennsylvania and Missouri.

Before the official start of activities Karen Lobb of bide a wee Farm gave some pointers to people who had brought fleeces to enter in the wool show.

It could be said that Karen really gets into her job. What do you think? Maybe it was this touch that helped present the winning fleece of the show, exhibited by Joan of Mud Ranch Jacobs.

This is Doug Montgomery evaluating fleeces in the wool show.

Carding in Color

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I taught a carding class this morning. The participants created  roving by combining 3 multi-colored batts and also carded blends of wool and alpaca and silk.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of the finished products, but I did photograph the small balls that I carded after everyone left. This is from the waste that was left on and under the tables.

Yesterday

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In a round-about way I figured out how out how to find my photos that are resized for the blog. I will probably learn a better way later.

My friend, Jackie, had asked me to check Rusty’s social calendar  for Wednesday because she needed help moving her sheep into the shelter in preparation for shearing a few of them today. What a difference a dog makes. Poor Rusty didn’t get to do much because once he showed up the sheep WANTED to go in the shelter with the llama.

Back at the shop, here is what UPS delivered today. This is silk/merino sliver in several colors. Soft, ready to spin.

And this is soft Merino fiber. Now I need to get this posted on my website.

Community Cloth Celebration

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I have posted before about Rebecca Burgess’s Fibershed project. Rebecca made a personal commitment that for a year she would wear only clothes that originated within 150 miles of her front door. Think about it. That’s not an easy task. This project is still ongoing, but yesterday there was a celebration of the project and of  Community Cloth , an effort to build the first farm-based cotton mill in the U.S. To have a viable “Fibershed” there must be a source of fine threads so that we can create cloth for t-shirts, jeans, and “regular” clothes, not just the kind of garments that most of us think of when we knit or weave. It is exciting that it is happening right here in northern California on Sally Fox’s organic cotton farm.

I drove over to Point Reyes Station with 3 friends. Here are some photos of our evening.

The event was held at Toby’s Feed Barn, originally a feed store and still a feed store, but also an event center and gift shop. Chris and Diane and I wandered around town for a little while before the event officially started.

There was great music all evening.

I provided a blanket and a lambskin for the silent auction.

Diane, Chris, and Shelby enjoying before-dinner beverages.

When it was announced that those people wearing their own hand-made garments would be first in line at the food table we all put our outerwear back on.

Check out this bicycle-powered drum carder. The power-source for the new mill will be the sun, not bicycles!

The highlight of the evening was the fashion show. Models wore clothing created by local designers from local fibers for Rebecca’s Fibershed project as well as many natural-colored cotton garments sewn from Sally’s cotton fabric stash. This is the sweater knit from Meridian Jacobs 2-ply yarn. Note the straw-bale runway!

This model is wearing natural-colored cotton garments. The slide show in the background was going on throughout the event. Paige Greene is a fabulous photographer and she, being the daughter-in-law of a fiber grower, has documented the project from it’s inception.

Those are my rams looking on as another model passes by.

Great event, great friends, and you know what is really great? There is so much enthusiasm, especially from people younger than me. I want to keep producing fiber, teaching about fiber, weaving, but not only do I not have time to adequately market my products, I don’t have the energy  to think about it or the expertise to do it successfully.  There are people out there who appreciate what people like me are doing and want to help!

Fibershed project

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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:

Learn to Weave class

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I had back-to-back classes last weekend. The day after my v-shawl class I taught a Learn to Weave class. Here are the projects on the looms:

Mary chose 4 bright colors of Jaggerspun Lambspun wool and wove a sampler that looks good enough to wear as a scarf.

Susan wove a twill scarf using natural colored wool.

Dona wanted to weave a wall hanging of green fields, spring flowers, and sheep. She was very creative in her choice and placement of weft yarns and weave structure to depict parts of the landscape. She will embellish the piece with a few flower buttons and wooden sheep.

A very successful class and a fun weekend!

V-Shawl Class

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I taught a v-shawl class last week. It’s always fun to see the variety in these shawls. The v-shawl is warped for double weave. The fronts of the shawl are woven with two shuttles and the back is woven by cutting one pair of warp threads at a time and weaving them in as weft.

Tina chose natural colored Rambouillet and Jacob yarns.

Jackie used brown Rambouillet and a space-dyed yarn for accent.

Marilyn used softball cotton in natural and tan with accents of ribbon and a novelty yarn.

Yolanda has space-dyed wool yarn with a blue stripe.

These are the shawls right off the loom so there has been no finishing of fringes.


The back view shows the designs that you get from the warp stripes.