I should catch my blog up on the weaving side of life. I am always trying to squeeze weaving into the day. There are a lot of ongoing projects and many that are off the loom but not finished. There is a saying “It’s not finished until it’s wet finished.” Wet finishing is an important part of the process, but there are often other steps between taking the piece off the loom and wet finishing. Here’s a round-up of all the projects that are waiting around to be finished.
These three wool blankets have been off the loom awhile. The one in the middle is ready for wet finishing. So is the one on the right…or maybe not. I am going to sew a hem. I have to decide if I’ll finish the hem before or after wet finishing this time. I usually do it after. The blanket on the left has a warp error the whole length of the blanket that needs to be fixed. I didn’t see that until the blanket was cut off the loom.
These chenille scarves have been off the loom a long time. They need fringes twisted before washing.
Two cotton shawls that need twisted fringe and then washing.
Jacob shawls woven in black and white pinwheels. I think that the pinwheels will square up with wet finishing. They are a bit elongated now. I have twisted the fringe on one of these but need to do that on the upper left. Bottom left doesn’t have fringe and the ends will be sewn together. to create a mobs wrap.
These are just off the loom. I wove the piece on the right first. I dyed the warp last week. This piece has twisted fringe and needs to be washed. I’ll wait until the fringe is finished on the other and run them through the washing machine together. These were on the same warp. The scarf on the right was sett at 10 epi, the sett that I usually use for this Ashford “caterpillar cotton” . Weft is 3/2 cotton. The scarf on the left is sett at 15 epi and weft will be 5/2 cotton.
Now for projects that are on the loom:
I dyed this yarn last week, along with the warp above. This one is hemp and will be dishtowels. I had to fix a threading error today and will have this ready to weaving tomorrow.
Baby blankets underway.
Wool blankets underway. I really want to finish these blankets this week.
A warp ofj mixed yarns, sourced from Art Fiber Frenzy.
This was a catch-up day at the computer. I’m still not caught up, but accomplished a few things. Did you know there is a Meridian Jacobs YouTube channel?
I spent some time today editing videos.There is probably a way to embed them here, but I don’t know how. I’ll include links. Two are from shearing day. Shearing Jacob Rams and Shearing Two Jacob Ewes. The third is one I’ve been meaning to put together for quite awhile. I show how I Using A Warping Wheel to warp my big loom. This is a specialized piece of equipment that is hard to explain even to other weavers.
To make this post a little more interesting, here are some photos that relate to the videos.
This is one of the ewes that was shorn in the video. It’s not always possible to keep hay out of he wool!
This is Eli, one of the rams in the shearing video.
Here is the warp I was winding in the Warping Wheel video. These are the blankets just cut off the loom.
These six blankets are some from the previous photo after wet finishing. The yarn in the blue blankets is dyed with indigo I grew and the brown yarn is dyed with walnut hulls.
There is are cycles to farming. The sheep are shorn and starting to grow new wool. The ewes are pregnant and lambing season will start soon. These blankets are woven using wool I get from Timm Ranch and have spun into yarn. Timm Ranch shearing will be in March and I’ll skirt fleeces and buy wool for the 2025 yarn. I am still waiting on the 2024 Timm Ranch yarn. Due to unforeseen circumstances I will be combining the 2024 and 2025 wool for the next batch of yarn.
The dye garden has its own cycle. I won’t be ready to dye blue yarn until the indigo plants get big enough…and they aren’t even planted yet for this year. Fortunately I have some dried cosmos and hollyhock flowers that I can use, but that’s only if I have enough yarn left from previous years. The cycles don’t always overlap the way you want them too.
I number all my warps (except for the ones I forget to put in my notebook like some of the rigid heddle projects). Someday I’ll have to look for the notebook with #1, although that wouldn’t be truly #1–it would be the first one I recorded. I think that notebook is here somewhere.
The first one this year was #1351. The notebook page says 12-26-2023, but that would be when I started winding warp. I wove most of the ten blankets in 2024. This photo is two Year to Remember blankets. The one on the left was a custom blanket, commemorating the recipient’s wedding anniversary.
This Year to Remember blanket (Vacaville, 2023) is woven with yarn I dyed using plant material growing here. It is still available on the website.
One of my favorite patterns, also woven on this warp using gray Jacob yarn for weft.
I wove several v-shawls in 2024. The one on the left is still for sale here.
Warp #1387 went on the loom in July, but I didn’t finish the last blanket until December. I get distracted by weaving on other looms and the rest of life going on around me. This photo shows how each weft yarn may behave differently. Some yarns have more elasticity than others, either due to the type of wool or whether or not they have been naturally dyed. The warp and all the naturally dyed yarns are Timm Ranch wool from various years.
Here is that warp off the loom. The blue weft yarn was naturally dyed with my home-grown indigo. The brown yarns are mostly dyed with walnut hulls. Yarns on the left are Ashford DK.
Finished indigo and walnut hull blankets.
The last warp of the year was #1404, a warp for three chenille shawls. This is the first piece off the loom in the process of twisting fringe. This warp is still on the loom with two more shawls to weave. I had wanted to get at least one off to get it to the Artery before the last couple of shopping days before Christmas.
Warp # 1403 went on the loom before the chenille warp, and I finished it just in time for our family Christmas on the 27th. There are ten hemp towels.
There are two colors in the warp and a different weft color in most of the towels.
Another favorite this year was a chenille warp. I wove two rectangular shawls and this piece that is sewn to leave a neck hole and be worn over the shoulders sort of like a poncho. I will put this on the website soon.
Lambtown is our local fiber festival–only 15 minutes from my farm. After a very different beginning many years ago (but that would be another story) it is now a full-fledged fiber show complete with sheep, sheepdogs, contests, classes, vendors, demonstrations, and other activities. It is the first weekend of October, but starts on Thursday with classes. If I am going to teach it has to be on Thursday because I set up a vendor booth on Friday and am in the booth both Saturday and Sunday. This makes for a busy week. I knew I had to have the trailer packed up on Wednesday.
The kitchen island one of the evenings that week. I described making these buttons here. After making them I still have to put them on cards, especially for selling online later.
A friend thought that I should sell cosmos seeds to grow flowers for dyeing and printing, so I worked on that too.
I picked up the 2024 Jacob fiber from the mill on Tuesday and needed to weigh it. Some were single color bags and others are a mix of all four colors.
A few of the shop while I was still trying to decide what to pack up for the show.
Thursday morning, Brett was at work discing the pasture. That project was described here. We haven’t moved beyond the last discing. Hopefully leveling will happen soon.
Thursday there were ten students in my “Let’s Get Fancy” class where I showed hand-manipulated techniques for design in weaving.
Danish Medallions.
Brook’s Bouquet, Leno, and Loops.
Friday was a full day as we harvested lambs first. A friend brought her lambs here for one of my customers and I salted the hides. We finished around 11 and went to the fairgrounds by noon.
Here is what the booth looked like by the time I went home.
The other half of the booth. It still needed tweaking, but it was mostly done, thanks to a couple of friends who spent the afternoon helping. We still needed to get the sheep here for the sheep exhibit so I went home to load sheep.
Dan and I drove back with sheep and Farm Club members met to figure out how to best set up a display.
I’m already on my next adventure, but need to catch up with the last one. After the quick trip to Idaho I decided against going to Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon the following weekend. I had not planned to take sheep this year and had not entered wool, fiber arts, etc. But half way through the week I changed my mind. Without entering any shows I didn’t have to be gone as many days, so I left Friday morning. I will admit that two hours into the drive I thought about turning around and coming home because I had so much to do at home before the next event (where I am now). However I had told a friend in Oregon that I’d visit along the way, so I kept going.
Here is where I stayed the three nights I was there. As I set up my tent I realized that I think I’ve had this tent and my sleeping bag since my college days or shortly after.
I took very few photos in the barn, but here is one–a Valais Blacknose. There was a new Jacob breeder there and I helped her show. Because she was the only person with Jacob sheep she had to show in the All Other Breeds class, as I did last year. Maybe I’ll enter again next year and we’ll have a Jacob show.
I took a few photos in the exhibit and vendor hall. These are the main award winners in the Fiber Arts Show.
I spent a lot of time with a few vendors and tried to make time to see the rest.
I met this vendor last year at this event. She lives in Sacramento and I encouraged her to sell at Lambtown last fall. Her booth was next to mine. Even though I specialize in locally grown wool, including my own, I was intrigued by her yarns, many of which are not natural fibers and are certainly not local. But they sure are fun! The larger skeins are all lengths of yarns that are tied together. I had bought a few of these crazy mixed fiber skeins and brought the scarf I had just finished to show how I had used the yarns. I plan to create a class using this idea.
I spent time with one other vendor, business name of Shuttle Creek. Annie is a weaver and was working on a loom in her booth, She sells her mostly cotton garments at local shows I think. I just looked at the website and there are some gorgeous items there but blog and Facebook activity seem to stop in 2021 and I was thinking that she said she doesn’t do much online. Anyway, after talking to her a long time she pulled this piece off a hangar and put on me. I bought it and that’s what wore all day at the weaving event where I’m teaching (next post). I need a button that “no, I didn’t weave it”.
I spent part of the day at the vendor hall, helped the other Jacob breeder show sheep, visited with friends (most of whom are from California), and watched Spinners’ Lead. I packed up fairly early on Sunday and started home.
I’ve seen the sign for the covered bridge every time I’ve driven to Oregon but I’ve never stopped. It’s not far from the highway and an interesting site. There is a museum nearby but it wasn’t open on Sunday morning. The bridge was built in 1920 and the sign talks about the history of the area when white settlers came there in the 1840’s and 50’s.
I taught a 2-1/2 day workshop this weekend for CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers). It went very well, mainly because the attendees were all very enthusiastic and patient. That is a lot of people to have in a hands-on workshop when learning a brand new idea. I came home inspired and I hope they did too.
Here is a view of the classroom after I unloaded my trailer. I brought 6 looms for people to use as well as all the gadgets that go with them and the yarn for the projects.
I brought several shawls to as examples and we figured out a way to hang them, clothesline style.
This is how the classroom looked after I had all my things arranged. This was before 7 more looms showed up and we had to find room for warping boards.
I knew that we wouldn’t be able to hang warping frames on the walls and I suggested using metal grid wall to provide “walls”. The room got more and more cluttered looking as we set up work stations around warping boards and looms. It was already cluttered looking because of the dramatic design of the carpet and the stripy walls.
This is the classroom next door. There is still a distracting rug, but overall the classroom looked much more organized with the looms all arranged in rows like a desks in a classroom. These looms were brought to the show already warped, so they didn’t need to start with warping stations like we did.
Our classroom looked a little more chaotic, but there was a lot of work going on here. In this photo some people are still warping and others are threading their looms.
At this point everyone was weaving. It is hard to tell that there were 13 weavers in this room (some just out of the photo).
It was fun to see the variety of warp designs.
This photo shows one of the shawls partially through the Weave a V part. Warp threads are cut in pairs at the back of the loom and then those warp threads become weft, creating a plaid design.
On Saturday night teachers were asked to stay in their classrooms so that other attendees could wander through and see what was going on in each class. Some of the students stayed as well and were glad to demonstrate the technique (while making progress on their projects).
This seems to be a random photo. I left the hotel early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to take a brisk walk around the golf coarse.
Sunday noon. Some of the students didn’t finish the shawls in class and will finish at home, but some did finish in time to open up the shawls and take photos. These shawls all need finishing touches–tie or twist fringe and wet finish. Then they will have an ore finished look. It is fun to see so many color ideas!
The unique design of the V-Shawl is evident when you see the backs!
Thanks to all these students for making this a great weekend!
Before the last couple of lamb posts I started to take a look back at weaving in 2023. Here is the next about weaving
Warp #1308 was baby blankets. I need to get another baby blanket warp on the loom because I’m almost out. Do you know that one of the first things I wove was a baby blanket for my son who is now 43? I have been weaving pretty much the same blankets all this time. If people still like them I guess that’s OK. I have a lot of other ideas though. Just no time.
Warp # 1311 was for samples using the yarn I got back from one of the mills. The samples are Jacob warp with Jacob and Timm Ranch weft at two different setts. The photo on the left is before washing and the right is after washing. That is where differences in take-up and draw-in really show up.
These samples were all from one warp but resleyed to weave at 15 epi, 18 epi, and 24 epi. I used these for a Yarn Lab article for the Jan/Feb 2024 Handwoven magazine.
This is one of several clasped warp scarves and shawls I wove. They will be in an upcoming issue of Handwoven.
Warp 1326 was Timm Ranch yarn and I wove two shawls, one with indigo-dyed weft, and one with 3 supplementary warps to create the design.
The next warp is Jacob wool. I really like how the two sides of this pattern are so different.
This is Warp 1328 with 14 blankets. I weave these on my 60″ wide AVL production loom.
They look a little better when finished. Some of these are on the website now (here is one). Some are Year to Remember blankets that were custom orders.
This is another clasped warp scarf using Timm Ranch wool that I dyed with homegrown indigo.
Warp 1337 on the loom. This is Timm Ranch warp and Jacob weft.
I wove enough for four pieces and made two into mobius shawls.
So many ideas and so little time. Back to the barn to feed lambs now.
I saw a blog post the other day in which the writer had recorded everything she wove within that year. That gave me this idea. I’m taking photos and keeping notes all the time. I may as well use them. I won’t try to fit the whole year into one post however. Maybe I’ll post weaving, then I’ll post lambs, then weaving, then lambs. How’s that?
My warps are all numbered so I can find the info in my binder. This one is 1299 from January 2023, blankets on the AVL loom. My notebook shows that I wove 11 blankets on this warp, some of which were Year to Remember blankets. These three use temperature data from 2022 so the stripes are all the same, but the colors are very different. I weave custom Year to Remember blankets and use a sparkly yarn to distinguish the special date. I think I have enough warp still on the loom for one more of these this winter, so contact me if you want to know more.
This is 1301 a scarf using all these crazy yarns. I teach a class in weaving a scarf using a mixed warp wound with a paddle, “Mix it Up”. I haven’t taught that class in awhile and I probably need to change it from a 1-day class to maybe 1-1/2 days. I don’t know if people want to pay for an extra day, but I always forget that it takes longer in a class setting than I take if I’m just warping and weaving my own scarf.
Two more mixed warps on the loom. The one on the right is a shawl, now at the Artery I think. I wove 5 or 6 of these in different colors.
In February I demonstrated weaving at the Sacramento Weavers Open House. I missed it this year because lambs were coming earlier than the previous year. I wove a chenille warp on Saturday and a wool warp on Sunday.
This is the warp after I took it off the loom.
Warp 1317 was a handspun Jacob wool scarf. Two Farm Club members spun yarn from wool that was accumulated from years of samples sent in when registering rams. Each ram application requires a few locks of wool. We have been digitizing the papers and that means those baggies of wool are discarded. I decided to do a project like this and then donate the scarf to the Jacob Sheep Breeders raffle. I wove two scarves using wool two different people had spun.
Clasped Warp is a technique that I wrote about for Little Looms a few years ago. It has been used with rigid heddle looms to design warps that change color midway through the length. I decided to do the same thing on a floor loom, adding the woven in pattern to the elements of interest. This is a shawl woven on a 4-shaft loom using handspun yarn. I will have an article coming out in the next Handwoven on this technique.
I wove fabric for 4 bags to use in an article that was published in Little Looms last year. These are hemp and woven on a rigid heddle loom. The bag uses a length of fabric that is 8″ wide and 4 yards long. Folding it strategically gives a shoulder bag with and inside and outside pocket.
This was part of that last blanket warp. It used up odds and ends of the Ashford DK yarn that I use for the Year to Remember blankets. The shape isn’t exactly right because that warp is designed to weave throws that end up about 45-50″ wide. I wove random stripes and sewed two together for a bed-sized blanket. I should have woven them longer and then they’d fit the bed correctly, but I didn’t have a plan at the time.
I shared a lot of photos in one of the latest blog posts of my trial and error to get good product photos with consistent backgrounds. I got some suggestions from a few of you and I welcome comments again. I worked on this again today.
I bought a roll of sturdy Manila paper. Do you know why it’s called Manila? I looked it up. Merriam-Webster: “a strong and durable paper of a brownish or buff color and smooth finish made originally from Manila hemp”. Wikipedia: “Manila paper was originally made out of old Manila hemp ropes which were extensively used on ships, having replaced true hemp. The ropes were made from abaca or Musa textilis, which is grown in the Phillipines; hence the association with Manila, its capital city. Abacá is an exceptionally strong fibre, nowadays used for special papers like tea bag tissue. It is also very expensive, being several times more expensive than woodpulp, hence the change to that fiber for what is still called Manilla—usually with two L’s. More recently new woodpulp has often been replaced with a high proportion of recycled fibers. True Manila hemp folders would have been much tougher and longer lasting than modern folders.” See what you learn by reading this blog?
I also have a piece of linen that is a nice color with an interesting texture. I thought I’d try both of those as background. The linen fabric is too small, but I can get more if it works. I just made a curtain for my office and that’s why I still have a piece here.
So I experimented with my phone and my camera with these different backgrounds. My goal is to take photos that don’t need much editing to make the products look like they do in real life.
This is the linen on top of the manila taken with my camera. I am not sure if the yellow/rose cast of the manila comes through the linen. Also, light is so important. I took all photos in the shade, but not all shade is the same. The place where I’m hanging the roll of paper is a different shade than if I drag the table over to the middle of the deck area and the roll of manila may affect the outcome as well.
This is that manila paper taken with my phone.
Linen on top of manila taken with phone.
The photos I used here have been minimally edited–mostly to crop to square. This time I shot the photos with my camera on manual and adjusted shutter speed one or two stops. Most of the time the slower shutter speed (more light) gave a better exposure. I don’t think I’m having such an issue with white balance as in the last batch of photos.
Linen on top of manila, taken with Nikon.
The same as above but taken with the phone. Colors are close but not the same.
I moved the table away from the wall so the linen is resting on the table. There will be no influence from the mainla paper underneath or on the wall. This photo is taken with the Nikon.
Same thing, but taken with the phone. I see a blue cast to the background linen.
These photos are also taken on the table, on the linen cloth alone. This one is with the Nikon.
Same thing but with the phone. There is that blue cast again. I could probably adjust that in the phone, but I haven’t done any adjustments on these photos other than exposure on some of the Nikon ones.
Same place, table with linen cloth, taken with Nikon.
Same photo taken with phone.
I moved the table back to the position with the manila paper. So this is linen cloth on the paper, taken with the Nikon.
Same thing but taken with phone.
This is the scarf on manila paper alone using the Nikon.
Cat basket on manila paper. Photo taken with Nikon.
Same thing but no cat.
Same thing taken with the phone.
Here is a blanket on manila paper taken with the Nikon. I think this one could benefit from exposure adjustment.
Same photo taken with the camera. Color of the blanket is more natural.
This is in the same place with the linen over the manila. Nikon photo.
Same photo taken with the phone. There is definitely a difference in the color in these photos.
I liked the photos in the last post that were taken with a wood background but I don’t like the spacing between the planks that creates a dark line. We have some leftover flooring that in the house I think of as gray, but I guess they have a brown cast. These planks were left over after we finished the floors and the “groove” edges of “tongue and groove” have been trimmed off. If I want to use these I will trim that edge so there are no big yellow gaps.
I think the colors of the yarn and products are true, but is the background distracting even if the gaps are gone?
UhOh. Why does the white fringe on the blanket look green? Compare it to the scarf at the bottom. In this last series of photos I didn’t compare Nikon to phone photos, and they are all phone photos. I just added the Nikon photo of the blanket below.
Every January I meet up with my long-time friend, Irene, who owns Cotton Clouds, a mail-order business based in Arizona, to go to the Winter Show of The National Needlearts Association. Since I’ve been going it’s been in San Diego (2016 and 2014) or Phoenix (2015 and 2012) or Long Beach (2013 and 2011). This year it was in San Jose, only an hour and a half from here (on a weekend without commute traffic), so Irene flew to Sacramento and spent a few days here before we both drove to the show.
TNNA wasn’t the only thing in town on Saturday.
There was plenty of pink visible.
Other colors too. Why does Irene always look more excited in these photos of us together?
Big fat yarns seem to be the new thing this year.
I managed to find a few sheep.
After spending a few hours at the show we checked into our hotel where we had a room on the 5th floor.
This is the view…
…and this is the art work on the wall.
We went back to the convention hall. We had been seeing groups of young (mostly) men (mostly) wearing black (mostly) who were attending something in the convention center but didn’t quite fit the demographics of the yarn buyers and sellers. Irene spoke to one group and we found out that they were competing in the Super Smash Brothers Tournament, a Nintendo gaming event (if I’m using the right terminology). It’s worth looking at this link for a view into an obsession a little different than the fiber one (maybe takes up less space?) A quote from the article: “For video games you don’t need depth perception at all,” he explains, sounding almost Baudrillardian, “there’s no depth: it’s just right there.” Put in perspective, that quote is from a gamer who is blind in on eye. We may bring out fiber swatches and knitting needles. They bring their own controllers.
Back to the Fiber Hall.
I love how this sign was made.
Very clever.
I like the look of this fabric…
…woven on this loom which I have in the shop and eventually on the website.
We talked with a lot of vendors. This is Francis Chester-Cestari who has sheep and a fiber mill in Virginia and promotes American grown fiber. Irene is looking at some of his U.S. grown cotton. Notice the book on his table. That’s his memoir.
I didn’t come away from this show with all the new products that I usually do, although I do have some lotion bars with sheep on them (see photo in one of the collections above). There weren’t as many vendors and I really don’t need more yarn. What I need is a better way to market what I already have before adding more. So my investment this year is a new modern website! You’ll be hearing more about that in a month or so.
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