Is she or isn't she?

I've been sorting fleeces. Here are samples of Glenna and Millicent, 2009 March lambs that I got just before Christmas.

That is black wool from another sheep in the middle and here is a close-up:

When I got these sheep there was one definite lilac among them. (For those of you non-Jacob sheep people, lilac is a color other than the more common black and white, usually a shade of grayish-brown.) I wondered about the others because they are out of lilac ewes and sired by Kenleigh's Nitro, who is registered as a lilac. Shannon, Nitro's breeder says that he was very dark and one of the JSBA inspectors said he was "chocolate" lilac.

Gladys is the obvious lilac, but what about her sister?

This is Millicent,  out of Nitro and  Meridian Millie, a lilac ewe who I sold a few years ago.

Here is Meridian Tess, who was born here, definitely not a lilac, but I thought she would be a good comparison.

So is there a difference between the black and white Tess and Millicent? Telilah is Millicent's half sister/cousin (sired by Nitro and her dam is M. Tillie, a lilac ewe and the identical twin of Millie, but that's another story.) Of course it's hard to know what color you're seeing on the computer, and I had decided that these sheep were regular black and white. But after opening up their fleeces today I think I've changed my mind.

Here is the group of these new sheep playing in the early evening. They stay together most of the time--I think they'er happy to be on the pasture.

While we're looking at sheep, here are a few that look ready to explode. The first lambs are due in about three weeks.

This is bide a wee Haylee...

and this is Hillside Paula.

Spring yet?

It was sunny this weekend and it felt like spring. The sheep have been cooped up in the barn and corral area for two months now. I let them into this small field today. There is a lot of grass to eat, but it is still wet and if I keep them there too long they'll turn it into mud.

The sheep went right to eating, but the goats continued to race back and forth.

The oldest goat, Stephanie, didn't participate in the silliness of the younger goats.

Too bad for the rams. They have to stay in their own area. This is Kenleigh's Savor in front and Meridian Tioga in back, both born last winter.

This is Lola, a lilac ewe.  That reminds me (because I sold her fleece) that we had Farm Day on Saturday. Three people were here to help with sheep chores. It was great to have the help. We vaccinated all the sheep, wormed the young ewes, and put in scrapie tags.

We even trimmed a few hooves. Shelby is trimming while Jackie keeps the sheep from moving around too much. I don't flip my sheep anymore to trim feet. I'd rather tie them to trim feet. It has the added advantage of sort of halter-breaking.

Everyone had a hand at trimming feet, but this is Shelby again while Tina holds the sheep.

Back to weaving scarves

These three scarves are woven with variegated chenille.

I am working on plaid scarves now.

Fun to look at but they take way too long to weave. Weaving with one color is fast but this one took me 3 CD's of an audio book. That's a long time.

First rag rug`

Well, it's not actually my first rag rug, but the first one was so long ago it seems like my first rag rug. When my daughter was home for Christmas we shopped for fabric to make a new cover for her comforter. We didn't get around to this until the day before Katie left to go back to Texas so I was left with the fabric. She wanted the cover to have 2 different sides. Here's what the two sides look like.

I had left-over fabric and a small guild I belong to has talked about doing a rug project. We often come up with good ideas for projects and everyone gets excited about it, but some of us don't follow through. I did it! The only problem is that I mailed the rag rug to Katie so the only proof that I have of my project is this photo.

Sheep herding gone awry

These are the sheep I got just before Christmas. Rusty is behind them moving them from the pen where they were in with the rest of the flock.

They were not supposed to end up here:

A Working Vacation

I left the fog in the Sacramento Valley on Monday and spent a few days in Arizona. I worked with my friend Irene, from Cotton Clouds, on business and with Greg, who designed my website (look for upgrades to that soon). Irene lives in the desert with a fabulous view of Mt. Graham.

We took a couple of hours to drive part way up Mt. Graham and go on a hike. I held the camera out to get our photo.

Here is a Mexican Jay.

I'm back home and inspired to get working.

Warm feet

What's better for cold feet than sheepskin slippers with wool socks? Well, I won't be short of wool socks any time soon. I just got the wool socks that I had made. Unfortunately they weren't here in time for Christmas, but I think I'll still have some for next Christmas. There are over 400 pairs!

These are the Jacob wool socks. From left to right: 1/4 sock size 9-11, crew size 9-11, crew size 11-13, crew size 13-15.

These are Rambouillet wool socks in the same sizes.  I'll be putting these on my website next week after I figure out labeling, etc.

Bare trees

If you start humming a  Fleetwood Mac tune and visualize the album cover when you see this blog title then you are dating yourself. But it doesn't really have anything to do with that. It's just what I see on my dog-walks across the road.

See all those clumps of mistletoe in the bare black walnut tree?

I found this interesting because in this tree the mistletoe is dying. There are mistletoe skeletons in the tree skeleton. I didn't pay attention to whether or not the  tree is actually dead too.  However, the mistletoe at the bottom of the tree is alive.

Do you see all  that gray sky? I am so tired of dreary, drippy, cold, sunless days. It seems as though the fog will never leave. I hope that the next song title I am reminded of is by the Beatles:  Here Comes the Sun.

I plan to get back to work tomorrow but I've been completely focused on other things, including major cleaning and  reorganizing the house with the help of my daughter who is here from Texas and doing other family things. (We saw Riverdance in San Francisco last night--what a fabulous show!)  Christmas gifts to my kids and other family members included flash drives with labeled and organized photos. I have been busy scanning photos and then trying to keep them organized. I sometimes wonder if it's only me (as a mom) who loves these photos so much. I don't know if anyone else can really appreciate them.  I had to include a few of my favorites the 1992 photos that I scanned.

Chris, now 18, taking his first steps.

My mom, who died a year ago, helping Chris with his 1st birthday celebration.

Katie, now age 21, when she was about 4.

Katie with one of Matt's (older son) cows at the fair.

My mom with Chris and Katie.

Milking.

Chris & tractor.

Katie is lining up dirt clods on the disc.

Last blanket...almost

I just finished two twin size blankets using a customer's natural colored yarn and her yarn that I dyed. This will be shipped tomorrow  along with the king-size blanket. I've had the heater on in my shop all day so that I can get these dry. I also finished a couple of v-shawls.

The blankets have the same warp. This one is woven with 2-ply light brown weft.

I didn't have enough of the customer's yarn for weft in the second blanket so I used some of mine. I took a chance on using 2 strands of singles yarn wound together on the pirn. Normally I wouldn't try to wind 2 together using an end-feed shuttle, but in this case the yarns wound around each other and I didn't have any trouble at all.  So this weft is one strand of light gray and one strand of dark gray yarn together. I think it gives a nice depth to the blanket.

I have one more custom order, a king size blanket in several colors, but it will wait until after Christmas. The last time I did that (last year) I broke my arm before I got the left-over weaving finished.

Weaving blankets

I'm making progress on the weaving orders but I'm not finished yet.  I need to get these in the mail by the middle of the week.

This is a king-sized blanket for a customer in Oregon. I don't know what kind of sheep she raises, but the yarn is beautiful and the blanket is very soft. It measures 90 x 100".  The only place I can spread a blanket this size to dry is the floor of the shop, so I have to plan my finishing around classes, open hours, etc. The shop is too cold right now and after leaving the blanket spread out overnight I needed to get it off the floor (partly because I'm teaching a chenille scarf class tomorrow).

The blanket is folded in half and hanging over the loom on which I'm weaving a v-shawl for a customer in Nevada. This customer has Jacob sheep and I'm using her mill-spun yarn and handspun yarn. The blanket below is for the same customer. The stripes are handspun.

Here is a detail from the king-sized blanket at the top of this post. This customer also wants two twin blankets and she wants some of the yarn dyed. Here is the yarn for the next warp.

The next two blankets are woven with singles Jacob yarn. These were in a previous post while still on the loom. They are for sale at the Artery right now and will be on my site shortly.

What's this?

Many of you will probably be able to tell what this is since it is so large in the photo. But when I first found it on my sheep's foot I wasn't sure (need new glasses). Diamond, my oldest ewe, was walking slowly and not looking quite right.  When I took a good look at her I found this stuck on her foot just above her hoof. It was so tight that it was starting to dig into her skin and I had to break it to get it off.  Diamond is fine now.

We are in a record-setting cold spell. It's predicted to be in the low 20's tonight. As I was wrapping pipes and my husband was fixing the pipes that broke I caught this photo of Molly.

What is she watching?

OK, did you guess what the mystery item is? It's the trimming from a donkey hoof. I don't know when it got caught on Diamond's foot but as it dried it shrunk and hardened.

Artery

Wednesday was Display Day at the Artery, the artists' coop where I sell my handwoven pieces. We expand into the Gallery area for the month of December so all of us get a little more space for our items. Here is my area:

Those are all chenille scarves on the left, v-shawls in the middle and a couple of Jacob blankets on the wall.

This is my newest idea--pet leashes. Here is a close-up:

Now I'm working on custom weaving orders.

This blanket is for a customer in Nevada. The gray yarn is her Jacob spun at Yolo Wool Mill and the stripes is her handspun. This blanket will be finished tomorrow and next on the loom is a king size blanket for another customer.

22 Weaving Days Left

I have weaving orders to finish in time for Christmas. I thought I would have plenty of time after the Crocker Show. Now I'm feeling a bit panicky. Before starting other people's blankets I had to get my own blankets off the loom. Here are 2 of the 3 blankets as they were being woven.

This warp is Jacob singles at 12 epi. I have learned that if I'm using a relatively loosely spun singles for warp to wind 4-6 extra threads at the edges so that there will be extras when those edge warp threads break. Those extra threads hang off the sides and I pick up one of them when one of the threads at the selvedge weakens and breaks. This was more of a problem in the first blanket and I was ready to cut the warp off. I changed shuttles and the next two blankets went better. I love these 16-H twills. Here are close-ups:

There will be lots of fringe-twisting before I can wash these. That may have to wait, although I'd like to be able to get these blankets ready for sale this season.

Windy weekend

The title implies that I dealt with the high winds that we had this weekend. I didn't really spend much time in the wind. I was inside at the Art & Craft Holiday Fair sponsored by the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento. I was surprised at the number of people that came through. Not as many sales as I'd hoped for, but it will be worth going back next year.

These are some of the v-shawls I had for sale.

You may recognize some of these scarves from previous blog entries. I meant to count the scarves. I think I ended up with over 50.

These are 3-D wire pieces that I liked.

And this is an example of another artist's work that I liked. All his pictures have a time theme and are made from watch parts.

A friend visited me at the show on Saturday and look what she brought. This is a sheep from the WoolPets felt kit that I sell and she knit a scarf to go with it. I wonder if she used toothpicks for knitting needles!

So what was with the wind? It howled all weekend. We hadn't had any significant damage from the other winds that we've had this fall. This wind took the top of the big tree in front of the house. Fortunately all that is damaged is a fence board.

This is upside-down and used to be...

...up there.

The tree is lopsided now--used to have 2 tops that looked like one.

I guess I won't quit my day job.

I thought that maybe I would switch jobs and be a wildife photographer. Here are some photos I took in the pasture the other day. This marsh hawk (birder friend, Claire, tells me that it is a northern harrier, but marsh hawk is the name I remember) was flying around the pasture, would land, and then as I stealthily snuck up on him, would take flight again.

Same with the egret. The hawk is on the ground and the egret comes in for a landing.  I don't have a very long lens so this is the best I can do before they take off again.

So I guess I'd better keep at the fiber business and just use wildlife photography as a side-line!

Some of this weeks scarves:

These first three have supplementary warp of various odds and ends.

More log cabin scarves:

These are the same except that one has a bleached white yarn and the other has an ivory yarn.

A friend and I did an impromptu dye session this week.

She dyed yarn and I dyed fiber.

Shearing Day

We sheared on Saturday. I used a new shearer this year and he did a fabulous job. He was fast (70 + Jacobs shorn before noon) and the fleeces and the sheep look great.

I am grateful for all the help I had. Linda gathered up and bagged wool all day. Other friends weighed wool, answered questions from visitors, etc.

My son, Chris, made sure that the shearer didn't run out of sheep.

We also sheared Colleen's CVM-cross sheep (while she took care of my shop) and...

Diane's goats. I have to admit they are stunning in full fleece.

These are Chris' goats and don't need to be shorn, but they never miss a chance to sneak some a meal.

I didn't skirt nearly as many fleeces as I thought I would. We just barely kept up with the fleeces that people wanted to purchase. I missed my friend, Joan, who usually spends all day at the skirting table.  I think it might be worth switching shearing back to Sunday so she can be here!

Here is one fleece spread out.  People asked about how to tell a good fleece, which is better than another, etc. I honestly answered that I don't have any sheep whose fleece I don't like.

The sunny day certainly helped make shearing day pleasant and I'm sure the sheep appreciated the warm sun.

Take a look at this shorn lamb. There was some discussion earlier this year about tri-colored Jacob sheep (if such a thing exists). I didn't know this lamb had those gray spots until she was shorn! I've never had another like this.

Here is another pretty lamb.

This is Violet, loading into her van. That's a cooperative sheep! Violet lived here until about a month ago. She is a wonderful friendly ewe and I'm so glad that she has a great home now with two other Meridian sheep at Aimee's place.

Rusty's brother, Jake, came to visit at the end of the day. The dogs were not too happy about posing for a brotherly photo.

But they were going to make sure these lambs stayed put.

There are more shearing photos that can be accessed on Picassa by going to my website and clicking on the photo in the shearing article.

Scarves and a pony

I'm trying to get my shop ready for Shearing Day on Saturday. I'll be spending my time in the barn, but my friend will staff the shop and I need everything organized, labeled, etc. Here are new scarves.

This one is rayon chenille with a supplementary warp using a ribbon called Luna.

Same basic warp, but a different supplementary warp.

Here is another "left-overs" warp. The blues.

Another left-overs warp. This one is deep purple, but I can't get that color on my screen. Maybe it will show up purple on your computer.

I carded some sample batts using the Ashford drum carder and the new Wild Carder. Lots of fun! I wish I had time to do more of this.

The top two batts are using fiber that I dyed for a Color Wheel class. Those will be fun to spin. The white batt is from Jacob wool--it is thick and soft. I have a new packer brush on the drum carder and it really lets you pack in the wool.

Last, but not least, is a pony from the Wool Pet pony kit. I love the look on his face. I am also needle felting a donkey, but she is not finished yet.

Buffalo cotton

I took a field trip today with a group of friends. We went to see Sally Fox's cotton fields in  the Capay Valley, northwest of here.  Sally is well known in the fiber world for her work in developing natural-colored, long-staple, organically-grown cotton.

This is a field of Sally's Buffalo cotton.

Sally told us that, although many farms welcome bees in to their crops, she isn't as happy to have them, at least in the numbers that she has been seeing. Cotton is generally self-pollinating and that is important if you are trying to raise seed of pure varieties. In recent years there have been so many bees that they have been causing cross-pollination. Iif she grows more than one variety of cotton she can't count on the seed crop being pure. This year she is growing only the buffalo cotton, a long staple cotton of a beautiful brown color.

Here is a boll before it opens.

Sally is wearing a long sleeve shirt made from her Buffalo cotton fiber.

This is cotton chenille made from another of Sally's varieties. I think this one was called Palo Verde, but I don't remember for sure. The chenille on the left is the natural color and after boiling (and addition of ammonia)  it turned dark green. I knew that Sally's natural colored cottons deepen with washing, but this color change is amazing.

I came home with a couple of cones. I'll be planning some scarves I think.

Which hemisphere is this?

I had to think hard today to figure out which season it is. Here is an almond tree losing it's leaves like it is supposed to in the fall.

But look at the redbud:

Those are flower buds opening. Redbuds lose their leaves in the fall and flower in the spring. I guess the rain followed by the warm weather has tricked the redbud.

More flowers in the yard:

So what else do I do besides take photos all day? We worked on major clean-up today in preparation for Shearing Day on Saturday. I kept weaving scarves. I put up address signs--until the hay truck driver couldn't find our place I didn't realize that the numbers were gone from the mailbox.

See my spiffy new numbers?

Something that I didn't do but may have to tomorrow is wash the dog. When i was changing the pasture fence Rusty entertained himself by rolling in donkey manure. He had a great time, but he is pretty smelly right now.

Also on the list for tomorrow...see the desk below? What is missing?

My monitor went from working one night to black the next morning. Right now I have my son's monitor plugged in but I guess I have to go shopping. Not my most fun thing...now if it was shopping for yarn that would be another story.