Close to Home...Post #12 Wearables

The previous posts were all about the farms where I got the wool to use in my show, Close to Home...Yarn with a Story. Most of them featured blankets. I love weaving blankets. It doesn't really matter what size they are, you can weave each in a different color and/or pattern, and who couldn't use a warm blanket? But I wove some wearables as well.   Above are shawls woven of the same style of yarn from Imperial Yarn Company as the Stars and Stripes blankets. The brown yarn was dyed with black walnut.This is what the black walnuts look like after having soaked in a bucket for a couple of weeks and then been boiled for an hour. These are pots of eucalyptus leaves and twigs on the stove......and yarn in the dye made after boiling those pots. Notice that there are two different weights of yarn in this post. That finer yarn, also from Imperial Yarn Company, is used in the shawls below.The weft in this shawl uses the fine yarn dyed in eucalyptus. One batch turned out rust and another was gold.You can see the two different sides of each shawl in this photo. Here is a close-up.Another shawl that uses natural dyed yarn (black walnut) is this one in huck lace woven using yarn from the Timm Ranch.Here is another in un-dyed yarn.By the way, here is what that shawl looks like while on the loom. I always have to convince new weavers to have faith that even if you see spaces when you're weaving they will close up if you're working with wool.

There are also several scarves in the show, some of which have been shown in earlier posts.These scarves use yarn from Fiber Confections, Anderson Ranch, and Meridian Jacobs.

Close to Home...Post #7 - Jacob Wool

I've been writing about sources of wool from Solano and Marin Counties and from Oregon, but of course I used my own wool too for the Artery show. How to choose a representative photo of my sheep? I used more than one. I can do that because it's my show. Fanny LolaRams. Here is the story I wrote for the show:

I developed Meridian Jacobs after my family moved to Meridian Road, north of Vacaville, in 1999 and I purchased Jacob sheep. The Jacob sheep is a rare breed that is hardy and well-adapted to low-input, sustainable farming practices. My flock of 65+ sheep grazes irrigated pasture much of the year and is supplemented with locally grown alfalfa during the winter.

The sheep provide me with unique wool and tasty lamb and are the core upon which I have built a multi-faceted business, selling fiber (from my sheep and other yarns featured in this show), teaching classes, and creating the Farm Club. Lambs for meat are sold to individuals and to Superior Farms in Dixon.

The Jacob sheep is striking in appearance with it’s spotted fleece and multiple horns. The sheep are shorn in the fall and yarn is spun at two California mills. My flock’s wool measures from 27 to 31 microns. By sorting fleeces by color and grade I produce a variety of natural shades and can use the softer fleeces for blankets and garments and coarser wool for felt items.

Meridian Jacobs evolved as I turned my passion for wool into a business.

I had a limited amount of yarn from this year because I sold so many fleeces at shearing day. Some went to Farm Club members and I used most of the rest. It is beautiful yarn.  These are all throw-sized blankets.The cool thing about Jacob wool is that you get all of these natural colors without dyeing. For this blanket I used odds and ends of the yarns that were left in warp and weft. It was going to be a poncho along with the other blanket on this warp. I have a poncho that I wore in high school:Yes, I still have it because I always planned to use it for a pattern. (When I put it on it makes me look 17, right? Glasses are gone. With camera angle, you don't see as many wrinkles. You can pretend that I bleached my hair back then.)Anyway, the fabric in the first "poncho" photo was larger than the poncho that I wanted and it looked and felt so nice as a blanket that I didn't cut a hole in it. (Good thing--it has sold to someone and it will be shipped to Australia.) This fabric was about the right size so I did turn it into a poncho. It can be purchased at the Artery (or from me after the show).This is a scarf from more of the left-over yarn.

Close to Home...Post #6 - Anderson Ranch wool

Last March I watched some of the shearing on a large sheep ranch in southern Solano County and I brought home fleeces. Here is the blog post from that day. In September I got the yarn back from the mill and used it for pieces in my show at the Artery. Story that is part of the show:  Margaret and Ian Anderson farm land that Ian’s great grandfather settled in the late 19th century. While Ian’s great grandfather raised only sheep and grain the modern ranch is a diversified farming operation growing hay, grain, and cattle as well as sheep. The original sheep on the ranch were mostly Corriedale but today’s 3000 breeding ewes are a blend of Corriedale, Polypay, and Rambouillet breeding. The ewes are bred to Suffolk and Rambouillet rams to produce each year’s lambs. The lambs are raised in adherence to the strict animal handling and environmental sustainability protocols of Niman Ranch, where most of the lambs are marketed. Local sources of Anderson Ranch Lambs are Nature’s Bounty near Vacaville and Chuck’s Custom Slaughter in Dixon.

As in many U.S. sheep operations the Anderson Ranch wool is handled as a by-product and is usually baled and sold in bulk. Last spring I watched some of the shearing and brought home about a dozen fleeces. I sorted and pre-washed the wool and shipped 90 pounds to Zeilinger Wool Company in Michigan, one of the few mills in the U.S. that can adequately process fine wools in small quantities. The wool was spun into 54 pounds of 2-ply-sport weight yarn. The fiber averages 20.4 microns. Feel how soft it is for yourself!

This yarn, like the yarn from the Timm Ranch and processed at Zeilinger's, changes dramatically from it's coned form to skeined yarn or finished piece. I will do another blog post about that because it's so cool to see the changes. This would make a great knitting yarn as well (although I'd skein and wash it first) and it is on my website for sale now.  This blanket and the one above it are woven with the same weave structure, but they look different because one has dyed weft. The browns are dyed with black walnut.  This blanket has weft dyed with osage orange that grows across the road.I also wove some scarves. This is beautiful yarn, very soft and would make great knitted scarves or caps. I look forward to weaving more projects with it. Maybe I'll even be enticed to get out the knitting needles.

Close to Home...Post #4

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...Yarn with a Story

For many months I have been preparing for a show at The Artery in Davis, CA. The Artery  is an a cooperative gallery with about 70 member artists and I have sold my work there for over ten years. The show runs from November 7 to December 1. I hope that local people will be able to visit.Jacob blankets above and on the rocking chair (my mom's) on the right. Gray blanket on the left chair uses "Mom's yarn" (see a future blog post on that). The others are wool from other Solano County farms.

The best way to explain this show is to reprint my "Artist's Statement" here. My blog is usually mostly photos because that's the kind of blog that I like to read but I hope that you will take the time to read the following because it explains the concept behind the work in the show.  I'll throw in a few photos, but will display others in later blog posts.

Blankets woven from yarn grown by Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon.The story about this yarn will be in a later post.

Artist's Statement:   In 2010 I became involved in the Fibershed movement by donating yarn produced from my flock of Jacob sheep to Rebecca Burgess whose goal was to wear, for a year, only clothes sourced entirely from an area within 150 miles of where she lived. That means that the fiber (and any dye) was grown, the yarn was spun, the cloth created, and the garment sewn locally! Imagine doing that—it’s not easy!

Why bother? Have you looked at your clothing labels and thought about the impacts of the way in which we clothe ourselves? The true cost of inexpensive clothing is high when you consider the social and environmental impacts on a global scale. (China produces 52% of the world’s textiles.)

Rebecca’s personal challenge led to the creation of the on-line Fibershed Marketplace in 2011, and in 2012 the Fibershed (501c3) with the mission “... to change the way we clothe ourselves by supporting the creation of local textile cultures that enhance ecological balance, and utilize regional agriculture while strengthening local economies and communities.” In other words, by embracing the Fibershed concept, we support the idea of using locally grown and locally made textiles and encouraging the development of Fibersheds all over the world.

Education is an integral part of the Fibershed movement—educating the consumer about the environmental, economic, and social benefits of embracing the Fibershed concept. Imagine the Slow Food movement applied to textiles!

Close to Home... Does that mean down the block, across town, or within the U.S.A? Each yarn used in this show has a story. Some were grown by my own sheep, some by my neighbors, and some in other parts of Solano County. One is grown by a long-established Oregon ranch and another is grown by several ranches in the Pacific Northwest and dyed with plant dyes in Napa County. A few pieces are woven of yarn handspun and dyed by my mom many years ago. It was a challenge to stay true to the Fibershed concept when I needed commercial fabrics for pillows. (One of the many Fibershed goals is to bring mills back to our area that will commercially produce fabrics not locally produced now.) I did the best I could by using fabric and pillow forms made in the U.S.A. and some pillows use my home-grown wool for the pillow itself.

I wove or felted all the wool fabric in the show and each of the fibers have a story. Some were grown close to home and other evoke memories of home. The pieces are simple because my focus is on the fiber and the yarn. Enjoy the photos, read the stories, and think about the stories that your textiles would tell.