What's happening in the studio

I taught a v-shawl class last week.

The second day of the class was Sunday. On that day the weavers were ready to weave the "v" part of the shawl. These shawls are woven in 2 layers up to the "v" where the fronts join to create the back.

Here is what the shawls looked like when they came off the looms. (The fringes will be trimmed later.)

I think they are happy because they survived this class!

I've been doing my own work in the shop as well.

Red chenille scarves.

More chenille scarves.

These are samples of needlefelted ornaments that we will make this weekend at our Holiday Market Open House. These will also be available as kits.

Faulkner & Jerry

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!

Faces of shearing

Shearing Day was yesterday. We had a great time and I owe a huge thanks to Farm Club and a few other friends who helped.

Some of the ewes waiting their turn.

Lola

Our shearer, John. Hailey is scooping up fleeces.

Tina, Kathy & Hailey bag the fleece.

Shelby & Alison as sheep wranglers.

It's lunch-time. Rusty has his eye on someone's sandwich.

This is one of John's wool shearing shoes. It is made of thick felt.

My friend, Colleen, brought her sheep for shearing. This is her ram, Razor.

Look at this face under the skirting table. James was happy to scoop up wool that fell through the slats. He spent most of his time playing in the new sand we got for the parking area.

Here is some of the crew. Others were holding down the fort in the shop.

Faulkner, the BFL, after shearing.

Amaryllis watches, while Dazzle calls for her friends.

Terraza in the pasture.

Mary is glad to find the flock.

This is what is it all about. Beautiful fleeces. So far all the fleeces I have looked at are strong, clean, and gorgeous.

Weaving Wonderland

I gave a presentation called World of Wool to the Portland Weavers Guild on Thursday. There are two meetings and the morning group meets at Ruthie's Weaving Studio. This is a fabulous place. Look at the number of looms here! At Ruthie's weavers can pay a monthly fee and use the looms and all the other equipment at any time the studio is open.

This loom has 16 or 20 shafts.

This loom is set up with a long warp for overshot coverlets. There is a waiting list for the weavers who want to weave a coverlet using the warp that is already threaded and ready to go.

This is a rug loom designed by Peter Collingwood.

Being able to see this in person I finally can finally understand how shaft-switching works.

Here is a small Jacquard loom.

Look at the size of this warping reel.

Inspirational textiles abound, including this sampler using Moorman technique.

Ruthie's Weaving Studio

I stayed with a friend (who used to be part of the Sacramento Weavers Guild) not too far over the border in Washington. You catch a glimpse of Mt. St. Helens on the way to her house.  I hope to be back to Portland for more weaving related activities and some sight-seeing.

Weaving

The November show at the Artery will be the work of all of us fiber artists. I had plenty of warning about the show (many months) but, because I tend to work from deadline to deadline here is what I've been doing in the last couple of weeks. This is a stunning purple chenille v-shawl that includes a sparkly  yarn.

Close-up of the shawl.

Chenille scarves to be displayed with the shawl. You can't tell from the photos but there are sparkles here too.

 Rayon & cotton shawl.

Advancing twill blanket in organic Merino wool.

Merino wool scarves that were woven using a "name draft" that I created for Katie's wedding.

 The end of the warp that wasn't long enough for a full scarf.

I was just talking to my friend who said that this wasn't a bad accomplishment considering that I had deadlines for Handwoven magazine, my daughter's wedding and a concert in my barn all in the last month.

More photos from New England

We went to New England for my daughter's wedding, but we were also tourists, joining the other "peepers" to see the beautiful fall colors. Along the freeway in New Hampshire.

Picturesque Vermont scene.

Morning mist at Katie's place.

A drive into the hills above Rochester.

lll

This pond is across the road from the active green marble quarry. This is the old quarry and this "pond" is supposedly almost bottomless.This is a reminder of how Hurricane Irene ravaged this area of Vermont.

One of the Vermont covered bridges, now blocked off due to flood damage.

Stopping for scenery and photos along the road.

Last stop before the airport.

Sharing the Vermontster.

End of the trip. A memorable family event.

More New England photos

It's been 3 weeks since the trip to New England but I am still enjoying my photos. Here are just a few. This is my sons and their SO's on the coast of Maine. Meryl awed us with handstands in unusual places.

Eating lobster and crab in a Maine restaurant. Chris has mac and cheese with lobster.

Not to be outdone, this is Matt's handstand.

Matt, more at home in a canoe than upside down. We spent one night at a friend's house on Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire foliage.

Photos from New England

I have been avoiding my blog because I'm frustrated that I can't separate my blog from Rusty's, but I'll have to wait now until the WP tech-support is back. Oh well. I want to share some of my favorite photos from our trip to New England and Katie's (daughter) wedding. Katie and her junior high friend, Camila, who now lives in Boston and was her maid of honor.

Walking down the aisle.

Presenting the bride and groom. Could you choose a more beautiful setting? This is the farm where Katie and Kurtis are living.

My sons and wife and girlfriend -- one of each :) .

Katie and her brothers.

Katie, Kurtis & Libby. Libby has been Katie's horse since Katie was in junior high. She traveled with her to Cal Poly, then Texas, and now Vermont.

Wedding in Vermont

This is Robin, not Rusty, even though WP thinks I'm Rusty. (I have to do something about that.) Poor Rusty stayed home and will probably have his own version of events. I spent 5 days in New England and the culmination was my daughter's wedding to Kurtis Jolander. I will post more photos of the wonderful New England adventure later.

Lambtown

Another post by Robin. I don't have time to straighten out WP right now. I think Rusty needs his own e-mail address to fix this problem. Lambtown was Saturday. What an incredibly busy day! There is no way that I could have made it through the day without the help of friends. The event was packed. Here is my booth before the doors opened.

I had the booth pretty well set up the night before when I was asked to move it 18" to the north because the neighboring booth wasn't given the allotted space. Can you imagine? I was not happy, but after dealing with it, I didn't feel so guilty about spilling over into the empty space next to me. Next year I think I'll get two booth spaces, but I'll definitely need a full-time person to help. Friends, Aaron and Alison and Jackie helped with the booth and we even pulled in a few other friends who happened to be walking by.

I taught a rigid heddle class in the morning and had five students. We crammed as many new techniques into that class as we could in 2 hours. Everyone wove a sampler with Italian hemstitching, Danish medallions, and warp and weft pick-up.

There was also a sheep show. Tina helped in the show ring and Dona and Rick spend most of their day monitoring the timing of the show. I thought that we might be showing in the morning, but there were enough sheep entered that we didn't show until later in the afternoon. This is the yearling ewe class. That is Meridian Vicki in second place. She was Reserve Champion ewe in the Primitive Breeds division.

Tina brought her service puppy in training to Lambtown. Isn't Golly cute?

Thanks to Dona for the last 2 photos.