After I published the last post (a bunch of seemingly unrelated ugly photos) I thought it was pretty stupid. I do have something to tell about how they all relate, but that story will wait until I get around to it and in the meantime I have deleted it. This is a better bunch of photos that I took yesterday on the way to the barn.
Athena lambed ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the biggest twin (12.2 lbs) was dead when I went out this morning. Although it looks as though it was born alive (or at least was full term) there was something wrong with it. It's belly was full of fluid so I think there was probably a congenital problem with it and it never could have survived.
This lamb is 8 pounds.
It's obvious who the dad is:
Lambs are due in about a week.
This is Sparkle.
Sweetie
Spring
Jazz.
Bella.
Our first Farm Day of the year was on Saturday and five Farm Club members helped me get ready for lambing. I forgot to take photos at the beginning but started with vaccinating all the ewes. In the meantime we kept an eye on the two ewes who were supposed to be bred that day so that they will lamb at the fair in July.
There was no question about Miller and Donna, but ZZ left me wondering. He seemed more interested in his buddies in the adjacent pen than he was in Clover although she was doing her best to entice him. I decided that I'd better try another ram so Faulkner was the one. He knew just what to do.
While the rams were otherwise occupied and I had plenty of help it was time to clean the ram pen.
Rusty usually keeps the rams away while I clean so he took his usual position although the rams weren't there. 
The ewes watched through the gate while we moved wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow load. Those red marks are just from the marking crayon we used as we vaccinated.
After cleaning the ram pen it was donkey play time! Lisa discovered the bliss of brushing a donkey.
Amaryllis had to hold still for me to measure her. She is about as svelte as she ever gets and I wanted to have a baseline measurement for her (670 pounds according to the tape, which is really meant for horses). By the way, I looked up svelte because I wasn't sure how to spell it. Svelte, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: thin in an attractive or graceful way; and a. slender, lithe. b : having clean lines : sleek. Hmmm. So maybe svelte isn't quite the right word to describe a donkey.
I spent the weekend demonstrating weaving at the Sacramento Weavers and Spinner Guild annual Open House. I knew that if I was going to spend two days there I needed to get something useful done. I wove two more of the scarf warps from the Box of Chenille to end the weekend with six new scarves. 
These are three from one warp.
This is a bike that was parked outside the show.
Back at the shop I have been trying to get caught up on weaving jobs. This is part of a baby blanket warp. I cut these off before I finished all of the warp because I had someone waiting for three of them. 
I finally finished these cotton blankets that were on the loom a long time. Some are baby blanket size and some are larger for throws. 
The next project to finish is a custom king-sized blanket woven of yarn that is a blend of llama and wool. I finished getting this on the sectional beam last night and started threading it today. I hope that I can finish it by next week and move on to the throws for this customer.
My largest loom is 60" wide. A queen-size blanket is supposed to be about 90" wide. When I weave a large blanket (full or queen size) I use double weave. This means that I weave two layers of cloth at the same time and they are connected on one side. When the blankets comes off the loom I open it up and it is double-width.
Sometimes things don't go as planned. Here is an example:
That is a big OOPS on the underside. (And that wasn't the only one on this warp of two blankets. In fact some of you might notice another error that was THROUGHOUT the whole warp.) Both of these errors were fixable--it just takes time…and patience...
…and a good audio book. Here is how I fixed the most obvious error (all those skipped warp threads).
I knew that I could pull the warp threads out and needle weave them all the way back to the end of the warp (about 30" I think). I found the correct path above the error and marked it with a needle. It's not just a simple over-under. I think this pattern was under 2, over 1, under 1, over 1, under 1, over 2. I really didn't want to have to do that pattern with a needle for all of those threads. So I tied a thin thread (brown) to the warp thread (wool yarn) that needed to be rewoven and as I pulled it out the brown thread held the place. 
Then I untied the brown thread from the wool yarn. Using a tapestry needle I wove the wool yarn over and under the correct yarns in the area where there was a skip. 
Then I tied the brown thread back to the wool yarn and pulled it all the way through to the end of the blanket….for all those threads. After fixing other errors the blankets were washed and they are finally in the mail. 
Here is the stack of blankets that I sent to the customer. There are 8 throws and 2 queen blankets (the ones on the bottom of the stack).
It's the Artery's 40th year anniversary and we're celebrating all year. There will be an all-member Gallery Show for part of February and, when we brainstormed ideas, we decided to call the show Forty Years of Love and to incorporate hearts into the pieces. 
Here are yarns that I picked up at TNNA with the idea of suing something new different for this project
And here are some buttons that I have in the shop. 
The first piece is woven with s soft super wash wool that sparkles with some metallic fibers.
This scarf is woven with Targhee wool dyed by Sincere Sheep. I'll be carrying some of these yarns in the shop soon.
This shawl was woven from yarns that were dyed in such a way that they they change color from one end of the ball to the other. Combing four balls gave me this warp:
Luv ya!
Last week we had our annual Farm Club Retreat in San Francisco. Six of us were able to get away for 24 hours of camaraderie and relaxation (and one more member joined us for the evening). We started by visiting the Alemany Farm in southeast San Francisco and meeting two of the volunteers. The Farm's website states: "Friends of Alemany Farm is a volunteer group that manages the horticulture, volunteer, and educational programs at Alemany Farm, a 3.5 acre organic farm ecosystem in southeast San Francisco." The farm is on city property at the edge of a park and was formerly an eyesore. It has been developed and used by community groups in one way or another for about 20 years.
It was certainly nice to see a bit of color since our drought landscape seems so dreary right now.
Shelby tasted most of what we saw...
…including the pineapple guavas...
…which were sweet inside, but you really didn't want to taste the outside part.
A small community farm in the heart of the city.
After the farm tour we drove back to the NDGW Home where we met up with Lisa...
…and later Stephany, who had broken her ankle and wasn't up for walking the hills of San Francisco. We had a splendid dinner at a Green Chili Kitchen just up the street from the Home. We spent the evening lounging in the parlor with our knitting, spinning wheels, and Mary's wonderful cookies and pom-poms.
Unfortunately I somehow lost all the photos I took with my iPhone from the pjs and pom-pons in the parlor through the next day's field trip. BUMMER. The next morning we enjoyed the now traditional Lemon Custard pie (from Green Chili's)for breakfast and then five of us drove to Berkeley to visit Lacis, a shop filled with all kinds of cool gadgets and featuring a museum. The exhibit in the museum was a private collection of lace complete with the history of the development of lace and it's impact on European history, as told by the owner of the collection and of Lacis. Fascinating.
I look forward to our next FC retreat in January, 2015.
I am not a shopper. I once told the guys at Higby's, my favorite feed store (that carries some clothing), that if either they or Ace Hardware carried underwear then I'd never have to shop anywhere else. Shopping for yarn and fiber related toys is another story. That's what the TNNA trade show is all about. It is where shop owners go to find all the products they want in their shops for the coming year. Every year I meet up with my friend, Irene, of Cotton Clouds and we spend the weekend shopping and working on weaving ideas and solving life problems.
This year's show was in San Diego, but the show was in the Convention Center so no scenic outdoor photos. 
You don't get to buy things in the main trade show hall because its set up to place orders for items to be carried in stores. However, the first night they have Sample It, where vendors can sell one or two of their new items and us hungry shoppers can go away with yarn and other goodies. This is the line to get into Sample It. 
This is the Yarn Wall where you can fill pages with samples of all the distributors newest yarns.
The Spinning and Weaving market segment now has it's own group under the umbrella of TNNA. Spinzilla was a very successful promotion that began in 2013 to raise funds to bring the spinning craft into the Needle Arts Mentoring program. Meridian Jacobs hosted a team last year and will do so again in 2014.
There are also opportunities to take classes. I took a class to learn about making felfs. Wouldn't these be nice in Jacob yarn with a horn button?
I found sheep without even going outside...
…in all colors...
…and styles...
…and things in colors of sheep. Some will be arriving in my shop soon!
Yarn is presented in a variety of ways.
Hungry?
This one reminds me of gummy worms but I don't think that is the intent.
Unusual colors were inspired by a yarn enthusiast who is involved in cat rescue.
But the best thing about going to TNNA is getting together with friends...
…during the show... 
…and after.
Lambs will be here at the end of February and I have been thinking about how fast they grow. Here are some of the 2013 favorite lambs as they grew up.
This is Marilyn with her mom, Hot Lips.
2 1/2 weeks old.
First in her class at Black Sheep Gathering, 4 months old.
Marilyn at 8 months old. Isn't she pretty? 
Santana at 10 days old. 
About a month old.
Not quite two months old. 
5 1/2 months old with a great horn spread.
Santana with his ewes 7 1/2 months old. 
That's Alex on the right at about 10 days old. Not much color on that side. Fortunately he has more on the other.
About 4 months old.
About 8 months old.
Alex after shearing, 9 months.
This is Cascade at 10 days old.
Two months old.
Here she is at 7 1/2 months.
I took these photos with my i-phone last week. As I was looking into the phone I didn't think that the phone's camera was catching the brilliance of the sunset. I snapped them anyway, but then forgot about it. It was only when I saw the photos on my computer that I realized how amazing that camera is.
I just wrote a post using photos that I took Across the Road from our mailbox. I started that to document the changes in the field that we see from our house everyday. The photos themselves are kind of boring and not all that attractive. Here is some of what I see when I walk Across the Road. (And here is Rusty's version.)
Last year the main crop was sunflowers but there is a corner of land owned by someone else. Last summer's crop on that parcel was corn.
Hot dog.
Irrigating the sunflower field.
Pollenating the sunflowers.
Stickers in someone's fur.
Sometimes our road seems like an alfalfa highway.
Swarm of bugs.
Another hot dog. 
Irrigation water. This sure looks appealing when it is 100+ degrees.
Signs that I'm not the only one Across the Road. 
Hope of the next harvest.
We don't have very much acreage, but across the road is a much larger parcel. We appreciate living here and being able to walk, run the dogs, and just a enjoy the view across the road. In 2013 I planned to take photos from the same location, of the same view, and at the same time each week to document the changes through the year. You probably don't mind that it didn't work because who would want to see 52 photos of the same thing? This field has been planted to alfalfa for several years but in 2013 there were sunflowers. Here is the year Across the Road:
January 10
January 25
January 31
March 7
March 26
April 4
April 11
May 5
May 21
May 28
June 13
July 4
July 12
August 8
September 30
October 10
October 18
November 24
December 31
There you have it. I stood at the mailbox for each photo. But the photos are obviously now always the same view or even using the same camera.
The most striking thing in my mind is how dry it was last year. The Central Valley of CA enjoys a Mediterranean climate which means hot dry summers and cool wet winters. We rely on winter rainfall to replenish aquifers and reservoirs to provide the water that keeps the valley from being a desert in the summer. This link shows graphs of the average precipitation and temperature for our area. According to accuweather.com the average annual rainfall for Sacramento is 18.5". We have had only 30% of that (5" in all of 2013). The hills (and the field across the road) should be green right now with the growth of the annual grasses that germinate from fall rains. Grass started to grow with each of the two (only 2) rainy days that we had but has mostly dried up.
On the bright side, I'm not slogging through calf-deep mud when doing chores and we don't have to run the sump pump to keep the the water heater in the basement from flooding.
Hoping for a wet 2014!
Rusty has never been a willing partner in taking cute holiday photos.
His friend, Moby wasn't much better. 
Nor was Ozzie.
Maybe it would have worked with a smaller hat.
Some of the sheep are OK with it. This is Noel.
Here is Paulette. But now we have a new star.
Spinners' Day Out was yesterday. Most of the people here were part of Farm Club (which, by the way, anyone can now join as an e-Farm Club member) and they were willing (more like insistent) on getting photos with Amaryllis. Dona and Mary took these photos.
"Would you get that thing away from my eye?" 
It may take me years to use up the yarn in the studio part of my shop. But I'm hopeful. Here is an attempt at one box.
I dumped the box of chenille on the floor and arranged the colors. I posted this photo on Facebook and then decided to have a contest. How many scarf warps could I get out of this pile of yarn?
The guesses ranged from 17 to 50 (well, there was one outlier at 502--maybe a typo). I had a good time winding these warps. For me winding warp is the creative part of weaving--at least for chenille scarves. The weave structure is almost always plain weave so all the design comes in choosing colors and arranging the order. This actually became a challenge here. I rarely weave chenille scarves in those light colors. Also, it's hard to tell in this photo but there are a lot of variegated yarns there. I like to use those, but usually as accents with solid colors. As I worked my way through this pile it became more difficult to put together pleasing combinations. Because I had set up this contest I didn't want to add in yarns off the shelf--that seemed like cheating. All of the first several warps were long enough to weave 2 or 3 scarves. As I worked my way through the pile I had less yarn in any one color so I made warps for single scarves. I finally got to this:
All those bits and pieces got me three more scarf warps.
It may not look like much but those warps will weave 44 scarves! I wish that I had time to weave them all and then take a photo. Instead I will start weaving but will be putting some out for sale at the Artery as soon as I get them finished. 'Tis the season…to be selling chenille.
By the way, the winner of the contest lives in Placerville and will be getting a chenille scarflet in the mail!
Sunday was Shearing Day and we sheared 71 sheep (61 ewes and 10 rams and wethers). I said "we". Not really "we", but John, my fabulous shearer. The sheep looked great, the fleece looked great and he finished shearing in two and a half hours! Shearing was finished by 11:30.
Here are sheep ready to be shorn.
Clover.
Mary.
John started with the rams...
...and moved on to ewes.
Farm Club members were the other wonderful helpers who made it all work.
Alison spent the morning at the skirting table explaining skirting and helping buyers skirt their fleeces.
Shelby and Gynna were our sheep wranglers, making sure that there was always another sheep for John to shear.
Mary and Carol bagged fleeces while Anna swept and Jackie worked the exit gate.
Linda weighed and recorded fleeces. Other members helped too but I didn't get photos.
What would shearing day be without chili...
...and Dona's brownies (and Lisa's Jacob sheep cookies, Jackie's corn biscuits, Mary's wonderful tangy chicken and fancy rice krispie treats and more).
After shearing the sheep look so much thinner. This photo looks as though it was stretched vertically, but it wasn't.
Lila.
Cascade.
Gynna looks happy with her Farm Club fleece.
And look at this gorgeous one!
After shearing we (Farm Club again and other friends) did demos of all kinds of spinning and fiber prep, but that's another story, especially because it's too late to write more.
I made all these buttons this week.
Here are better photos.
I think I have a new audience for my buttons....
...How about using them for sorting practice for little kids? You can sort by shape, color, and size. You can arrange them in order of size. So they're not just for sweaters anymore! But at $6/button this would be a pricey sorting kit.
We really need rain, but I must admit that the weather is sure nice. I spent an hour in the pasture yesterday morning enjoying the fall color.
It's not just the trees that are colorful:
Red and yellow and green are pretty...
...but black and white are two of my favorites.
I usually have my i-phone (camera) with me but was glad I took the real camera to the barn this morning.
That is Celeste in the doorway.
Alison
Summer
Roxi
Ventura and Sonata
Laura is the third oldest ewe here. She is not really that old at almost 7 years.
Phyllis is an 8 year old lilac ewe.
This is Ears, the second BFL-cross that I have kept.
Here is Faulkner, the BFL ram. He gets to be "clean-up" ram and is out with all the breeding flock now.
I used red the first two weeks of breeding (starting October 1) and green the second two weeks. Almost all the sheep are marked with red and maybe a 6 or 8 with green. Faulkner has been with them for about 5 days and there are 3 yellow marks so far. 
Marilyn is my favorite of the lambs I'm keeping this year.
Amaryllis
I am always behind, but this year I feel more behind than ever in the weaving department. I read the blog of a production weaver I know and she commented that any weaving she does now through the end of the year is "extra". Everything for this season's sales is finished. What? I should have woven my scarves and blankets LAST January? I thought about it. I also thought about it in March and July and August and September. I knew that I'd get to it in October. What have I been doing when I should be weaving? Here are a few examples beside the obvious sheep farming, Lambtown, etc.
Last week I hosted a field trip of middle school home-schooled kids and their families. We spent a couple of hours in the barn and at the shop. After lunch I guided them through a needlefelting project.
They all made up their own designs. This is one student's work. Cute, huh?
I taught a Learn to Weave class a couple of weeks ago.
Here is the scarf woven by a brand new weaver. She used Zephyr Jaggerspun yarn and doubled it in warp and weft. It turned out great!
One of the students couldn't come back on the second day of the class and she finished her scarf today. This is a close-up. She used Jaggerspun Maine-Line yarn.
I taught three students in a Rigid Heddle Scarf class, which, by the way, I will offer again once in December. No more other classes until January. 
This is the blackberry jungle growing (for those of you who know the farm) just north of Faulkner's pen--in fact part of this IS the fence-line for Faulkner's pen. There is an engineered septic system under those shorter blackberries that is supposed to be maintained and inspected every year. 
This is what I did on Sunday after working another several hours on the final Lambtown reports and finances. There is still a lot of blackberry work to do but at least the septic guys can get to the valve covers.
Farm Club was here all day on Saturday and helped with the list of chores on the clipboard. We didn't get to all the barn cleaning, but did a lot of other stuff. Maybe I'll ask Rusty to write a post about that since he hasn't done much writing lately.
It's the time of year that the pomegranates need to be picked or they will split (if we ever get any rain that is).
When I take the dogs for a run across the road I see all the black walnuts going to waste. Here is what to do with them.
Boiling black walnuts.
Add white yarn.
End up with brown yarn.
Maybe I'll get to the loom tomorrow...after I take my kids to the airport.
At Meridian Jacobs farm we raise Jacob sheep and sell locally grown wool fiber, yarn, and handwoven goods. We teach fiber classes and sell Ashford, Clemes & Clemes, and Schacht spinning and weaving equipment. We encourage farm visits with field trips and our unique Farm Club.
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