The Glorious Hand Spun Blanket

I find that my most favorite projects can take years to finish. Celestarium and Lit Knits each took two years or so. But my hand spun blanket project has taken much longer. From start to finish, it's been more like 5 years. I'm pleased to say that it is finally complete.

It all started when I worked at the Yolo Wool Mill. I collected scraps with the intention of making a large project. At the time I wasn't sure what the project would be, only that I wanted to make something large. What ended up happening is that I separated the brown tones scraps from the grey toned ones. The browns were destined to be a blanket. It took me several years to finish the spinning.

Once I had decided I wanted a blanket, it took some time to decide what kind. Did I want to knit or crochet a blanket? Because the yarn was not completely consistent, I was sure that gauge would be an issue. Also, I felt that knitting would be too stretchy for this yarn while crochet would be too bulky. Eventually I decided that woven was the way to go. There was only one problem: I don't weave.

Robin Lynde of Meridian Jacobs had been weaving blankets for customers of the Yolo Wool Mill for some time. When I saw that she had woven at least one handspun blanket, I knew that I needed her to weave this one for me. She's a busy person, though, so I had to wait a bit. But the wait was so worth it. I let her know that I had imagined some sort of gradient and that I wanted there to be more of a focus on the browns. Robin is a true artist. She came up with something better than I could have ever asked for. I especially love that she added subtle stripes to the blanket.

It now lives on our bed. And for the record, while I love all of the blanket, my favorite part to snuggle under my chin is the dark brown alpaca corner. As for the leftovers, not much was left after the weaving, relatively speaking.

Perhaps the leftover yarn can go with grey scraps that have yet to be spun. I haven't decided what kind of big project the greys might grow up to be. Maybe a sweater or jacket? Perhaps in another five years I'll find out.

Update: If you'd like to see the weaver's side of the story, have a look at the Meridian Jacobs blog.

Fibershed

I was surprised to see an article about Fibershed on etsy today. Fibershed is Rachel Burgess' project to wear clothing that was made within 150 miles of her house. She happens to live within 150 miles of the Yolo Wool Mill, and I remember her coming through. The article even gave a shout out to the mill.

End Of An Era

Friday was my last day of work at the wool mill. It was rather bittersweet.

I'm sure going to miss touching fiber all day.

Playing with Baloo and Bagheera.

Maybe just Baloo. I'm actually a bit afraid of Bagheera. He plays with claws.

I'll definitely miss seeing the new lambs. This little guy is quite a character.

He has a white tail! How funny is that. I think I might name him bunny. Once he's docked he'll look like a little cotton tail.

Burning Lamb

The Yolo Wool Mill's annual mill in was on October 30th. I got up nice and early to help the vendors out.

We had animals on display. This pair of alpacas was brought by one of the vendor's mum. They are around a year old. Not quite full grown.

Jane gave tours. (I set up the machine though)

Spinners (I think from El Dorado County) did a sheep to shawl demonstration for us. This involved carding the fiber, spinning it, and weaving in one go.

There were shearing demonstrations

Everyone wanted to know if the sheep was cold. The answer, not really. I've heard that sheep start to develop a fat layer within an hour of being shorn. But she still got to go to the barn in the evening.

We had a bunch of vendors. The Meridian Jacobs booth brought Jacobs Sheep.

The Crawdads came out to play around noon.

The vendors were very happy with all the help I provided. Especially Twisted Sunshine and Faerie Mountain Fiber. Twisted Sunshine gave me the little green roving for free. Hurray! The braids came from Twisted Sunshine and the batts came from Faerie Mountain Fibers. Crafts A Go-Go also gave me an ounce of mildly matted Angora for free. I have a project that will be just perfect for it.

After all the visitors left, we waited for it to get dark. Then a couple of us went out and burned the lamb effigy.

Wool Mill Retrospective

I've been working at the Yolo Wool Mill for four months now. I have learned so much more than I though I would when I took the job.

Skeinwinder

When I started the job, I knew how to knit and had a basic understanding of fiber.

Plied Fiber Ready To Be Skeined

I knew I would gain quite a bit of knowledge regarding fiber. I didn't realize that I would have to become a mechanic as well. Most of the machines are at least fifty years old, if not older.

Closeup of the Skeinwinder

They require plenty of care and maintenance. I had no idea that the maintenance would be my favorite part of the job. Taking apart a machine to figure out why it isn't running properly is so much fun! As a bonus, home repairs don't seem quite as daunting anymore.

Beehive Yarn

For the last three days of the Tour de Fleece, I have been trying to improve my ability to make beehive yarn.

I think I have gotten a bit better each day.

Today the mail came with some fiber loveliness. On the top left, the roving came from WC Mercantile. On the top right, the green roving came from Cosymakes. (It is much prettier in person) The bottom row is sampler from One of the Flock.

The few days ago I also got some really pretty roving I have had my eye on. The colorway is Oceanglass by Freckle Face Fibers.

Work has been going well. We had a fiber that I had to spin into bulky singles.

It was quite a job to set it all up behind the machine.

Llama Face

At work, we had to shear llamas. Taber, our friendly neighborhood llama shearer, came out to do the job. Of course we all wanted to save him some time, so Jessie went to get them in the pen. We didn't count on Aleister being able to jump over the very high fence. We did manage to get Tony into the pen. (Not pictured is me being butted by Walter while trying to separate the sheep from the llamas. We aren't friends anymore)

In order to keep control of a llama, you have to hold onto the neck right under the jaw. This is the picture where Taber and Jessie have the llama "under control".

Then you slip a harness of some sort over the head.

Then you shear the llama. For anyone wondering, Aleister got the blood lip by ramming his head into the barn ceiling when trying to shake Jessie and Taber off. He was fine once he was done being shorn.

An interesting note about llama feet. They have soft pads kind of like dog feet. Their nails curl over and have to be trimmed on occasion. The nails are more appropriately called Talons. It should be noted that when shearing a llama, you should wear pants.

This is Tony. He was much more calm about being sheared. I even got to clip a bit of his hair. Tony is not an intact male. Neither of the llamas were suppose to be intact. After shearing Aleister, we discovered that he is indeed an intact male. That might account for his very bad attitude.

Tony hung out in the barn briefly after being unharnessed. He creeped along the side of the barn, slowly. He wasn't sure if he was doing something he should be. As soon as he realized no one was going to jump on him, he took off.

The Sky Is Falling

At work the other day, I noticed that some of the chickens had gotten loose. They followed me, so I walked back to the pen.

What I hadn't counted on was that ALL the chickens in the pen would run toward me.

I tried running away, but they all ran after me. Logic would dictate that I would close the gate after getting all the chickens back in the pen.

That would have been a great idea if the pen had a gate. It didn't.

Eventually I called Jane (my boss) to help save me. She distracted the chickens until her son (the chicken owner) came to feed them. Just another typical day at work.

Lambies Pt. 2

Lamb escape! Don't worry. He didn't get out.

Five new lambs were born at the mill on Sunday. I happened to walk in the barn and noticed that there were a few more lambs than there should have been. One of the sheep had triplets. There are now two sets of triplets. Both sets have two black and and one white sheep.

Both sets have one male and two females.

The male white sheep

Both sets are adorable. I love watching the lambs suck on parts of their mom that isn't an udder. This particular lamb favors the inner thigh.

The great udder in the sky

I did end up seeing one lamb being born. One of the twins. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. Jane came to the rescue and passed on this photo. We call it "Hanging Out".

Here the twin sisters are a day later. Their current names are Luna and Umbra. Umbra is a little hard to see. Luna looks like a true CVM (California Variegated Mutant) with the spots around her eyes.

And as always, Walter was keeping a close eye on me. He likes to make sure all his girls are ok. He also likes to butt people.