Turning Jacob Wool to Blankets at Swallow Lane Farm

by  Cherie Langlois

When Cathie Williams received a brown and creme-colored Welsh blanket woven from wool as a gift from her inlaws, a tiny picture on the tag caught her eye -- and subsequently changed her life. It showed a four-horned Jacob ram, a rare and ancient breed of sheep known for its striking black-spotted fleece and tendency to grow four, sometimes even six, horns.

Cathie, a veterinary technician at the time, and her husband Mark, a grad student who now works as a technical writer, hurried to the library to learn more about the breed. "At first, we were attracted to the Jacobs by their horns, spots, and the uniqueness of each animal," says Cathie. "Then we liked that they were primitive, hardy, and had few health problems."

The Williams purchased two wethers in 1991 when they bought their 5 acre farm in the madrona and fir forests of the Puget Sound area. Both zoology majors with an interest in ornithology, they named it Swallow Lane in honor of the barn swallows which had just returned for the summer. The next year the couple purchased a starter flock of two ewes and a ram from long-time Jacob breeder Ingrid Painter and began their own breeding program.

From those humble beginnings, Swallow Lane Farm in Olalla, Washington has grown to include 45 breeding ewes and five breeding rams, not to mention four cats, two llamas, a dog, and other animals. And Cathie, who discovered weaving after earning her degree in zoology, has turned her passion and former hobby into a thriving home business.

"Weaving is the order to my world," says Cathie. "I have a very busy life, where I’m not often in control. When I sit down to weave, I have everything under control."

After she quit full-time work to stay home with her young son, Cathie ordered an AVL production loom with 16 harnesses and entered the home weaving business. "When I stopped working, I needed something for myself," she says.

It only seemed natural, considering how she discovered Jacob sheep, to weave her sheep’s wool into blankets like the one she’d been given.

The monster loom hulks in nearly a third of the Williams’ living room, and hooks to a computer for design input. Each 50 by 70 inch blanket is an intricate pattern made of about five pounds of 100% Jacob wool in natural colors: black, white, gray. It takes Cathie around fifteen hours to complete each one, from the time she sets the loom up until the blanket is ready for sale.

The blankets, priced at $160 each, sell as fast as Cathie can make them. "I make a limited quantity because of time constraints and wool supply," she sighs. The Williams market the blankets through their farm’s internet web site, juried craft shows, sheep shows, and a consignment craft shop in La Conner, Washington.

Along with donating most of their wool for blankets, the Williams’ flock provides other saleable products as well, including registered breeding stock, pelts, and handspinning fleeces. Horns are made into buttons, and a Native American craftsperson buys and utilizes the skulls. "I believe in using all parts of the animal," says Cathie.

Cathie’s weaving business has prompted the Williams to focus on fleece quality, length, and softness in their Jacob breeding program. They butcher a good portion of their ram lambs each year, only keeping the best animals. Each year, they select new rams based on the fleece characteristics they prefer for their blanket production. "We can really see the results of our breeding program when we compare each years' fleeces and yarn to those from the previous year. But like most breeders, we’re also concerned with horns, spotting, and conformation," says Cathie. "There are so many things to work on with the Jacob."

Aside from weaving and parenting, management of their flock keeps Cathie hopping, although she gets plenty of help from Mark and her two children, six-year-old Adam and four-year-old Emily. "The kids help feed and water the sheep," says Cathie. "And Adam loves training his lamb to halter. He usually starts around June to get ready for the Lads Lead at the Puyallup Fair in September."

The Williams’ flock receives alfalfa year round, but no grain. "The theory is, because they’re primitive, Jacobs aren’t affected as much by changes in nutrition," explains Cathie. "Graining hasn’t seemed to make a difference with our lambing success in past years."

The Williams have, however, noticed more twinning since they’ve placed the sheep in smaller breeding groups of ten or less ewes per ram. "This seems to give the lower status animals less competition for feed so they are in better condition when they breed," says Cathie.

About a month before lambing, the Williams crotch the ewes so they can watch for changes in their udders and vulvas. They spend a lot of time observing the ewes during this time, and they’ve found that checking the animals as they come for their twice a day feeding makes it easy to catch health problems early on. Sometimes Cathie notices a clear discharge from the vulva right before labor, but she mainly determines imminent lambing by the ewe’s behavior, like restlessness or loss of appetite.

A baby monitor in each lambing barn saves the breeders late-night trips to check on the ewes and gives them some piece of mind as well. They’ve used monitors ever since the morning Cathie -- pregnant with Emily at the time -- discovered a lamb which had suffocated in its amniotic sack.

"We each keep a monitor on one side of the bed, his and hers," she says with a smile. "A lot of our ewes are ‘screamers’ during lambing. We listen for this, or for the ewes calling to their babies during labor, or for the new lambs’ cries."

The ewes have their hooves trimmed before they go in with the ram for breeding, and again at shearing time. They receive their enterotoxemia and tetanus vaccinations about a month before lambing. The Williams worm the entire flock four to six times a year, rotating wormers. Strict quarantine periods for new sheep, and for animals returning from the fair, has greatly reduced health problems in their flock, says Cathie.

In the limited free time business and family responsibilites leave them, the couple serve as registrars for the Jacob Sheep Breeder’s Association, with Cathie concentrating on individual registrations while Mark maintains the flock book and organizes a Jacob discussion group on the internet.

Time -- now that’s the question. For Cathie, like most working parents, lack of this precious commodity ranks as one of her biggest problems. Still, she feels optimistic.