For those of you who celebrate, Happy Solstice, and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.. May the light shine into your lives, as it returns to us in the new Spring that is coming. May the light enter those hearts that are at their darkest point, those who are grieving, starving, or emotionally starving, families in need, children who are hungry.

Please consider giving to your favorite charity, whether it is Doctors without Borders, Young Writers' Project, or your town's version of the Food Shelter, La Leche League International (www.lalecheleague.org).

Whatever speaks to you.

11/19, well it's 2 days before my 54th birthday. Working on Christmas knitting. Why am I so SLOW?

I am also spinning some Cormo, in the hopes of dyeing it this week.

I am working on ordering some Swedish Fine wool, and I'd like to get it made into pin drafted roving or top, though top is not easy to do , requiring a lot of it to work with...Extra fiber from my own work is being sold now in my Etsy shop, in Heritage Fiber Samplers.

10/22 So, today I received a scam note asking to buy my Matchless. This is a word to wise ..if you are selling things here, it is usually safe, but occasionally you will get a bad egg...usually on big ticket items, like my Schact wheel.

Here is the interchange so that you can see what happened. The clue-in was the less than perfect English, but also the assumption that I would sell it to him, no questions asked, etc. The bossy tone but the English that was definitely not the first spoken language, by any means. Hit READ MORE to see whole story....

11/6
Still trying to spin each day, and also working on knitting small things for Christmas...continuing to experiment with fibers from The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook.. The fiber that is extra from my own work is what I am selling in Heritage Fiber Samplers on Etsy. What fun to try different fleece types and compare and contrast their properties and "personalities." Hit READ MORE to read about the Rural Thai Scholarship Fund.

10/1 Here is a lovely photo of Emily's knitting. Em has made the first of a set of pillows, ordering yarn and pattern from Alice Starmore's website. The palettes are divine, and the yarns blend and are heathery and gorgeous. Take a look.

I have been working on spinning heritage breed wools from the new book out on the subject, The FLeece and FIber Sourcebook. I have been buying some of the more rare fleeces, and washing and preparing them, which gives me a LOT of wool.

Sept 15. Well, we are in the middle of a big weather front passing through. The winds cut out the power last night, and today is a brilliantly sunny day that is just gorgeous, but a lot chillier than it was earlier in the week.

I have been spinning a lot. Right now spinning Leicester Long wool, and expecting some Gotland lamb fleece to arrive soon, along with some Merino and Shetland roving. I have so much fiber that there is probably enough to keep me busy until the end of my days. Does anyone else have that situation?
:D

8/31 Greetings, on this last day of August. September always feels to me like I should be going to school. Where are my new pencils, pens, papers, notebooks? Oh, I guess I don't need that but....

I have been reading the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, by Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius. It is addictive to read, and so tempting.... they have done a marvelous job of cataloguing fibers that we might want to someday spin.

8/29 Well, folks, Hurricane Irene paid a visit to Vermont yesterday and last night that won't soon be forgotten. It was gale force winds, coupled with driving horizontal rain that made life so very interesting.

Our basement is flooded, but I think I have it all under control with the help of a friend who leant me a wet dry vac. I need to buy one of those machines, but remember that when I was looking at them, I was so confused, how many horse power, options to vent into a sump system or not, etc. If anyone has any recommendations on wet dry vacs, please email me kbruce57atgmaildotcom.

Greetings all, as August comes, and the crickets sing loudly, and the robin on top of my chimney calls to us morning and night, telling us she has babies again.... American robins sometimes have three broods per summer.

I am hoping you are all well. I have been busy spinning, and washing some fleece, and I also sent some away to be processed, because my carpal tunnel is not something that makes it easy to do a lot of washing and combing of fleece.

5/17. Hi all. I saw the most amazing sight...a Bluebird on our feeder today. I hope that it's not a transient migrating bird on its way to some other home, and that it finds it hospitable and nice here in my yard. It was such an amazing color of blue.

So, in reading the notes, Janet is right. It's very trying to have to look up email addys for those who do not realize they need to include them in the ads they place. So, please remember to do this so that you don't miss that sale.!

Cheers. We want to make Janet's job here less work, right?
: ) Kathleen

4/7. How are you all? I am enjoying the beginnings of spring, including freshly shorn Bond fleece from Gleason's wonderful flock in Colorado.

http://gfwsheep.com/

..Lucky for me, I am still lurking around the pages, and I want to tap your collective brains.

The question I need an answer to is what are your favorite kind of Wool combs? Do i want English Combs, or Russian Paddle combs, and how many rows of tines? I spin mostly fine fleeces, merino, cashmere, Alpaca, Shetland, Bond.... so nothing in the grease, and nothing heavy or coarse. KBruce57@gmail.com, please.

3/27 Robins are here, but the weather is still windy and cold. Sugar is not running this week, but maybe it will later in the week. We need a few degrees above 32, and some sunshine....sugaring weather!

I've recently had a lovely discussion with a fiber farmer in Oregon. She has a lovely farm, and a lovely manner, and even more gorgeous fleeces that are Shetland, both lamb and adult, for fine handspinning. She will send samples, so if you are a handspinner hankering after a Shetland fleece in a lovely color, email Lois at Stonehaven Farm!
Photo to come.

I am looking forward to more photos of Janet's dear Corgis. Reminds me of my old friend Ollie, who graced these pages for many years with his red ruff and his noble head. Loved that dog. Thank you Janet for taking the helm of these pages, and for doing such a lovely and thorough job of it. Blessings to all. I am working on a hat for Emily, and on baby things for a friend whose new one is due in a few weeks, and whose daddy is in Afghanistan. Looks like snow here today in Northern Vermont, so a good day to stay in and knit.

12/6 Snow snow snow..today here. And COLD. But nothing cold about your hearts. We are there, folks. I can only thank you for your generosity. We have the money for the next two years, and we also have some for YWP, to reimburse our tech expert there who helps us despite his own 14 hour day work days.. for his time and effort that has been ongoing behind the scenes for years.

12/5. So far, on Sunday night, I have about $100.00 in my Paypal account. The total is $200, but I don't actually have that yet. KBruce@together.net is my PayPal. Thank you everyone. you are the bombs... :D . Kathleen