Monday, May 26, 2014

Sunshine and Lollipops :)

Well not really but sunshine coloured wool and a second matching pink skein are done :)

200 yards of Maggie's Amazing mother fiber and mohair 2ply yarn.


And the second skein of mohair in pink -8 ounces 4oo yards in total.

And finally done off the Navy Surplus spindle from Bosworths is 4 ounces -300 yards of 2 ply merino /silk in a one of a kind colourway called "Fathom". I love spinning on my spindle but it does take a LOT longer to get a skein done then on my faithful wheel.


Next up some more of Maggie's amazing mother fiber in pink and orange :)  Life is so wonderfully good when my wheel and I are together.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Halfway there :)

8 ounces of wonderful shiny mohair -first skein is 4 ounces and 200 yards.  Second skein is getting started on this evening. Love spinning mohair -next to angora its my favorite.


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Catching up

So lots has happened since last posting. The dyewizard himself Jared turned 16!! I know my baby can now learn how to drive. Did you just watch my hair go white??  Good thing hes such a great kid.  Lindsay is continuing her growing up into an incredibly opinionated young lady -more white hair!!
Also went to the THE Big show of Spring Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I entered 4 skeins this year. Won 2 2nd places and a 3rd place and a Special Award for my one skein.
We were set up next to Miss Babs which is apparently a huge deal but you know what. It was pretty colours but its all commercial yarn from lord knows where. I think this is why I feel the need to keep spinning my own one of a kind yarns from real fibers from real farmers. 
Next stop on the fiber road trip is the Canadian Embroiderers show on Thursday night. We'll see what these ladies and gents think of handspun yarn!

Friday, March 28, 2014

All hail the dyewizards!!

Good thing our very own Dyewizard Jared has been showing Lindsay (aka the dye princess) some of his colourways :) He's going to be very busy this summer as he not only plans to work a summer job but also attend three weeks of Air Cadet camp.  I need to keep the colours going here at Cornerstone Fibres.  Looks ike I have nothing to worry about!!





Silk Hankies are $10 a package and the corriedale is 8 ounces each $20. Enjoy on a drizzly rainy hopefully soon to be spring day!

Monday, March 24, 2014

58 Hoorah!!!

Exertion comp this weekend with our very own Air Cadets :)

We won first place for the Leadership 2 tasking, the trophy and medals for best Sportsmanship, and another trophy for the best team of the large squadrons!!!

Way to go guys!!!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A Birthday to celebrate and remember

Today is my wonderful daughter's 12th birthday -a day of celebration and memories, of milestones reached and dreams and goals yet to be achieved. Every day is a gift. No day to me brings this more home than on her birthday.
You see 12 years ago as I happily celebrated her safe arrival and her wonderous little being, my friend in the bed next to me said hello and goodbye to her little son.  We laughed the night before how there was one bassinet in the room and told each other they would share it -making them "birthday twins" and special friends forever. They still shared that bassinet one as an angel on earth the other as her special angel in heaven.  There were no words I could say to her as they wheeled her to say goodbye to her special delivery as I held mine close to me feeling her heartbeat and her eyes already seeking the beauty of the world.
I still think of that day both wonderous and terrible when life in all its complexities were shown to us.
The beauty of birth and how fragile life is.

So to my beautiful daughter and her birthday angel in heaven -Happy Birthday to both of you.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

To My Daughter -Words to live by........

Ten things I want my 12-year-old daughter to know:

1. It is not your job to keep the people you love happy. Not me, not Daddy, not your brother, not your friends. I promise, it's not. The hard truth is that you can't, anyway.

2. Your physical fearlessness is a strength. Please continue using your body in the world: run, jump, climb, throw. I love watching you streaking down the back yard or playing make believe in your forts or just being you. There is both health and a sense of mastery in physical activity and challenges.

3. You should never be afraid to share your passions. You are sometimes embarrassed that you still like to play your pets and stuffies, for example, and you worry that your friends will make fun of you. Anyone who teases you for what you love to do is not a true friend. This is hard to realize, but essential.

4. It is okay to disagree with me, and others. You are old enough to have a point of view, and I want to hear it. So do those who love you. Don't pick fights for the sake of it, of course, but when you really feel I'm wrong, please say so. You have heard me say that you are right, and you've heard me apologize for my behavior or point of view when I realize they were wrong. Your perspective is both valid and valuable. Don't shy away from expressing it.

5. You are so very beautiful. Your face now holds the baby you were and the young woman you are rapidly becoming. Your dad and I are in you and combine into someone unique, someone purely you. I can see the clouds of society's beauty myth hovering, manifest in your own growing self-consciousness. I beg of you not to lose sight with your own beauty, so much of which comes from the fact that your spirit runs so close to the surface.

6. Reading is essential. It is the central leisure-time joy of my life, as you know. I am immensely proud and pleased to see that you seem to share it. That identification you feel with characters, that sense of slipping into another world, of getting lost there in the best possible way? Those never go away.

7. You are not me. We are very alike, but you are your own person, entirely, completely, fully. I know this, I promise, even when I lose sight of it. I know that separation from me is one of the fundamental tasks of your adolescence, which I can see glinting over the horizon. I dread it like ice in my stomach, that space, that distance, that essential cleaving, but I want you to know I know how vital it is. I'm going to be here, no matter what, . The red string that ties us together will stretch. I know it will. And once the transition is accomplished there will be a new, even better closeness. I know that too.

8. It is almost never about you. What I mean is that when people act in a way that hurts or makes you feel insecure, it is almost certainly about something happening inside of them, and not about you.  I struggle with this one mightily, and I have tried very, very hard never once to tell you you are being "too sensitive" or to "get over it" when you feel hurt. Believe me, I know how feelings can slice your heart, even if your head knows otherwise. But maybe, just maybe, it will help to remember that almost always other people are struggling with their own demons, even if they bump into you by accident.

9. There is no single person who can be your everything. Be very careful about bestowing this power on any one person. I suspect you are trying to fill a gnawing loneliness, and if you are you inherited it from me.  Trying to fill that ache with other people (or with anything else, like food, alcohol, numbing behaviors of a zillion sorts you don't even know of yet) is a lost cause, and nobody will be up to the task. You will feel let down, and, worse, that loneliness will be there no matter what. I'm learning to embrace it, to accept it as part of who I am. I hope to help you do the same.

10. I am trying my best. I know I'm not good enough and not the mother you deserve. I am impatient and fallible and I raise my voice. I am sorry. I love you and your brother more than I love anyone else in the entire world and I always wish I could be better for you. I'll admit I don't always love your behavior, and I'm quick to tell you that. But every single day, I love you with every fiber of my being. No matter what