Spinning Thursday

This past Thursday was my monthly spin-in at my house. Heather and Tiffany came, each with their children, to spin and knit together. Pete, Jill and Keith are here until later this week, so they were happy to meet the friends that I often speak of.

Every time I have this event here, I spend a lot of time and fuss cleaning, de-cluttering, and trying to make the house look as perfect as possible. The second that everyone arrives, however, all of the children take as many toys as they can carry by armful or basketload, and dumps it in the middle of the living room. This keeps them all happy, and then they can play near us as we spin, so I'm completely fine with it, and expect it. At least it's a fresh mess! :) It is kind of funny to me though, when I look around after the first 5 minutes and remember how much I worried about having the Perfect House!

Here, you can see us spinning/knitting in the midst of the Fresh Mess:


Showing Heather how to Navajo-ply (chain-ply):






OK, I realize this may easily be overkill on the kid pictures, but they're just so cute all together:


My mother-in-law and some of the children having a mid-morning snack of cinnamon-chocolate-pecan-swirl sour-cream bundt cake (mmmm....):


Just before lunch, my in-laws took all four older children out on a little walk to get rolls for the sandwiches we were going to make, and soft pretzels.


It was raining a little bit, so each child felt it was important to bring their own umbrella.


It was strangely quiet and peaceful back at the house for those 20-30 minutes that they were gone. (Thanks for that, Pete and Jill!!)


I love the light that comes in the window over this table. It's my favorite place to shoot yarn and such -- a built-in "light-box".


After lunch, we put the littlest ones down for naps, put on a movie for the other children in the living room, and us moms settled into the kitchen for a bit more of our favorite activities.


It's always refreshing to visit with my fiber-friends. Working together on projects and visiting, creating with our hands as we talk; an awfully pleasant way to spend the day.

P.S. Thank you Jill for the use of your pictures for this post!