spinning to keep up

My life has been a little busy lately. (Who am I kidding? It's been NUTS around here!)

Since my last post, house guests #2 and 3 have come and gone. I'm doing my best to keep track of things, and here's the running total:
Resident Student=house guest #1--She is here all summer and so far is fitting in nicely.

House guests 2&3: Relatives who have never been to Manitoba and who needed a lot of, umm, kind hospitality. (Southerners, read between the lines here and you'll get that!)

House guests 4,5,&6?: Coming in a week and a half...I think. Note to self--check on that.

House guests 7 and 8 will come separately, in July. It feels a bit like I'm running a bed and breakfast sometimes!

Meanwhile, I've started teaching a graduate course in writing at the U. of Manitoba. The first section of this course, running in June and July, is full and I understand a second section in August may fill as well.

Did I mention the editing job that needs to be complete by the end of July? (or preferably, mid-July?)

When evening comes, if I have the luxury of sitting down for a few moments, I don't seem to have the mental energy to design or knit much. Instead, I've been spinning or occasionally doing simple weaving.

It has been mostly cold and damp so I have had no struggle with the notion of wool work in warm weather. In order to answer a commenter's question, (sorry this isn't more personal!) I'll explain that here...no, we don't really live on a rise. The prairie, where we live, is flat flat flat. I think we're likely only a few inches higher ground here than right by the river. I particularly chose a house a little bit away from the river. Even so? We've had a lot of rain here and there's really no place for it to go, so the floodway is still open to divert some of the flooding. I'm dreaming of sunny skies and drier conditions. My basement (fingers crossed) is still dry.

In the meanwhile, I find spinning a fair bit is very calming! I have a project going on every floor of my house at the moment.
captions:
Top photo is a SpindleWood spindle with little balls of handspun alpaca and silk in my living room.

Second photo is handspun naturally gray Romney wool and mohair on my antique Canadian Production Wheel.

Third photo is a scarf on my loom with a silk aqua colored warp, black mill-end rovings, and handspun, hand-dyed rose colored wool singles.

Last photo is a part of my spinning library with a bobbin of this handcombed wool. I'm now making a 3 ply yarn with it. Pretty nice for a fleece full of burrs, don't you think?