Good But Busy!!

So Happy It's Thursday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. 

And busy!  Oh my!  I'm enjoying my new job but it really gets in the way of my knitting time, LOL!!

And the past couple of weeks have been super busy.  Oogyparents came to visit this past weekend, so there were the preparations (things needed cleaning, menus needed planning, supplies had to be procured) and of course the visit.  I like to feed them like kings when they're here, so I'm pretty sure I washed every dish in the house at least once a day!  One evening I got careless and burned the back of my hand whilst taking something out of the oven (if you can even imagine that - it takes a special skill!).  But we had a blast, and the weather was amazing.

Not only that, but I now have TWO knitting deadline projects!

The first one is a test knit for Green Mountain Spinnery and made with their Lana yarn in Noche.  The pattern is a lovely open cardi with 3/4 length sleeves and some subtle patterning.  But in fingering weight yarn it's going to take me years, and the deadline is June 15th!

Of course this is a terrible pic of this lovely yarn, which is more teal than green with a hint of dark blue.  It will coordinate very well with most other colors!

The sweater is bottom up and I've just started the pattern charts that will take me clear up to the armpits.  I'm adding in a bunch of mods to my own liking, and even trying out some new techniques (such as slipping stitches during the transition from border to sweater body since the hem always rolls otherwise, slipping stitches along the edge for the eventual picking up of stitches for the front bands, etc.).  Who knows if they'll want to include these bits but I'll leave that part up to them.  

I also need to add a lot more markers than they're calling for, as there are transitional stockinette panels between the charted parts.  It will be way too easy to overshoot those!

The other project is for Next Nephew's bride-to-be and her wedding shower scheduled for - June 5!  Right!!  I've already made the decision to blow through that deadline but I will let her know I've got something in the works.  I got one started while waiting for my Lana gauge swatch to dry:

This will become a 16" pillow, and there will be a coordinating second pillow.  They're aligned with what I saw on her registry so hopefully she'll like them and not be too put off by their lateness!

(Yes, you read that right earlier - I actually did a gauge swatch for the sweater!  And I'm glad I did - as I suspected, I needed to go up a needle size.  So at least I'm knitting this on a US5 for the most part, and not US4!)

I've stuffed both of these projects into the same large tote bag and have told myself (and anyone else who'll listen) that I'm not allowed to work on any other yarn project that's not in that tote until they're both done.  (This will have to exclude the eventual yarn dyeing extravaganza, but that's more a social thing than a yarn thing, right?)

In other news - I very uneventfully graduated with my M.P.H. degree earlier this month!!  I think the diplomas take a while to be distributed, but I'm looking forward to adding that one to my collection :)

In wildlife news - birds, bees, and dandelions are everywhere!  Not many signs of mammals other than the cats that patrol our grounds (hopefully looking for mice and not birds!).  There must be lots of yummy food out in the woods!