Beads and bird houses

The embroidery part of the beaded Mardi Gras mask earrings is complete!

WHOO HOO!!

In an attempt to make these look as close to a mirror image pair as I could, I did the embroidery on both in sequence --- first the eyes on both, then the green, then the purple, then the gold.

Today I will cut the leather for the backing and start putting them together.


Zebra's front legs are all complete

snazzy looking, aren't they?

I knit them at the same time, and I have to say that dealing with 4 strands of yarn coming directly off balls of yarn and such narrow knitting made for some spontaneous basket weaving looking stuff in the back ground ---

ARRRRGGGGHH!

So now it's on to the back legs, which are (as I remember from knitting the horse) a really strange shape.

The stripe pattern could get even odder




and this is the beginning of the next animal to be knit

The yarns were on sale at the local fabric store, so I decided to go ahead and get them now, knowing I was going to make this project

Oh, yes, and that chart is just the beginning of the charts to be drawn for giraffe parts -- this one is the front leg, but just the portion from the knee to the hip -- below that the giraffe has no patterning

Remember the bird houses from the other day?

Since I want to actually perch a little felted bird on the wood rod, it was pretty clear the original rods were not going to be adequate for the job.

That little piece of wood between the center and right side bird houses is the rod I removed from one of the houses, and they were all that short.

I used the little back saw to cut the rods off flush with the front of the bird house, then the DH used his drill to make the holes and insert the new, much longer rods.

Most of the sanding is done, so today I should be able to start painting! Fun!