not quite ready for prime time

Ever open the mail box with mixed emotions?

A couple of months ago we applied to an art show in Iowa.

I knew that the notification letters were supposed to be sent out on March 1, so the last 3 days, I've been opening the mail box hoping -- and dreading -- the arrival of the letter

It came yesterday

I could tell before I even opened it that it was a "thanks, but no thanks" kind of letter -- I could feel the slides, which means "you won't be coming to our show so we're sending them back to you now"

Nuts

I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about it, the show is one of the top 200 in the country, but still, I'm pretty bummed about it

There's not much to show for the work that got done yesterday.

I have the "chain" for the black magic beading ready to be "zipped", but there are no pictures

I'm right in the middle of another piece of the Unidentified Christmas Project (no pictures here either)

I'm waiting on the birdhouses for the staining to be done (I may have a go at working on a little bird today)

Here, however is the final (I think) chart for the giraffe's body. The one I had posted the other day had a major "oops" in it -- I left out 10 rows in the body that are a really essential piece.

So I split the pattern and inserted some more graph paper and added the necessary "spots"

And last night I cast on and knit the first foot -- while the last two critters have been knit 2 legs at a time, I'll be using 3 colors on this one and the idea of dealing with 6 strands of yarn on the needles all at once sounds like a recipe for frustration. The up side of the one at a time method is that a finished leg should work up quicker and if I have a problem with the pattern somewhere along the way it will be faster to correct.

onward