Goodness me it's three thirty

It's been a few days since my last post. I have been busy working on a few projects and my real life has been busy. (Happy birthday to my baby brother, you have been an excellent brother for 36 years and I love you to the moon and back.)  

On Saturday night I went to bed at 3:30am... I hadn't planned to go to bed so late but I was really was into stitching my temari project and hadn't noticed how late it was. Therefore not only did I miss Earth Hour but I kept my light burning until the wee small hours.

I have been making a series which I have called 'Revolution of Thought'. There are two S10's, three C10's and a 32Center temari. Now I need to work out how to display them together to show the progression (evolution) of the design. I am thinking suspended between two discs of acrylic sheeting or an acrylic ledge with cut outs to let the temari rest in sequence. More thought required on that.

I was also making soap, and playing around with embedding. Embedding is where you enclose small items (such as soap pieces or rubber ducks etc) inside a larger block of soap. The soaps are nothing amazingly flash and are just for our own use but I like how they turned out. The photo doesn't show the nice purple mica colour of the main part of soap but never mind. It is really nice to use and we all smell delightful!

Latest C10

The first of my jewel coloured bases stitched up. I am experimenting more with my recent C10 patterns. I like the way that various colours alter the outcome of the temari.

Unexpected surprise

Yesterday when I returned from doing volunteer Math Goals testing for my son's 4th grade class my husband handed me a package that had arrived while I was out. See 'when you do good you get good'! My Mum is right on that one.

Kristy's gift temari to me

The package was from Kristy in Qld. The moment I touched the package (before I even shook it or squeezed it) I knew what was inside. There were three spools of surface wrap thread that I had admired on the beautiful ball she'd sent to me at Christmas. What a darling you are Kristy! Thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to post me some of this gorgeous thread. I love it!

My hands were already aching because I had re-made three temari in the last 36 hours (two C10s and a S12 and I still have a couple to go), and although I should have had a rest tonight I found a yarn wrapped temari and I couldn't resist covering it in this beautiful coloured thread. The of course I wanted to stitch it, something simple, but I wasn't sure what.

I reviewed all my old temari in boxes recently before donating a bunch of them to my son's school, and one part of a pattern stuck in my mind. The green layer from the Mema is a Star ball that I purchased form Barb Suess a couple of years ago. So I decided to try to work out the green layer from the ball (which is always displayed in my lounge room). When I was done with that part of the pattern I added some 6 point star bursts (Matsuba) to fill in the open areas. When I finished my temari I sat back and thought gee that is pretty neat, and an original design too. Well yes and no, it is original in the sense that I altered a design and added my own embellishments but actually I realised that there was a ball pattern out there that is strikingly similar. I got Barb's blog update about her Echo Star class beginning tomorrow and took a visit over to her Esty site. I discovered that Barb beat me to it and she sells the pattern on Esty but when I compare the images side by side they are actually different. Just goes to show you can't claim something as an original design too easily in temari making.

New C10

I think this is my most Japanese-looking temari to date. It is similar to the other recent temari I've made. I have been trying to break away from my Western colour mindset and use colour combinations that don't really come so naturally to me. I an doing this by reviewing the stash of Japanese fabrics in Miho and my collection. So here she is.

I treated a grouping of 3 centers opposite of each other as 'poles' and used the red embellishments and the remaining 6 pentagons around the 'equator' were decorated with the yellow centers. I really didn't like the colours when I started this temari but I think they worked out really nicely.

This is one of the pieces of fabric that inspired the colours of this ball. It didn't scan as prettily or brightly as it looks in real life.

This week's C10 Temari

I have been playing with pentagons on C10 division over the last week. Here is my first effort of temari making.

I can't help thinking of sand dollars,which are usually white, but the link image I found while writing this post is in purple. I realised after the first 3 rounds that I was using the wrong lines in the pentagons, but as I hate to rip out threads, I decided to continue with it anyway. I Zen-stitched* this design, which I think is original (but you can never be 100% sure about that).

My intention was to make a design like the one below, which is my second effort for the week. Still stitching dodgy french knots... but getting better than my first attempts from last year.

Both these temari have 12 pentagon shapes stitched on them. Isn't it funny how different these temari look? I think maybe I should change my perspective more often.

*Zen-stitching: This is what I call any stitching done with no active plan or perceived outcome. It is when I just pick up the needle and stitch. I sense when I am finished because the end product will suddenly appear. This type of activity is really meditative. You can also Zen-drive or Zen-walk (I mean move in a direction that is not planned) and find yourself somewhere unexpected. I usually will end up at the beach, a nice park like Kings Park or Queens Gardens or most likely my Mum's house. I don't, however, recommend Zen-shopping... that is fraught with danger... especially in a thread shop, stationery or kitchenware shop!
Here is a quick bit of theory on Zen.

Find time to do some Zen-stitching today.

Busy weekend

This weekend just whizzed by so quickly. On Friday afternoon I took Mr W to a Karate trial. He has always wanted to do it, and really enjoyed the lesson... now we need to see if we can juggle it into his after school schedule or it we'll need to wait until the soccer season ends in August.

Saturday morning Mr W and I went grocery shopping... an entirely boring task for a 9 year old and not that much more thrilling for me either. We visited the large grocery store, then the fruit and vegetable shop and then Seoulmart (a Korean shop that also sells Japanese foods) where we picked up two packs of Natto for Miss D and a bottle of Mr W's favourite Japanese 'remon' soda drink which has a marble that seals the bottle shut. 

When we returned home I put prepared a big pot of pasta sauce and let it cook in my huge jam pan (thank goodness for stainless steel - I couldn't have done this in a copper pot) for several hours before pouring it out into 8 large pasta sauce jars that I have been saving. I gave 2 jars to Miho.

Saturday afternoon we invited Seth and Miho (and kids) for dinner. We had 4 homemade pizzas and a huge salad. Miss D (3yo) helped me cut the pizza toppings which was very nerve racking because all my knives are super sharp and we almost lost a finger tip several times. She and Mr W did very well at kneading the dough, rolling it out and slopping on the tomato sauce too. We were all starving by the time the pizzas were cooked and we happily ate them outside under the patio.

After dinner we did 'paint nails' for Miss D, she had purchased a matte purple nail polish with her Dad... it was a bit icky (in my opinion) so we did a top coat of silver and purple micro glitter polish which improved the look greatly and Miss D was more than happy to the glitter polish take home when I suggested it.

It was lovely under the patio in the early evening, we put the dogs away into the carport so we didn't have them under out feet or begging for food (a personal dislike of mine), straight after dinner we opened the gate to let them back in with us. Chilli came out but we couldn't find Shadow anywhere. My hubby and my brother eventually discovered him whimpering and stuck fast under the 4WD (think you guys in the US call it an SUV). DH must have run over some roadkill on his long journey to/from work and Shadow loves to sniff at the tyres and wheel arches... he must have ventured too far in under the car and with his old arthritic hips so he couldn't get back out again. He was fine once he had gotten a few gentle pats and been lovingly told 'Oh you silly old dog" a few times. Here they are (at least 9 years ago), when they were our number 1 fur-babies and got dressed in silly scarves... i.e. before Mr W came into our lives. Shadow is on the left and Chilli is on the right.

When I went to pay their 3 yearly dog registration in October last year the woman behind the counter casually said 'oh they sure are old' (they're almost 15 now) 'this will be the last time you need to register these guys.' While the reality of it is true, I did feel big tears well up in my eyes at this prospect. We have had them since they were puppies. They are brothers whose mum died from a snake bite during a fire, to this day they still have little areas around their legs and paws where no hair will grow. We originally just planned on having Chilli but when we returned to the pet store to buy more puppy food (after we had Chilli for a month) we saw that Shadow was all sad and alone there so we decided that if we had enough money in our bank account (it was almost the end of the pay month) we'd buy him too. Well we did, so he came home with us that day.

Sunday was spent cleaning up, doing some washing and looking after DH who came home from work (after only 2 hours) with the bad cold that Wesley and then I had over the last few weeks. We tried to stay shut up in the house on Sunday due to smoke from one of the several large fires burning around the outskirts of Perth. One fire has burnt out about 40 homes in the area where I grew up... more are expected to be lost today. Thankfully no lives have been lost... we need the winds to drop and a big dump of rain. Thank you and safe passage to all our firefighters working hard around the clock to contain these blazes. You are all heroes.

Kristy emailed me today and offered to send us some rain from Queensland... she says they've had enough of wet weather. I hope it arrives soon!

I am glad to have the distraction of temari making and cooking which are both good for my soul. I wrapped 4 new temari bases and got some stitching done. I am reworking the last pattern I made again, this time on a ball 1/2cm bigger and using 1 less row in the spindles. I'll post a pic when it is finished.

Just keep on happily stitching.

More spindle practice

Following the temari I made with the TT group recently I decided to have another go at stitching spindles. I have traditionally avoided stitching spindles but they aren't actually as beastly as many people make out. The biggest secret is stretching the points so everything lies down nicely. I have discovered that spindles work best when you know the area you need to fill and work the number of rows accordingly. This means ideally you need a pattern and a ball the correct size to get everything just right. But what happens when you are inspired by an image that has no pattern or size reference??? Well you just give it a go. I did this earlier in the week trying to decipher a beautiful temari I had seen elsewhere.

Most temari images have no (or an unfamiliar) reference point so it is sometimes difficult to rework a design on the correct size temari base. But this week I had a go and this is what I came up with...

My spindles are a little crammed so next time I will either make the temari 1 cm larger or stitch 1 less round. Also I will make sure to measure the starburst at the centers... or we could just pretend that I meant to have one longer line there. I am just about the begin this one again so I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. I took this photo on the 'zig zag bridge' walkway near my front door. I think this is my new favourite place to take photos... even the two ants that were crawling about kindly stayed out of shot. Nice!

Stitching this temari has helped my work out the possible first flower on my TC project ball... more about that in my next post..

Wishing you a stitchy day...

Stitching projects online

The international temari community is slowly returning from hibernation. Everyone seems so busy in the months leading up to Christmas that many can't commit to new projects etc near the holidays. 2011 is beginning with a new project on TC and TK.

Let's talk about the TC one first. An election was called for new projects for the group to work on for the start of 2011. The clear winner was a Flower sampler (one for each month - fits perfectly on a C10!) with 28% of the votes. I think I voted for Multi-centers marking, Thread Challenge and Character temari - geisha, samurai, emperor, empress etc.

I've almost finished wrapping my ball for the flower sampler and it is a whopping 50cm circumference, I've used a muted green for the surface wrap. The next job is exploring the flowers to use, there are a few schools of thought on this, some people are using the flowers of the month (seasonal or birthday) and others have suggested using the state flowers (such as of USA). Now I'm an Australian so using the state flowers from America (beautiful as they are) doesn't seem too patriotic so I started to investigate some of our native flowers.



Images from http://goaustralia.about.com/od/discoveraustralia/ig/Floral-Emblems-Australia/

 The top flower is the Australian Golden Wattle and is our national flower.
The second row has the Australian Capital Territory flower the royal bluebell and the Waratah from New South Wales.
The third row shows the Sturt's desert rose of the Northern Territory and Cooktown orchid from Queensland.

The fourth row features Sturt's desert pea floral emblem of South Australia and Tasmanian blue gum,
The last row features the Common heath from Victoria and the red and green kangaroo paw which is Western Australia's floral emblem.


So the result of that is maybe I need another idea because there aren't enough flowers to fill a C10 and I wouldn't want to stitch any of these twice anyway even if I could work out how to stitch them. I decided if I wanted to stitch Australian flowers I'd need to look beyond the floral emblems so back to the internet I went.

Of the 100's of images available of Australian Native flowers these are the only ones I liked the look of.



Images from http://www.anbg.gov.au/gallery/colour.html

 And some of these flowers I really only liked the common name such as the top right image which is called Eggs & Bacon Pea... how classic! I think my most favourite of these images is the top left one which is the NSW Christmas bush. I am sure I could translate this flower onto a temari... given enough time!

So I need to ponder this a bit more.... Or I might go another way and just do flowers I like no matter where they come from.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Next is the project from TK. It is a S8 spindle based stitch along which is being presented by text, no diagrams. I did well with the first 2 steps but the wheels fell off at step 3, I can't follow the directions at all, and I think the problem is I can't imagine stitching a hexagon over 8 lines. I read the instructions several times over the morning, again after I'd eaten a healthy lunch and once more after a few squares of chocolate but they still don't make sense to me. I know the answer is obvious... I usually get tripped up by the most obvious things, so I guess I'll just wait until a progress photo is uploaded in a few days. In the mean time I'm going to finish wrapping my big green ball for the TC project.

First Temari for 2011

I've had these ones finished for a few days now but I've not had time to post them. I'm not sure which one I like most, probably the yellow one, although the pink on is very effective too... but then the purple temari is growing on me. I haven't removed the scrap thread yet on the purple one. I don't make many temari that need to have the marking threads removed, I really like the effect of the design not appearing anchored to the ball.

I want to draw your attention to Rod B's Japanese Textiles blog today so you can see a new temari he has been working. He included a draft version of the pattern (there is no diagram yet) but the steps have been written. I really love his use of colour on this one... I think they seem quintessentially Japanese.

I need to work on varying my colours more, I find I get into a colour rut and have trouble escaping it. I think I will go through my Japanese fabric stash for some inspiration.

Recycled Hazelnut Temari

Last week I wrote about making some ice-cream desserts for Christmas. One of the recipes called for skinned hazelnuts, and while I would ordinarily throw the removed skins away, this year I decided to make a temari out of them. I placed the skins into a freezer bag with some rice hulls and wrapped it with a ball of wool. I was watching a movie while wrapping, and it must have been particularly interesting because I used the whole ball of wool. My base mari ended up having a 33cm circumference. I chose a navy blue thread base and C10 division. Last year (09) I purchased some braided Kreinick threads for $2 a spool, a local supplier was clearing their stock so I scooped up a whole bunch. I selected 5 glistening metallics and stitched a simple star in each face. My camera can't really pick up in the sparkle of the thread in such a small image but if you click each picture it will pop out a little larger to show more of a 'real life' view.

I liked how it turned out so I did it again using Sakasa Uwagake Kagari. This ball was slightly smaller at just under 30 cm. Again I put the points of the stars into the pentagon corners.

I really enjoyed the effect of both those designs and I wondered if I turned the points of the stars (from the first ball) onto the short lines of the pentagons whether I could make also stitch 6 pointed stars (similar to the second ball) over the 6 part triangle areas. Would it look too busy? If I kept the same threads for the 5 point star what thread should I use for the smaller 6 point ones? It thought on these questions overnight and then decided to just go for it, if the ball turned out to me a big sparkly mess it didn't matter because the threads I was using was inexpensive. I kept the same threads for the 5 pointed star and chose 5 variegated Krenick #8 braided threads (that I scooped up at the same clearance sale) for the 6 point stars. The base mari was 36cm. I spent ages trying to lay out the colours on the 6 pointed stars so no colour appeared twice around the border of any 5 point star. Yay for coloured head pins.

I didn't plan to make a set, but this so often happens with temari making. One question leads you to another and another...  On the upside of this experimenting, I think I have cracked a pattern by Barb Suess in the new Japanese language Temari book released earlier this year 7837701101 彩りのてまり歳時記 Coloured Temari: Seasonal Events (Irodori no Temari - Saijiki) featured on top of pages 52+53. I hadn't been able to turn the drawing in my head to work out how the pattern was laid out between the two main designs. But I had an AHA!!! moment as I stitched the first ball in this group. I wonder if Barb heard my very large penny dropping here in Perth. Things are always so obvious once you get 'it'.

I almost used all the thread on all 10 of the Kreinick spools... I stitched almost 100 meters of thread on these 3 balls. I've never really thought of it before, I usually think in time rather than length of design thread consumed... This made me wonder if I laid every piece of design thread I have used since I began making temari end to end... how long would that thread be? If I did the same in the yarn wrap or thread wrap how long would that stretch? I wonder how many years (and temari) it would take until I had used enough thread to stretch from here to Sydney (Approx: 4110km)? To the JTA museum in Tokyo (Approx: 7867 km)? Around Australia (Approx: 59,736 km)?

My boys like the third ball, I am partial to the second - in spite of the open spaces. What do you think?
Happy stitching.

Weekend Workshop

Ahhhh we are having a bit of rain today and my garden is so thankful as it has been particularly thirsty weather for the last few weeks.

Last weekend I had an awesome workshop with 9 ladies in South Perth. One participant flew all the way from Melbourne just for the weekend. On Saturday morning we were so lucky to have Miho come to help as everyone marked up C8 division temari, for some ladies this was their first time to mark a into C8.

We stitched our way through several temari designs together over the weekend. I managed to convert one lady from foam bases to rice hulls when I gave her one of my bases because her prepared base was just a little too small for the design we were stitching. Once you go hull you don't go back.

This week is a bit quiet... for the first time in ages... I am waiting, waiting, waiting for a giant delivery from Japan. I haven't done much stitching (my neck, spine and arm are playing up) but I have something to show which is my latest effort. I finished this one last week but hadn't had time to take a photo. I think the pattern is from Cosmo 2 but I can't remember because I started it a while ago and it sat for several weeks waiting to get the last light yellow triwing  stitched on it.

I am beginning to suffer from increasing numbers of UFO's again. I am hoping to get some of them finished soonish. Some of these may get wrapped back over and started again as something else. Let's see: I will finish off the green based one (right) and the one on the front left but the middle one is just a ball I use for laying out new patterns and the one at the back is Joan's stitch along I still haven't finished. I don't like the colours so it will get wrapped over or pulled out and something else done on it. Also you can see through the bag my latest thimble bead almost done, this is the item closest to finished so this is the next thing I'm doing.

Now that I look at the photo it's not too many UFO's... I just have to put out of my mind all the crafty things I promised to do for everyone just now. [Just kidding people... you know who you are]

I am looking for C10 projects to make right now. I need two awesome temari to finish off my JTA requirements. When I started the C10 above I planned to use it as a JTA submission ball but in all honesty I did a terrible job of the stitching and when I tried to diagram the pattern... well let's just say I couldn't without just redrawing exactly what was in the book. I like to make my diagrams from my understanding of the pattern rather than just reproducing one verbatim* from the source.

*I know this means word for word... is there a term that means picture for picture?

I had a Chinese hacker attack on one of my 5 email accounts twice last weekend. Grrrr!!! I don't even recall opening or clicking on anything dodgy recently so goodness knows how it happened. I want to apologise if anyone got a weird message from me... I wasn't even aware of it until some kind folk began to email me to tell me what they received. I've changed everything, every password for every account and my modem and anything else I could possible think of and now I scan every hour (instead of once a day) for potential problems. There seems to be a lot of nasty Internet goings on at the moment so let's all stay alert.

Thrilled all over

I have a few temari UFO's kicking around but my arm has been too sore to settle to them. Here is my latest temari. I really enjoyed working on this one and just love how it turned out. It is inspired by a pattern in Cosmo 4 p24 #6 (pattern p52). I changed the colours a little from the original ball because I wanted it to really pop with rainbow brightness. After I stitched it I was unsure if I had got the rainbow colours right... despite just coming out of winter here I haven't seen any rainbows for a while.

I really like this eye catching cheery little C8 fellow. I think I have 3 all time favourite temari that I have made so far (I mean those I worked out on my own rather than asking for help on) the other two are.

This one is a C10 and it is almost an all over design. My other favorite is below, a S16.

I'm sure I see a theme... they all have blue on them. I've stitched the last two many times, and I think I'll make the top one again in graduated shades of colour to see the effect.  Hmmm what colour might I use? Can you guess?

Till next time... just keep stitching!

3rd time a charm??? Yes it is!

I did it. And here's the proof. Finally!

I do really love this design. Believe it or not I am about to begin it again on a white base ball... as soon as I wrap it that is.

3rd time a charm???

A while back I stitched a ball from Cosmo 2 page 1. I really love the design. I thought I had done a good job of it and decided to make it again in paler colours.

As I laid down the final round on the new ball I realised that I had done something wrong.  I then discovered that I'd made the mistake in reverse on the first ball. Oh my goodness! How did I not see it before? Can you pick the mistake? I bet you can. Here is the sample ball from the book.

Now here is the first ball I made. Can you see the mistake?

Here is the new ball. Now setting aside the fact that the colour palette is different, can you see the new mistake?

I'm sure you worked it out. But incase you didn't, here is the problem.

Look at the top layers of star points in the original photo you will see that one side lays over the top of all the pentagon sides. In the first attempt  I managed to get most of my top points underneath (instead of over) the pentagon sides on most of the 12 star shapes.  With the second attempt I did actually think about the need to weave the top layers so you can see that most (but not all of the points are laid over the pentagon sides. I'm not sure how I missed this crucial element when I first stitched this design. Maybe it is because I tend to follow the instructions until I think I've got the idea and then put them away. I don't recall even looking at the original pattern for my second attempt. Which was a big mistake because instead I chose to refer to my own pattern notes (which didn't account for this part of the design element as I hadn't noticed it at the time) and the actual ball I had previously stitched. It was only when I noticed that the weaving was different in some sections that I referred back to the image from the book. Oh well you live and learn I guess.

I have another ball wrapped and ready to try this pattern for a third time. Here's hoping I can get it right this time! I'll post a pic when it is finished.   See this post for the 3rd ball.

Something in the air??

This week I have moved very slowly along. I have stopped and started and been distracted all week long. I haven't finished anything much. I remember someone else mentioned having a fit of procrastination (Jane maybe) and I must have some related bug. Perhaps it is something in the air, maybe it is due to being so over productive recently, maybe it is denial... I need begin to take action on all my big plans... or I'm going to get myself in all kinds of trouble with deadlines soon.


I built 3 shelving units for my craft room (with the help of my hubby and son) this means no more piles of boxes stacked up and the one you want being at the bottom. So everything is much more accessible. Next week I'm going to relabel all the boxes and rearrange them into categories (sewing/soapmaking/beading/temari).

I'm working a C10 temari but it is going really slowly (snails could stitch it more quickly). The design is not difficult, and I have stitched it before. This time it will be pale colours on a dark blue base and marked with blue metallic. I have also tried out some of the new goodies I got from Japan.

I made a nice yubinuki from the hardcover book and used the silk wadding for the base. I really like the outer curve of the thimble. I haven't been able to get such a nice shape just using cotton thread or felt as the padding. The design is new for me as it involves a little bit of weaving. The stitching on this one is a bit dodgy but I actually got the concept of the design and will probably make this one again. Due to the weaving it is ineligible for Mamercerie's share your thimbles this month. If I get time I might be able to make another this month, the prize on offer is lovely (as always). I will need to make up some more thimble bases, almost all of the ones in my stash are used. I can't believe it really, I never thought I'd get through them all.

Latest C10

Here is the last C10 I've made. The original was in all pinks but I wanted to try something a bit different... I think the original ball was more effective because it made the relief pattern of the 5 petal flower stand out more. Maybe I made the dark triangles too large or the ball was too small. The instructions also said to make tiny triangle in the marking thread on top of the triangle stacks... I thought 'Ick no way!' so I stitched it with frosty nordic gold #4.

Anyway it is still nice, I will try this one again sometime.

We finally had a sunny day today so I took my light box outside and let nature supply the lighting. The neighbours thought I was crackers because I took the photos on the driveway with my box on a trestle table and my tripod set up. Because it was late afternoon the light wasn't as strong and was coming from over my shoulder so I kept setting the 2second timer and ducking to the side. I took about 50 photos so I imagine any onlookers would have had trouble working out what was going on.

What's stitching this week.

I've been minding my Step Nana this week while my Mum and Step Dad have some well earned R&R. Seeing as she is 92 I have had a fairly quiet week, so between making cups of tea etc I have had plenty of time to stitch. If only the lighting here was better!!! Every light fitting has at least 4 globes but they don't cast as much light as I'd like... of course at home I spend most of my stitching time under a bright work lamp. The only decent lighting is in the entry hall which has the most beautiful light shade... but I need to wear SPF30 to sit underneath it. Here is a picture of it.

This week I have finished a JD Sakura design that I began a few weeks ago. You might remember the series I was doing with colour experiments. So here it is all in muted tones of beige and tan with a brown obi.

I have also had a go at one of the yubinuki featured on Debi's Temari Train Blog. It was a little gappy in one spot but still turned out nicely. I think the main problem (besides my poor measuring) is that I tried to make it from memory of the instructions... instead of from the instructions. I got there in the end, and this was one of those times when blind faith is required as the pattern doesn't really emerge until you're almost done stitching. I love how it turned out and will probably try it again but the thimble Debi made this week is calling to me. It is so beautiful.

I have also been working on another pattern from Debi's Notebook for the birthday challenge set up by Kristy in QLD over at the TC group. It is a really cool pattern... here is my version.

This last pic is a ball I finished a while ago but forgot to add to the blog. Can you tell it has been cold here? All reds and oranges on this ball trying to keep warm.

When I get home I need to go through all my boxes of temari and photos and look for my C8 and C10 balls. I hope I can find some, I do try to regularly gift my craft items away. Our home is a single level house with no basement and no attic (like the majority of homes in Perth)... therefore no huge amounts of storage. This means the more I want to create the more I need to gift away.

Post note:  While I was away my dear husband took it upon himself to clean up our office and my craft room. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh no!!!!!  The questions I had to answer about all those supplies!!! Such as why I had 75+ 3inch Styrofoam balls, 20meters (at least) of assorted fabric and 8kg of soap. Hope he didn't find the 15 balls of wool and the 100's of buttons I have in one of the crates... He probably did but I guess he gracefully let it slide.

C10 Project from Cosmo 6

This is the 49th post for 2010 which equals the number of posts for entire year in 2009. Only 2 more posts to make 100 altogether. How did I find so much to write about? Because this post is special I decided to post something a bit different.


I have decided on my next temari project.  It is a C10 from Cosmo 6. It is pictured as number 4 on page 25 (pattern on P26/27).  It is on my temari to do list - so I am glad to be reducing this long, long list.  The first job to do even before making the base is to try to establish how to stitch the temari.  In this case what the pattern is saying.  Sometimes a temari can be reverse engineered (worked) from just a photo (often there is no pattern when we see a temari we want to make so it is our only option).

If you have never seen a Japanese pattern before this is what it looks like. Now I don't speak, read or write Japanese fluently. In fact I only know just enough to get me into and occasionally out of trouble. But even with my basic understanding I can gain a lot of information from 'reading' this pattern. First off the text runs right to left top to bottom when printed vertically. When printed horizontally it reads left to right the same as English. Members of Temari Challenge have access to a nice English/Japanese conversion sheet for common terms.  There is also something similar on the Temarikai website but it is a little more difficult to read. Sometimes I even use google translate to type in English words I think the printed text might mean and see if I can find the same kanji in the translations offered.

Straight away I can see from the larger text the name of the pattern (flower and star - it is just lucky I know these particular symbols: first symbol is 'flower', the middle one is 'and' or 'with' and the last one is hoshi which means 'star') and under the name is reference to the page number (25) where the colour image can be found in the book.  From the text under the picture I can see it is a C10 division. Sometimes you can easily tell the division from the picture alone - but not always.

The first line of text (I mean the far line just to the left of the picture) tells me the circumference (33cm) and diameter (10.5cm) of the base mari. The usual size of temari that I gravitate to (what feels comfortable in my hands) is between 24 and 26 cms so all the blanks I made last week are too small. Thankfully I had one a little larger (28cm) that was still wrapped in wool so I added on a few more cms and got it up to 34cm - but then it actually ended up at 31.5cm as I think I was a bit stressed when I wrapped the final thread layer so it is a little firmer and more compacted than usual. This means I will need to adjust the number of rows I will use.

The second sentence tells about the thread wrap colour.  It is a Cosmo brand thread in white.

The third sentence tells me that there are 4 Cosmo perle 5 stitching thread colours used. The colours being pink tones from light to dark 206, 204, 112, and 111. Also a gold metallic thread is used. I plan to use 4 blues on a white ball with silver.

The next section of text relates to Jiwari (marking lines) and Kagari (stitching) directions.

[1] Says to mark the mari into C10 with Gold thread.

[2] Says in the 6 part triangle add extra marking lines to make a total of 12 lines. Extend the lines into the pentagon areas so they end near the short lines out of this center. The place to aim for seems to be 1/2 way along the short lines from the pentagon centers.

Now this is where it can go a bit pear shaped - translation wise. So what follows is my best estimate of what is written in Japanese.  This is a bit harder because my computer has lost it's ability to use Japanese characters since it was repaired - so no easy google translations unfortunately.

[3] Goes on to describe measuring a 1/2 mark on the added lines of the 6 part triangles and stitching around the path of 6 points starting at the point that looks like a sloped T and to the right around the points back to it. This forms a hexagon. 3 rows of pink in the lightest colour then 4 rows of the next lightest colour. Repeat steps 2-3 until 20 hexagon shapes on the ball are completed. Now I am not sure if it says to continue until all the hexagon stitching is done OR if you should stop here and come back to finish it after stitching the flower shapes. I am being honest here. My feeling is to come back to it but it doesn't seem logical to do that. Also it would involve weaving under the flower shapes to complete the hexagons.  ***

[4] In the 12 pentagon areas stitch 2 rows of pink followed by 1 row of gold. Start about 0.2cm from where the added lines on the 6 part triangle join the short lines from the pentagon.

[5] Starting on the inside edge of a pentagon side kiku stitch a 6 point flower over the top of the hexagon areas.  Inside points should be about 0.3cm from the hexagon pole. So that is the jist of the first sentence, but I can't make out the next 2 apart from the talk about the flower being stitched with 2 rows of darkest pink and one row of gold. There is a lot of Kanji text here that I can't read and I am sure the key to the whole pattern must be in this section.

[6] Inside the pentagons add some small stitches to the center in gold thread.

So here is the summary from the second picture near right of diagram:

On the 20 Hexagon shapes stitch:

3 rows lightest pink then

4 rows of light/medium pink then

4 rows of medium/dark pink then

1 row of darkest pink.

On the 12 Pentagon shapes stitch:

2 rows of darkest pink then

1 row of gold

On top of the hexagon shapes stitch:

Using kiku herringbone stitch

2 rows of darkest pink then

1 row of gold

Inside the center of the pentagons add extra gold stitches near the pole to create flower centers.

*** My plan is to completely stitch the hex and pent shapes then do the flower shapes on top. This will mean I will need to open up a gap in the 2nd and 3rd colours of pink in hex's to layer the meeting points on the kikus.

Here is my progress shot. I am using blue tones.  Don't look too carefully or you'll see how dodgy my uneven marking is and of course as I am practicing with this one the colours I chose are a bit off... the light blue is too light, dark blue is ok, but the two medium shades are too close in value to be seen in the photo. I am not being too fussy because this is about working out the pattern. The next time I make this I will ensure all these points are better taken care of.

Generally I do ok, when I can I humbly ask my SIL to glance over the Japanese pattern and then I suggest what I think it means.  She usually needs to give me several corrections... usually the points I miss are vital to the outcome.  Such is life.

Such is life is an Aussie expression which is used when expressing the acceptance of a frustrating circumstance. Usually said in a sighing tone. It is believed that these were the last words of  Australia's most famous bushranger Ned Kelly who was hanged at 10 o'clock on the 11th November 1880, at the Old Melbourne Gaol. His last words before he was executed were, "I guess it has come to this." and shortly after "Such is Life."

C10 Sampler Ball

The sampler ball I've been working on is completed.  The idea of undertaking the sampler ball was to experiment with a bunch of patterns and ideas that I wanted to try out but didn't want to commit to stitching a whole temari of.  I stitched 6 designs on opposite poles and this is what it ended up looking like.  I could have done 12 designs on this ball (or changed the colour sequences) and maybe next time I do this experiment I will.

I think I am officially over this set of colours and they are going into the back of the drawer for a nice long rest. I like my experiments with the layered star and lazy daisy.  I can't say I've seen  a temari with this type of layered daisy stitch (of course I am sure it has been done) and I have seen the other patterns in pictures but some required me to work out the stitching path like the Sakasa Uwagake Kagari (top left face) thankfully I could work it out this time since learning about this stitch when undertaking the Cosmo #3 P3 project. 

My next project is to measure the Sunflower #2 class ball and mark it out for stitching... but right now I have a hot date with the grocery store before school pick ups so I better run.

Almost Easter... lots of projects on the hop.

The postman finally delivered my thread pack yesterday for Barb's Sunflowers class.  It actually made it here pretty quickly seeing as it had travelled 1/2 way around the world to get here. He (the Postman) must think I am a Psycho because I can recognise the sound of his van pulling up and tend to rapidly launch myself out of the front door to pounce on every parcel he delivers.  He is getting much faster at crossing from van to front door and back... maybe he is worried I might miss my target and accidentally scoop him into the house.

I have completed the first week of stitching on Barb's class and prepped all the other bases.  I have started on the March Mystery Ball from TK.  (No one cyber slapped sense into me and I have now completed the High School Classes and the TC Braided Challenge)

In this image you can see the 3 purple balls ready to go for the Sunflower class.  There is the white one for the MMB the only clues I have are spindle stitch and Crocus Flower (I have no idea what Crocus is - having a black thumb) and the coffee one is for my Adult temari class where we are making a C10 floral sampler.  The blue ball is just a blank I wrapped to try out the colour... now I need to think of a design to use on it.  Lastly, the huge black yarn wrapped ball is the extra challenge ball for Barb's class.  It has a foam ball inside (not for holding a bell but just to reduce the overall weight and at least 5 cups of hull.  My stocking hit maximum density so my only option was to use 150g of yarn (this was about 675metres long = 738yards) to get the mari to the correct circumference.  I don't know what colour I will wrap this base in... I don't know if I can get the same colour here as the other 3 purple balls so I might go for something else but I will definately wait until the rest of the class is finished before I start on it.

I am continuing to stitch on the white ball today.