Happy Birthday!

Today is a birthday day. It is my mom's birthday today, my sister-in-law Margie, and my college room-mate Lois. Happy birthday to all of you. I would love to be able to share cake and ice cream with you today. None of us needs to tell you how many birthdays there have been, but it is a day for celebration.

I'm taking an on-line class for Temari, which is why I haven't been as prolific this past week. The lesson this week was 3 ways to mark a c10. I did all my homework and tried all three methods. My usual way of marking a Temari was labeled #2 in the lessons. This is the method where you start by stitching a s10 (simple 10) and go forward from there. It is very accurate, but involves the use of a calculator.

The most daring method, labeled #3 involves starting with a blank ball and uses a tool called a v-ruler. The v-ruler (as the name might hint) is two rulers joined at the base (forming a "V") at 72 degrees. After calculating your magic number (C/6+C/100, where C is the circumference) [I told you it was magic] you can use the v-ruler to place your pins directly into the mari without any other help. Of course, it's not quite that easy, but I was amazed that it even worked at all. I stitched this ball using that method, since they didn't want marking lines in the pattern at all.



The marking was fine, but I do have to admit that at the 1/2 way point I just about discarded this ball; I thought it was turning out horrible. It ended up not being horrible, but there is not enough contrast between the tan mari and the blue stitching. This was going to be a swap but it did not turn out nice enough for that. I do like the 10 and 6 point stars that appeared at the end.

I marked this ball with the same #3 method. It is waiting for the next lesson:

It seems to be very nice and even, and I like the metallic thread that came in the kit to do the marking. I only had to fudge the corners a little bit to get everything to line up just right.

Now, the third method, which was labeled #1 starts with a s4 division. You need your v-ruler to check your results, but all you need to do the division is your regular tools, pins, strips of paper and your magic number. (Fortunately, there are tables and charts that give you your magic number, again, no math required.)

So I got ambitious, and instead of going for 12 centers (a regular c10 ball) or 32 centers (the blue and purple ball several weeks ago) I decided to go for 92 centers. So I've been marking this ball since Sunday, and I'm not done yet!



The needle is stuck in the side so I know where I left off. I'm finding it very easy to get lost. Between the hexagons, pentagons, diamonds and triangles it's a little confusing. If you can see the star (right where the highlight is on the picture), that's sort of where you have to orient yourself on the ball. Wish me luck! There's quite a bit of stitching left on this one before the marking is done, then you get to stitch the pattern.

The weekend was nice. We had tickets to see Blue Man Group in Chicago.



The show was a lot of fun, plus we got to eat at a very nice place with J, and I got to shop for more Temari books. The only thing that could have made it better was if we could have seen P and C. I haven't seen my grand kids in 5 weeks, and I'm pining for them.