Friday, August 21, 2009

All-over Temari

I finally finished this temari last night after stitching on it for a week. The stitching wasn't very difficult, but the pattern requires using 24 threads 3 stitches at a time, in turn. Since starting a thread isn't one of my favorite things to do, I decided to let the threads hang from the ball between their turns; most of the time was spent untangling threads. I could only do about 1/2 a round before getting tired of the tangles.

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I'm very glad I stuck it out, though, because I find the comparison between this temari and my "temari of many colors" very interesting. The marking and colors are exactly the same on these two temari; the only difference is in the order of stitching. In the first one I stitched all the light colors (red and yellow, blue and green; one row at a time), then the medium, then the dark. In the second one I stitched a row of light red, then medium red, then dark red (twice), then a row of light yellow, medium yellow, dark yellow, and etc. until I ran out of room.

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On an all-over ball like this the pattern doesn't show up until close to the end, and it's hard to guess what the ball will look like. This set was done on a c8; I've seen them on c10s as well.

These balls both need to be groomed, or "nudged and fudged" so you can't see through the stitching to the underneath. When I am holding them in my hand I don't notice that the threads have shifted somewhat.

I'm already started on the next one; I'm trying the day lily again with better colors, this time on a c6 with very fine thread. It's going quickly, though, and should turn out good.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Office views

I moved offices (cubicles) a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got everything arranged the way I want it. Here's my windowsill with knick-knacks and temari:

From left to right we have Puerto Rico, India, India, New Zealand, (temari), Guatemala, Romania (with Ukraine) and an embellished ostrich egg.

You can also see a corner of my tea collection.

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This is my embroidery wall (clockwise): Suzani, Mexican sampler, Myanmar batik, Paraguayan Ñandutí, Chinese silk painting; Peruvian Arpillera, cross stitch in Arabic, Guatemalan mola, prayer rug from Uzbekistan, and batik from Indonesia.

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Looking at these every day makes me very happy.