Temari Dreams

I am finding that I am much more interested and excited about stitching temari when I use my Japanese temari books for bed-time reading. I think reading about temari just before I go to sleep helps me dream about temari and solve problems in my sleep. The past week or so I have been studying this picture in Cosmo 7 (page 32). It is nice, because there are diagrams for each of these temari, which isn't always the case for Cosmo books.

I like the coordinating colors, similar, but not exact. And since I have been dreaming about these, I decided to try my hand at one.


When I study them, it is very interesting. The lines run parallel between the centers, and on this page there is an example with 2 lines, 4 lines, 6, and 8 lines, building up in complexity. I decided to be brave and start out with the 4 lines example, and because of the weather outside, I went for snowflake colors.



I haven't decided yet if I need to take out the guidelines or not. I think I will probably end up taking them out. This one isn't done yet, it still needs the flowers. While I was stitching I was trying to analyze the pattern. Working it reminded me of the weaving temari I made this year (the 3-way weave). This one is made with triangle shapes, which isn't terribly evident from the pictures. I will let you know if the rest of them are made with triangle shapes too, again, I can't tell from the pictures. The weaving gets confusing when you turn the corners, but I think I got it right. The first try I got about a third of the way done, and took everything out to start over again.

I was thinking that you used bands with even numbers between your centers, and pentagons with odd numbers of centers, but maybe it is triangles for even numbers, and pentagons for odd numbers, bands or not. The orientation is different here, on the long lines of the pentagons instead of the short lines, like the previous one, around the outside of the centers.

(Clear as mud, right?)



I was thinking that you needed this orientation for odd numbers. This is the beginner's multi-center I was talking about on the Temari Challenge group. The pentagons are oriented on the short lines of the 12 centers and are all inside of the 12 centers.



Thank you for listening while I think out loud about this pattern. It helps a lot. I will let you know if my guess about triangles vs. pentagons (even vs. odd) is right.

Answer to a comment

Argery, Espero que puedes encontrar una manera de aprender temari. Si quieres unirte a un groupo de temari en espanol, puedes encontrar uno aqui. Esperamos poder traducir mucho de lo que hay en el Internet a espanol para compartir temari con todo el mundo. Nos vemos alli?

A Week of Vacation

Thanksgiving was as nice as I had hoped. The whole family was there, including a new member. He is a very good cook! and we added a delicious sweet potato casserole to our Thanksgiving menu. Everyone enjoyed the company, no one got stuck in the kitchen for hours doing dishes, and there were no arguments or hurt feelings. Just a wonderful day!

It is amazing how much I got done last week, while I was on vacation. There are some days when I would love to not have to get up and go to work; waking up when I was done sleeping, and hibernating inside if the weather is bad. However, I think I am addicted to my pay-check, and I would get lonely for company if I were home all the time. Also, I need the exercise! It is too easy just to sit in my stitchy chair all day.

A vacation once in a while is very good, though. The first half of the week I worked on my alphabet sampler. I am very happy to be more than 1/2 way done. I even got to start the large monogram:



I am using "Colorwash Silk" for my variegated color, using only one strand. It is very fine, but I think it is covering enough. The puzzle, of course, in using a variegated color is to keep from having abrupt color changes, except where you want them. So far, so good, on this letter, but we are at the beginning yet.

Then, being on vacation and all, I had time to do some cleaning. I mentioned last time that I found some things I know I will never do. Olly asked for the Golden Retriever and the purse kit, so that will be on the way to her as soon as I get her address. Here's a picture of the punch-needle kits. They are still available.



Then, when I was cleaning out the kid's craft bin I ran across a couple of Styrofoam balls that I put in there after I started using rice hulls for temari. I put them on the table to get rid of them, and then I looked at them for several days. Someone said they used Styrofoam bases to make temari ornaments, because they are lighter and they don't burden the tree too much. So I looked at them some more, and I finally decided to make a bunch of ornaments. It is true, though, that it is harder to make a nice round mari with Styrofoam. These are very lumpy.



All four of these are the same pattern, triangles stitched on the 20 triangle faces of a c10, with gold-rush metallic thread. The thread is kind of a bunka thread, that could be stitched unraveled, but I used it whole. I love them all together. This is actually the first half of the pattern. I tried the full pattern here:



I saw it done in a bright and a pale pink, and it was a "sakura" or cherry blossom pattern. The flower showed up in the negative space. Unfortunately, the colors I had to work with don't really show up right and let you see the flower shape without doing some eye calisthenics. It still looks like Christmas, though.

I think I just about got through November without stitching any temari. Like I said, some free time does wonders. There are at least two more patterns I want to stitch in the next week. (Having time to pore over my temari books at bed-time helps a lot in picking out patterns. I think I can stitch a lot better when I dream temari.)