Twirling Triangles

I finished a temari this week, and it was very satisfying. I found a picture in the Kii temari book (page 14, number 7, if you want to look at the original). There was also a diagram, but that was not very helpful, I mostly followed the picture. It is a 32 face/facet temari. While I was stitching on it, it looked very much like a soccer ball, but adding the brown bands changed the look considerably. I am so glad I didn't stop stitching; I was very tempted to call it quits, but the bands really transformed it.

The pentagons and hexagons really needed to be stitched more densely, and with more rounds, and I may still go back and tack down the brown bands in the pentagon centers, the bands bend around those centers, and tend to want to migrate a little bit.

I didn't get a picture before I started the brown bands, but I took one during the stitching, just because things were changing so dramatically.

I think I will be stitching this one again, probably in different colors, just because I want to improve my stitching, and because it is so cool. (I might start with a smaller mari, and use pearl #8.) As you can see, this is quite a large mari. Bold and beautiful!

While I was stitching, I kept thinking of this variation, and that variation. I am hoping, right now, to do a series of 32 face/facet temaris, just to see what I can come up with.

MSI again

I grabbed a free ride to the Museum of Science and Industry again yesterday (Thanks M!) and enjoyed myself a lot! I checked out a bunch of the exhibits I didn't get to last time:

Baby chicks:

11 AM:

2 PM:

By 3:30 there were 13 chicks hatched, but they were all still damp looking. The other incubator had the cute, fluffy, peeping ones.

I checked out the chemistry exhibits, and the You! exhibits about the body (quite good!) and the plumbing exhibit, and the energy exhibit, and of course the Fairy Castle, but I tried to make as many of the shows and demonstrations that I could fit in. I saw a demonstration/science project on the digestive system (so much fun I want to make sure to take P there next month... right up a 9-year-old boy's alley!); a balcony toss (throwing balls off the balcony... I wished they had talked about gravity instead of about elasticity); I caught the bang! demonstration again from the balcony; and there was a demonstration about chemistry bonds. Pretty difficult to explain in a 15 minute activity. While I was resting (knitting) waiting for another exhibit they demonstrated the Tesla Coil right overhead:

Pretty impressive! Then I went to a demonstration of a medical school teaching robot:

First we checked his vitals on a normal baseline, and then the demonstrator fiddled with the controls, and he showed all the signs of asthma, which we diagnosed with no trouble. Finally I went to a Brrr-day party (for H.G. Wells... he wasn't there) and we "played" with liquid nitrogen, frozen balloons, boiling liquid nitrogen that tooted party noisemakers, and ice cream that was made by mixing room temperature ice cream mix with liquid nitrogen. I just had so much fun!

Then I walked back to M's office, about a mile, on a lovely September afternoon, sunny and breezy. What a wonderful day!

The Knitting on the small purse is done

I finished on Saturday, and took care of all the loose ends this morning. It was so much fun to knit! It was like a puzzle. When I read the instructions, I sort of understood what I was to do, but didn't see the point of it until I did it.

I was knitting fast, so I could finish before I ran out of yarn. There were just a couple of yards of cream left, and two little balls of blue. The pattern called for 500 yards, , I bought 660 yards, so at least it worked out.

This close-up shows some of the detail. You won't really be able to see the shaping until it is felted, and I want to wait to do that until my big bag is knit, so I can do both at the same time.

The pattern for the big bag calls for 1600 yards of yarn, and I bought 1760. I hope I have enough!

I used some of my left-over yarn to wrap maris. I really don't want a lot of little bits of yarn left over... I am glad I have a good way to use them.

I didn't start on the big bag yet, because I over-did it on Saturday. When I knit for too long, I think I stress the tendon that attaches to my shoulder blade, and I get a sharp pain. I didn't knit anything yesterday, and my back feels a lot better today. Maybe that's a hint to finish a temari?