GITS Temari (I made one!)

I participated in the New Year GITS (Great International Temari Swap) this New Year. I love having a temari to open as my first activity for the new year (besides kissing DH, of course).

I received this beautiful temari from Cheryl. It is a traditional crane.



Isn't this "feather" stitching beautiful?



This is the one I sent in return. I was actually quite proud of myself that I finished my first temari in about a year. I had a different pattern in mind, but my mari was not very even, so I played around until I came up with this design. It is a c10 with interlocking stars with the points on the short lines of the pentagons. Each star then has another gray star layered over it on the long lines.



I had these interesting threads to use, a dozen coordinating variegated threads, in an equivalent of size 8 pearl cotton. I used the more purple colors for the bigger/bottom layer stars, and I used the same lighter color for all the top layer stars.



When I tried to get a picture of the threads in our short winter days I was not getting accurate color at all. I stepped outside, and even though it was twilight and the flash went off the colors are showing quite nicely.

I didn't crop the picture so I would be able to show you our heaviest snow-fall this winter so far. This past Sunday there were finally icy road conditions, and we had our annual crop of ice-related road accidents while people re-learned how to drive for the winter.

I happened to stop by Toguri Mercantile on Saturday and discovered that they are going out of business. This is the shop that carried temari books in stock. I just discovered, by googling it this morning, that it was founded by the father of the woman who was tried as Tokyo Rose! I am hoping to rescue the temari books that are left in stock in the store, to redistribute them to the temari community.