482 facets!

There are at least 482 facets in this temari, I think. The 6-part triangles are divided into 12 sections, and the 4-part diamonds are divided into 8 sections, and there are some additional lines. (I attempted to figure it out using the information on Debi's TemariMath site, but I'm not quite sure what all the terms refer to. Tonight I'm going to try to count the facets in one of the triangles, and I will multiply by 20.



However many there are, I'm plugging away at stitching pentagons and hexagons around each of them. It's very relaxing. I'm working with one strand of black, and it amazes me what a big difference such a small amount of thread makes.

We had a beautiful day last Sunday. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write about it, my work responsibilities have changed, and I don't have as much time at work. I may have to blog from home instead of on my breaks here at work.

We went to a late lunch with DD1 in Evanston, where she works. We had a very nice time, in a very nice restaurant. We haven't been seeing much of her lately, because she works on our days off, and we work on her days off, so it was wonderful to be able to share a meal together. The worst part of the whole day was the traffic going north in Chicago. Who would have imagined a traffic jam on the expressway on a Sunday afternoon?!

After lunch we proceeded north to Ravinia, and went to a concert. The opening act was Procol Harum, a '60s group that had one or two hits back then. The music was enjoyable, but nothing to get excited about. The venue, though, was wonderful.

The Pavilion at Ravinia is an open-air auditorium, but it is completely covered. The weather that evening was wonderful, not too hot, or too cold, with a nice breeze. You can get an inkling from this picture.



The main event of the concert, and the one we were excited about was Jethro Tull. (This is a picture of one of the screens.)



The lead singer, and flautist, is Ian Anderson, and I think the description "demented elf" describes his presence and antics on stage. It was a lot of fun. The music was familiar and we really enjoyed ourselves. Once we got out of the parking lot, the drive home was a breeze, so that was very enjoyable. It was fun enough that we will be looking for more opportunities to go.

Still plugging away

This is the picture I was going to post yesterday, but the computer didn't recognize my memory card, and I didn't have time to fuss with it. Today I had a little time, and I got the picture to download (whew!) so here it is. I really like the way it is turning out, but I was worried about the centers in the pink stars. According to the pattern picture (which I should have checked before) the centers of those stars are blue thread... I should have done the marking with the blue floss! Oops!



It's kind of necessary for the pattern, so I am adding (enhancing?) marking threads in blue floss. You can see here, in this poor picture, that the centers look quite a bit better with the blue added. However, in consequence, I haven't advanced on the pattern.



I am really enjoying stitching on this one, but it's one of the first times I've used floss on a temari, and I haven't been too careful with making sure the threads are parallel. I'm calling this a practice temari, and I'm considering stitching the pattern again in different colors... I'm wondering how my favorite blue and green on white would look.

I found out that a cousin died in his sleep this week, younger than I am. He left a wife and two young (7 & 8) daughters. I so wish I could go to the funeral, and share with the family.

HEG

We had guild last night, the last meeting until next September. It's amazing what good friends you get to be with people you see once a month for 9 months out of the year. The September meeting is always so much fun, because we get to catch up, and see what everyone has been doing over the summer. (Plus, it's a party at a nice restaurant.)

We showed off the bears we made:



(Can you tell we are having too much fun?)



Here are all the bears, except that in this picture they look like they are being held up, or doing their exercises. We are hoping kids in the hospital will get some comfort from them. They looked adorable packed into the basket.

Multi-pole

This is a picture of the newest temari I am working on. I am not quite done with the first step of 3. There needs to be a layer of pink linking up with the small pink pentagons. I'm not sure I will be able match the picture exactly, but I wanted to thank Rebecca for getting me this far. She was able to read the Japanese colors and the order they were stitched in for the this layer. According to the picture, the next layer is all blue, and the final layer is black.



As I was beginning to stitch this (the only stitching was the gold marking threads and the little pink pentagons) P came up and asked what it was going to look like. I showed him the picture in the book, and he studied for a minute, then he said, "That will work. The background is black, like in the picture, but you will have to sew on it a lot, more than that one (pointing to one of my snowflake temari in the bowl by my chair)." I was impressed and pleased for a couple of reasons. First, he pays attention! Second, he could make the leap from an unfinished temari to imagine the completed one. I'm going to ask if he wants to stitch on one himself. I'll let you know what he says.

We've named the kittens. I know, that is a dangerous step. Tom; Alli/Alley (we are not sure if (s)he is a boy or a girl yet; and Kit. The fourth one has a name at home, but I am not going to share it, as I feel it will hurt her chances to get adopted. I will try to get individual pictures to share. All four love to cuddle, and are learning to walk, jump, and run. They should be weaned within 2 weeks.

Judy, I have bowls of temari displayed in my living room, I have a couple of apothecary jars with temari in them, and I am looking for the hanging vegetable/fruit baskets that used to be popular to hang in the archway between my living room and dining room. There seem to be temari everywhere!

Finished Temari!

First in a month! But there are two more I want to get to now, so I think my stitching energy is back. I do have to come up with more overall energy, though, we've been way too busy.

Here it is. I compared it to the original one from Nana Akua and noticed a couple of differences, one on purpose, and one not. The difference I don't like is that my Kiku stitches do not start nearly as close to the center of the shapes as the original. I found it hard to get as close as I did, but to get the centers even closer is amazing. It adds a degree of elegance mine does not have.



The change I made on purpose was the stitching over the centers of the metallic thread. On the picture I was working from the centers were bright primary colors: blue and red. I decided I would rather use pink. It neatens up my centers considerably (not that they needed it, or anything, you will notice there were no pictures of the centers that were not obscured by my numbered tags). The color blends in, and adds a nice little touch of sparkle. DH calls this one my confetti temari, I like the name, it's a party!

I'm ready to start 2 more temari, so I think the stitching energy is back.

Kittens & Temari

Look who came to live at our house! We estimate they are about 4 weeks old. They are being fostered (DD is doing the heavy lifting) until they are big enough to be on their own. I promise we won't keep more than 2 of them(!) Do you see the little one down on the right with her mouth open? I can't believe how loud 4 little kittens are.



We are making slow progress on the SAL temari. This is what the surface looked like at the end of the 6th round. The shapes the white thread makes are very interesting, and there was plenty of room for it.



I'm having a little more of a challenge with the 7th and final round. I'm very pleased to be able to get the pins out, and I'm hoping I can roll this one on a hard surface and get some of the threads to hunker down a little more. It still won't be done after this round, though, I want to tack all the centers. Right now I'm planning on using a pink metallic for that... but that is still subject to change.




It won't look exactly like the object ball, but I think it will be striking.

SAL and Secret Stitcher gift

This is a picture after 4 rounds on the Stitch-Along temari. There are two layers of pink, and two of yellow. This ball is looking very busy. The final layer will be dark pink, so a lot of the yellow will be covered up. I'm working on the 5th round now, and have 2 more to go after that, but I'm afraid I will need a shoehorn to get the last pink round in.



Right now it doesn't look like much.

On Tuesday at guild meeting I received an envelope with silk floss in my favorite colors.



Plus a little needle threader. The silk threads are so luscious, they make me want to start a new project with them Right Now! Thank you so much!