Off The Grid NeedleArts

See intro here. See supply list here. See part 1 here.  See part 2a here. See part 2b here.

Ready? OK – Take your wrapped and marked ball, a longish sharp needle and some metallic or perl cotton (this is now your marking thread) that is a different colour from the sewing thread wrap. Take your marking thread and measure 5-6 wraps around the ball. Cut and thread the needle with it. Put a small knot on the other end of the marking thread. Insert the needle into the yarn wrap layer about 1.5″ away from the North pole and bring the needle up directly beside the North pole pin. Pull the thread all the way through, burying the knot into the yarn wrap so it is now attached to the ball. You can leave the needle on or take it off and re-thread in a minute.

From the North pole (and always keeping the white pin facing you – DO NOT TURN THE BALL AS YOU WRAP) take the marking thread and wrap it around the ball away from you, staying to the LEFT of the obi pin, the left of the South pole pin, and again to the left of the matching obi pin to complete a full wrap around the ball all the while the North pole pin has been staring at you the whole time – like this: (don’t trust the photo entirely – it’s a bit of an illusion – the thread is on the left side of the pins, I just couldn’t get a good angle whilst juggling the ball and my phone to take the photo. See how the thread is now headed to the right? Take that thread and now move to the next set of pins to the right and wrap again always staying to the left side of the pins, wrapping around an 1/8 of a turn at the North pole pin which keeps the thread in place.

Go all the way around the ball – there should now be 8 marking lines around the ball and where you meet up where you started, one thread will now appear to be on the wrong side of the pin, because you’ve stayed to the left every time, you’ll have one spot where the marking threads meet on the other side of the pin – this is correct. Tack down the marking thread at the North pole 4-5 times catching some of the sewing thread to keep it secure, and on the last stitch, take the needle out an inch from the pole through the yarn wrap and clip it (very carefully) off.

Just as you began the thread when we started, with a small knot and hiding it in the yarn wrap at the North pole – do the same thing at the South pole and tack that pole down as well finishing the same as the other pole. Then, when you’re done (leave all of the pins where they are – you should have something that looks like this:

There you go for today, I’ll have a shorter post up on Friday for how to add the obi and secure the intersections of the marking thread. Next week we embroider the ball!

Today’s post will catch me up to what I had hoped to complete on Monday.

You’ll need the paper strip that we used to measure the ball to find the South pole. Fold it exactly in half again and clip another V notch in the right hand corner so that when opened there are now 3 total notches along the length of the strip. This is how you will begin the process of marking the middle of the ball for the “obi” (belt) which is the marking around the equator of the ball. I know the following photos are less than ideal but it has been grey and rainy all week and if I’m to get this done, this will have to do. If you cannot see clearly or don’t understand anything – please, leave me a question or comment. Take the paper strip and wrap it around the ball, from the North pole and back around to itself again, taking care to place the South pole in its notch. In the two new notches, place pins. You’ve now divided the equator in half. Using your eye, turn the ball and divide the equator now in quarters, then divide the quarters into eighths. When done, you should have 8 pins somewhat evenly around the belt of the temari.

Now we will make sure those 8 pins are in the correct location. Take a small fabric measuring tape and choose an obi pin to begin with. Wrap around right underneath the 8 pins and take the measurement being precise. The circumference of mine was 27.7cm. Divide that number by 8 and you have the distance that your pins should be apart, moving them carefully to preserve their location with regard to the vertical measurement taken with the strip. When they are even, you can double check their location with the paper strip again making sure everything is correct. That’s it for measuring, on Monday we will mark the lines with our metallic thread.

Yesterday was new toy day for Daria. Eddie isn’t interested in them, he seems afraid of them if you try to play – he likes to have fun when no one is around and it usually involves yarn. Daria on the other hand is still very much a puppy at 9 years old when there is a new toy just for her and she is always very vocal with her approval.

Life is good 🙂

OK! So – here’s what we’ll need today:

Ignore the stuff in the back, you will not need a razor blade or weird cork tubes. My daughter is an oboe player and this is her reed making desk. It had the clearest space to take the photos today. The rest of the house needs a shovel taken to it.

Choose a spot to be the top of the ball and place a pin with a white head in it. This will be your North Pole. – get it? White for snow so you’ll remember it’s the North pole…. Take a 1/4″ strip of paper that will wrap  exactly (trim the end to match beginning to end) around the circumference of your ball. Fold it exactly in half and snip the bottom right corner off so that when you open it, you will have a V notch in the paper.

In the above photo, you can see how I trimmed the paper strip to meet end to end. You will need to try the paper strip on several different turns around the ball, because it’s most likely not exactly round. Don’t drive yourself crazy pick the happy medium, it won’t matter a great deal for this ball. This is a terrible attitude, and if you decide that you would like to become a Temari master, don’t follow my advice. If you’re just looking to make a pretty ornament for the tree – carry on.

Using the V notch, now find your South Pole using a different coloured pin. You will need to test several wraps around the ball to find the median place to put this pin, and will probably need to adjust its spot a few times. Again – best judgement, don’t go crazy. If this were any other pattern, you would have to be much more exact but for this one, within a few mm is good enough.So, now you should have your North and South poles marked. I’ll post part 2b on Friday as I don’t want these posts to be too huge. If you’re loving this and need more, more, more – please consider purchasing this book by Diane Vandevoort – How to Make Japanese Thread Balls – Beginner – this book and a few others were instrumental in teaching myself basically how to go about it. (She has no idea who I am, and I have absolutely no vested interest in recommending her book) Her diagrams are clear and with a bit of puzzling over, the directions can be followed.

Yeah. I had a great weekend. We went to the Turner exhibit at the AGO and took a photo outside. I was supposed to be “fierce” and she was eccentric – but I laughed too hard to have the right expression. As you can see peeking from the bottom right, the Irish Hiking scarf has found a good home. I’m so fortunate to have wonderful friends, both old and new who bring me great joy.