A few weeks back I saw this on KomusumeRita's Blog. I showed Mr W and he immediately danced up and down 'requesting' that I make him one. Mr W wanted a regular sized temari, by that he meant the size I usually work on which is about 24-27cm. Also he wanted the beak to stick out instead of being flat. The temari featured by Rita was a really small one at 2.5cm and as you know the dimensions of temari change drastically with the size of the ball. Those lovely curved surfaces get rather flat as the circumference of the temari increases.
He has been waiting patiently for me to begin this project, which I told him would need to wait until after I had taught a temari class on the 25th of Feb. On the way home from the workshop he sweetly suggested that perhaps now I could make this Angry Bird??!!?? Last night I cranked up the computer and did a search for Angry Birds so I had some inspiration (from different angles) and set to work. It took until 1am to get it done to a level I was happy with. I used a pencil to mark out the basic area I wanted to cover but apart from one white line (I used to hold the tummy spindle stitching) there were no other marking lines.
I began with a spindle for the tummy but it was impossible to get it wide enough (and Rita used 2 to fill the tummy area) so I added some additional lines along the sides to widen the spindle without making it longer, Then to cover the jagged edge at the front and back I added a few rows of outline stitching. Next I got some yellow pearl cotton and make a thick braid by twisting 2 strands together which I then crocheted into a beak cone (and stuffed with the excess thread) which I stitched onto a diamond shape using a single strand of the same thread. Then to smooth the look out I stitched a really close star-burst around the outside of the diamond.
Next I worked the whites of the eyes twice (the first set got unpicked when I realised that they needed to be almost joining at the beak) in a double strand, and I outlined them in two rows of black. I made 3 French knots for the pupils and then bound them together to keep them roundish. Then I freehand stitched the eyebrows.
To make the crown of feathers at the top I had my very first go at Bullion Knots. The longest feather had 50 wraps around the needle. I had to keep pulling the needle through some of the wraps and then carefully wrap more thread around the needle before pulling it completely though to stitch down. I am not exactly sure how Rita did her top feather section (but they look much better than mine).
At 1am I popped this Angry Bird onto Mr W's bedside table so he would see it as soon as he woke up this morning. He came jumping onto the bed with it at 6am so proud and excited with the temari, but after only 5 hours sleep all I go manage to say was that I was really happy he loved it but I needed just a few more minutes of sleep to de-zombie if that was ok.
Now he wants a Doraemon temari.
Thank you Rita for inspiring me to try making this one. Mr W says thank you too!
He is so cute with his Angry Bird! Good job, Rebecca.
ReplyDeleteJean in Colorado