This week I made a bunch of temari bases. I have a cream shade of over-locker thread that I really like using, but being down to my last cone, I headed down to my local Textile Traders store in Myaree to stock up on more. 5000m spools of over-locker thread sells for about $4 at Textile Traders but I was surprised to see these spools on special for just $1.95. BARGAIN BARGAIN BARGAIN I had to read the sign twice before the price registered in my brain and then I found a basket and filled it to the top with 26 cones of thread.
This store has recently gone bagless (more stores are promoting reusable shopper bags in Perth) and I realised I had forgotten a bag of my own so I found a really nice piece of fabric (on special down to $2.5 for 1.5m) to use as a makeshift Furoshiki. The shop assistant thought I was mad when I undid the fabric, laid it on the counter and started piling all the cones onto it. I explained it about Furoshiki as I tied together the fabric corners to make a bag and she then saw what a good idea it was. She did say it reminded her of an old swagbag , you know the type that Swagmen* would tie onto a stick and carry on their shoulder.
Swagman's version of Furoshiki
I think I might actually use this new fabric to make some proper Furoshiki. If you want to make one too here is a tutorial.
* An Aussie Swagman is probably equivalent to the American Hobo of the 1920's and 30's. A swagman was a transient labourer that travelled by foot to seek work (usually sheep shearing). The name is derived from the blanket (swag) he would carry on his back. The unofficial Australian Anthem is Waltzing Matilda which is a story about a swagman. Hearing this song is almost guaranteed to get any homesick Aussie misty eyed... some of us don't even need to be outside Australia for that though.
This is the 400th post I've written. I am quite shy in person (with people I don't know well) so it amazes me that I have managed to keep posting to this blog fairly consistently for almost 3 years. In real life I am sure I'd run out of things to say in under five minutes but somehow I can almost always find stuff to chat about here. Over time I've posted about all kinds of things: baking, chickens, driving, family, all the other crafts I try out, but it always comes back to temari.
When I started temari making I stitched with a group but as the years have gone by our weekly group temari making got less and less regular... some ladies went back to work or changed jobs, others had more kids and many moved on to pursue other crafting. I got ORBsessed with temari making and am the only one from the original group still stitching temari on an almost daily basis. We began this blog as a shout out for our group and more importantly to shout out to the rest of Australia to say 'Hey, you like temari? So do we! Let's chat about it.'
So on to chatting about temari...
I have been experimenting with things to contain my rice hulls while I wrap my mari. I used to use stockings but no one I know wears them anymore and I can't see the sense in buying them just to cut up to make temari. Then I used freezer bags (much cheaper, you get a hundred bags for less than 1 pair of stockings) but recently the local grocery store has stopped stocking the small size that I use and using a larger bag is too cumbersome (and creates too many potential airpockets). This week when I picked up the dry-cleaning I caught myself looking slyly at the bag and wondering if they would cut nicely into squares to hold the rice hulls.
The answer is: They do, I got twelve approximately 8 inch squares cut out of 1 dry-cleaning bag and I dumped about 1.25cups of rice hull onto the centre of a square before gathering up the edges very carefully and hoping it wouldn't burst onto the carpet. It was weird to gather the loose hulls into a flat sheet of plastic but I seem to recall seeing more than one Japanese video of rice hulls being wrapped in what looked like sheets of some kind of thin paper. Once I got over the fear of the very thin plastic breaking it was actually quite easy to mould the mari as I wrapped them... and I only spilled 2 bits of hull on the floor.
I like to stab the plastic bags with a needle lots of times to help remove air pockets and reduce the risk of deflating the ball while stitching on it later. This did prove tricky as the dry-cleaning bag plastic seemed to grip onto the needle and poked out of the yarn layer a few times. By the time I finished wrapping the outer layer of threads you would not have guessed that the hull had been contained by anything different...and the bag was totally free, better yet it was saved from going into landfill.
Today I had oven chips for lunch. Ok, I felt like eating steamed rice but wasn't in the mood to pull out the rice cooker. I also didn't want to wash up the oven tray so I lined it with baking paper. (I usually buy a really good quality baking paper but one day a while back I was feeling a bit stingy so I opted for a cheaper brand which requires me to use 2 sheets to get he same effect as the more expensive version - talk about false economy) So as I covered the tray in two sheets of paper it occurred to me that because this paper was quite thin and unwaxed it might be good for holding the rice hulls for my temari making. While the chips cooked in the oven I went and tried the paper idea out, did it work? Yes it did. I was really surprised that not only did I manage to get a sheet of baking paper filled with 1.25 cups of hull without spilling any on the carpet but it then rolled into a sphere during the yarn wrap. I stabbed it all over to help release any air that might have been trapped during the gathering together of the paper corners.
I really liked how this mari felt in my hand, I felt happy with how wholesome and natural it all was... just paper and rice hulls (no foam or plastic)... then it occurred to me that I was wrapping over the paper with polyester yarn and that blew the 'natural vibe'. LOL! I think my happy-in-love-with-the-whole-world vibe was due to low blood sugar at this point because next thing I knew the fire alarm started beeping to tell me I had forgotten the chips in the oven and the had been charred beyond recognition. I had a pear for lunch instead.
I thought that tissue paper might work really well too, I've got some packing grade tissue paper so I gave that a shot too (over the tiled floor instead of the carpet just to be safe). It worked really well and crushed down nicely. I also remembered while making the two mari with tissue paper where it was I had seen the video. It was featured on the Ogijima blog.
So what do you use for the core of your mari? If you use something loose (like lint, orts or rice hull etc) how do you keep it all together while you are wrapping with yarn?
I don't think I will get time to post again this week, but next post I will share some things I have learned about a design I have been working on lately.
I have been absent from writing on this blog for a few weeks. Sad to admit but even the last few post were scheduled in advance. Real life has been a bit busy lately and I have been a little bit too swamped (haven't managed to get organised to post much). Also our blogoversary is coming up in 12 days and I will soon publish the 400th post here so I have been at a bit of a loss as to what to write about.. nothing seems quite special enough. So I decided to just bite the bullet and write... something... to get me back in the right frame of mind again.
The last few weeks have been full of highs and lows. We feel like we've been riding an emotional roller-coaster!
Mr W started back at school as a 5th grader on February 1st. For the first time he has male teachers (which he thinks is AWESOME) and is really happy about going to school again.
We lost our 94 year old Nana on February 8th, 'Old' Nana had a stroke the week before Christmas and had been in hospital since then.
A huge fire stated burning in the National Parks 350km south of Perth which blanketed our beautiful clean city in thick smoke. Cough, cough, cough! The smoke keeps blowing out to sea and then coming back to land.
One of my best friends came to stay with us for a weekend. We laughed, caught up and marvelled at how fast the years slipped by since we met when I was 8 or 9.
Our broody hen hatched out 5 little chicks. They are so cute!
I got a really lovely bunch of red roses for Valentines day, I made a really cute red crochet heart for my hubby.
We buried Nana on the 16th. She had a lovely service, the Priest remarked how extraordinary it was to see so many people at the funeral of a lady of her age. Rise If Possible Nana.
My Aunty Nona (who make the most delicious food in the world including my wedding cake many years ago) told me the sweet dishes I made for Nana's wake were the nicest she had ever tasted and asked if I could pass along the recipes. What a compliment that the best cook I know personally should ask that.
After procrastinating for weeks, I finished all my temari diagramming and pattern writing for the next workshop (to be held this Saturday).
We cleaned out Mr W's bedroom and got to throw out all the little broken bits of useless junk he had been hoarding. (Now I just need to do the same in my craft room and office.)
We got a record 30 eggs in a week from our 5 hens!
I got asked to make my mini lemon meringue tarts for actual money for a birthday party of my Mum's friend.
Our neighbour, who suffered serious burns in a really horrible drag racing accident on Boxing Day, will finally come home from hospital this week. His house has seemed very sad without him and we've missed his presence in the street (and his little dog too).
We are being 'treated' to listening to Mr W's clarinet practice sessions. Last week was just hooting to move the reed and this week is the note of G or was it B... you know I can't remember what it is called but I could probably recognise it if I heard it again - and I will tomorrow!
I got about 8 inches cut off my hair, the hairdresser nearly broke her ankle slipping on all my hair as it fell to the floor. My Mum gave me the thick hair DNA although I didn't get her curls. I considered asking to keep my hair trimmings to use in a temari base... but luckily I quickly came to my senses because that is too gross.
I am experimenting with different items for wrapping the mari again. I'll post about that tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with a quick video of our chicks shot earlier this week.
I signed up to do the TAST challenge this year and the first two weeks were no problem, but my time has been really restricted the last few weeks and while others are catching up, I am falling woefully behind.
I hope to catch up over the next month or so but I know there is no time to spare before the end of the month. I also haven't started the HHG stitch along on TT (which is now finished so I'll be doing it as a stitch behind).
This weekend we had surprise house guests. It was wonderful to share our home with these two lovely ladies. Ms S, a dear friend I made in my childhood, and her daughter Miss C invited me on a girls shopping day on Saturday. This is something I very rarely get to do (I have two boys in my home so shopping for non-boy things is always a solo expedition). We shopped for an outfit for Miss C's upcoming school ball. We did some recon on the Internet on Friday night... so many dresses to choose from, we got ball gown overload before we even hit the stores.
We travelled all over the metropolitan area heading East, West and South, but the PERFECT dress was found. Pale pink taffeta, with a netting overlay on which the most exquisite embroidery is featured. I admit I had to blink away several happy tears when I saw how beautiful Miss C looked in her dress. We also had a delicious afternoon tea at Choux Cafe in Nedlands.
What a blissful weekend. Thanks girls for staying with us and I'm counting the days until April when you both relocate to Perth. Happy dance!!
