My year in temari

 I started stitching temari at the beginning of 2011 and got swept away by the fun of it all. Now I have TCP (temari containment problems). I've given some away; I obviously need to ramp up that effort. Or possibly stitch very small temari. Or very complex ones that take longer. Or accept that being buried in lovely temari is maybe not such a problem.

   Because I knit a lot too, I tend to compare knitting to stitching temari. After all, both are hobbies involving string. OK, temari cannot keep you warm—but it's fun to create things in colors that one doesn't want to wear. Compared to my knitting projects, temari are quick. I never knit something that takes less than a day; many of my knitting projects are measured in months, not hours. Even though finished temari take up quite a bit of space, the stash involved in making them is quite small compared to knitting stash. (Or maybe that's just what I think now.) The good part is that I don't have to choose between the two hobbies.

   Most of the temari in the group shot are designs found in a great book for beginners: Japanese Temari; A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft by Barbara B. Suess. I have now stitched all 25 designs in the book. It was an excellent way to add to my temari skills. The designs get progressively more difficult as the book goes on, although it's certainly possible to stitch them in a slightly different order as I did.
   A few of the temari I stitched this year were my own designs such as the one of the Morpho butterfly. I also stitched some designs I found on the Temarikai web site. It's an very good resource for temari stitchers.

   I just finished the very last design in Barb Suess's book. I just love the way it came out and I almost can't believe that I managed to do this. And you know what? This just makes me want to stitch more temari.