February, 2008
Time Square, New York City, New Year 2008
- Stitch a Times Square Temari
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More information on this Times Square Ball project
This ball would be cute as a button if you stitch it in rainbow colors! Feel free to change them up and please, send a photo!
Supplies
Black #8 perle cotton thread for marking
Anchor perle cotton #5, colors
410 (electric blue) and black for stitching the design
Silver metallic for stitching the "structure" of the Times Square Ball.
I used YLI Candlelight Metallic Yarn.
Step 1
Wrap a 39 centimeter ball in black thread. These instructions will work for larger or smaller balls but you will have to adjust the number of rows you stitch with blue thread. Mark the ball with 32 centers using black perle cotton #8.
Step 2
You will need to use 2 different paper guides to stitch the first rows in the pentagons and hexagons.
Pin the 1.5 pentagon shape to the center of a marked pentagon on your ball. It's called a 1.5 size guide because that is the distance from the center dot to a pentagon point.)
Place a guidepin on of the 5 corners of the paper guide and then stitch 3 rows around the guidepins with #5 perle cotton, Anchor color #413. Repeat for the remainder of the pentagons on the ball.
Then use the 1.8 hexagon shaped guide to stitch the first three rows in all the hexagons on the ball. The photo below show all the hexagons stitched with 3 rows. It show all the pentagons stitched except the last one. There is a pin in the center of each 6-part triangle on the ball (you are NOT using those right now).
There are a lot of stitches on this ball! You may decide to stop right now, with 3 rows stitched in blue around each of the pentagons and hexagons on the ball. If so, go on to Step 4. It will be a cute variation and you'll still have the spirit of this Times Square Ball.
Step 3
With the same blue thread, continue stitch around the pentagons and hexagons until the corners meet. Keep the pins (shown in the above photo) in place until you are done. You should adjust these pins so they are in the middle of the empy space between the shapes and aim for them as the spot to end up with the corners of the pentagons and hexagons. There will most likely be some small gaps. Fill in a bit by making straight stitches where you can fit them in. Don't worry about it being perfect because these areas will be covered with the next layers of stitching.
Step 4
With silver metallic thread, come up in the center of a pentagon. Now, place pins in the centers of all pentagons to use a pivot points when wrapping the silver thread. Travel from pin to pin, each time pivoting slightly to the left and aim for the next pentagon. Continue around the ball. When you come back to your starting point, pivot again and continue in a different direction to the next pentagon. Study the photo below! End off when your pentagon center has 5 spokes of silver thread. Come up in another pentagon and continue with this pattern until all 12 pentagon centers on the ball have 5 spokes of silver thread meeting in the centers. Sometimes, you just make long straight stitches between 2 pentagon centers. That's OK! Just make sure all the centers are connected like the photo below. Tack centers. Remove all pins.
Step 5
With the same silver thread, come up in the center of a hexagon. Then, just like in step 4, place pins in the centers of all hexagons to use a pivot points. Wrap silver thread straight around the ball this time back to where you started. THEN, continue the wrapping and pivoting pattern until you have 6 spokes of silver thread intersecting in every hexagon on the ball. Study the photo below! Tack all intersections and remove pins. Note that in this photo, I didn't tack before removing the pins (mistake!).
Step 6
With black perle cotton, stitch around each center (each intersection of silver threads). Add about 4 rows in the pentagons and 6 rows in the hexagons. This step really lifts up the silver threads so they sit nicely on top of all the other stitching.
If you decided to make a multi-color ball, stitch each of these a different color. And send me a picture!