Temari Pattern 68 instructions

Temari Pattern 68
Advanced Beginner to Intermediate

This pattern is interpreted from the Japanese Cosmo book 2 and is a perfect introduction to working the more advanced "interlaced" patterns. Interlaced patterns are composed of breaking down the pattern into several sections, called lozenges, and one row is worked on each lozenge all over the ball before going back and repeating with the second row, etc. As the pattern threads overlap between lozenges gorgeous patterns emerge. They can become quite detailed, almost like drawing with thread.... others are more geometric and yet can be very intricate. A hallmark of these patterns is that the finished outcome generally gives you little clue as to the shapes of the lozenges that you stitch to compose it - until you learn how to "see" those sections. For example - looking at this finished temari would you believe that it is stitched using stars as the basic shape?
One hint - many temari based on these interlaced patterns cover all or most of the mari - in the case of those that do cover the mari completey the wrpaping thread color does not matter, as it does not show in the finished temari. It becomes more important on these types of patterns to be sure that your mari is as round as possible, and your divisions and markings as accurate as possible. Most of the time you will find that you will have to "cheat" and fill in spaces with additional stitches in places.

Prep and mark a C10 division on at least a three inch diameter mari. You can work this on smaller ball but you will need to reduce the size of the thread and the number of rows accordingly. The only place the thread wrap will show is in the center of the flowers so plan accordingly. On each pentagon in the division, locate the points A through E as shown in the diagram. These points are halfway between the border of the pentagon and the center of the adjacent pentagons. With the main color stitch a standard "traced star" (like you used to draw as a kid) by stitching from point A to C to E to B to D back to A. Move to another pentagon, locate the same points and stitch the same route. Do this on all 12 pentagons. When you have stitched one round on all 12 pentagons, repeat this cycle with another round on each of the pentagons. Continue in this manner for approximately five rows - until you work the star points into the center of the pentagons and form the flowers using the "white space" of the centers of the pentagons. Your points will overlap the straight lines of the stars as you work increasng rounds.
After the flowes are formed, you wil have space around the pentagon shapes to fill in - locate points 1 through 5 as shown in the diagram and stitch around the formed pentagons from the stars outward toward the dividing lines of the mari. Fill in these spaces with as many rows as needed. Ideally if the mari was round and your marking precise, this will be the same number of rows in each pentagon, but in reality the number of rows needed in each pentagon may differ a little.

You may choose color combinations as you go - stripes will form in the pattern as you change colors. In this example, the stars were stitched all in the same light blue, and then the petnagons with navy, green and light blue.
Embellish the center of the flowers formed as you like - such as with straigh stitched or French knots.