This ball is pictured as Temari No. 5 on Page 11 of the Japanese Book commonly referred to as Kii Temari (ISBN4-8733-0393-3) but no diagram or other help is found in the book. The photo was submitted to TalkTemari as a Stitch-Along II project.   I made several false starts trying to decipher this pattern, but then, thanks to Joan Z., I was off and running when she suggested that I should start with offset pentagons. This is a complicated pattern.  Before attempting it, read the directions completely to get a general idea of its complexities.   You will need perle cotton (or other fiber of your choice) in a background color and two or more contrasting colors for the striped ribbons.  The base of your mari should be wrapped in a thread that matches the color of your background perle.  My temari was 4 inches in diameter – I actually think 3 to 3-1/2 inches would have been preferable, using No. 5 perle cotton.  The pattern is composed of striped triangles (here they are black, lt green, and yellow) - these colors make up ribbons of color -  and also solid pentagons (orange, to match the mari thread wrap). The striped triangles weave among their neighbors to help create the great effect on this temari.

PREPARING THE MARI: Mark your mari in a C-10, using a fine metallic thread (mine is gold), which will show at the poles on the completed temari.  Tack the intersections. With a different color marking thread (mine is white), which will not show on the completed temari, add an offset pentagon inside every original pentagon (of the C10 marking), so that the points are at 1/2 the distance from the poles to the sides of the original pentagons, on the short marking threads.  (See lower left pentagon in Diagram I.)  (Note: on my temari that is pictured, the small offset pentagons were marked 2/3 of the way from the poles.  This resulted in larger openings at the poles and shorter tails on the ribbons than I would have liked, which is why I am recommending using a 1/2 measurement.) STITCHING THE TRIANGLES: All of the triangles are stitched on the marking lines that form the small offset pentagons (which you did in your second marking color.)   Using one of the colors for your striped triangles (mine is black), stitch the triangle shown in red on Diagram 1.  Begin at 1 on the small offset pentagon within the NP pentagon.  Advance to 2 in the adjoining pentagon, then 3 in the next adjacent pentagon, then back to 1.

Weaving the points:  Next you’ll stitch the triangle shown in green on Diagram I, but before you do so, it's a big help to understand how the triangles will be woven.  The rule is:  The points of all triangles should always be on top of the sides of any adjacent triangles which they intersect.  For example, say that you have stitched the red triangle in Diagram I and are now ready to stitch the green triangle described in the following paragraph.  In doing so, as you go from A to B of the green triangle, you will come to point 3 on the red triangle --- weave under it.  Then as you go from green triangle point C back to point A you will come to red triangle line AB --- your green point A should be on top.  So remember, all points on top, always.

Now, back to your stitching.  Take your thread under the wrap from 1 to A, and, keeping in mind the weaving rules described above, stitch from A to B, to C, and back to A.  Next you’ll stitch the triangle shown in purple on Diagram I.  So take your thread under the wrap from A to X, and stitch from X to Y, to Z, and back to X – don’t forget to weave under the points.  In Diagram I, it appears that there is a space between the parallel lines of adjacent triangles.  It was drawn this way so that you could see where you are taking your stitches on the small offset pentagons.  In actuality, your threads should lie directly next to each other.  (See Photos A and B.)  Also, on Photo B, there are green pins, yellow pins and white pins at the points of three adjacent small offset pentagons … these may help you to get the positioning of the triangles.

Continue in the same manner until you have formed five triangles around the NP, and then do the same around all the other poles on the mari.  (Since there is an overlap with other poles, some of the triangles will already have been stitched.) 

STITCHING THE PENTAGONS. After stitching one complete round of triangles, you are ready to stitch one round of pentagons.  These are done in the perle that matches your mari wrap.  These pentagons are in the same orientation as the original large pentagons of the C-10 marking (i.e., they’re stitched on the long lines that go from the poles to the points.)  They should be placed so that the threads are perfectly parallel to the threads of the original pentagons, and so that the center of each thread butts up closely to the point of the small offset pentagon that it encircles.  (See Diagram II and Photo C.)  There is no weaving to be done with the pentagons. COMPLETING THE TEMARI: Continue alternating rounds of triangles and pentagons -- changing colors in the triangles to give the striped effect -- until the points of the striped ribbons butt up to the sides of the adjacent triangles.  Then continue to fill in with rounds of pentagons in your background color and your temari is finished.  As an alternative, you can do your final round of pentagons in a metallic thread or one of the contrasting colors used in your ribbons.