A few days late due to the Snowmageddon!

• Months: 1 (+1) OR
  • 366 days
  • 29,030,400 seconds
  • 483,840 minutes
  • 8,064 hours
  • 48 weeks
  • 92.05% of a common year (365 days)
• Trips to the Office: 5 (0)
• Pounds Lost: 13 (+5) 
• Books Read: 36 (+2)
• Temari Made: 53 (+1)
• Temari Tutorial/Pattern Written: 8 (0)
• Yubinuki Made: 8 (0)
• Haircut: 1 (0)
• Studio Ghibli Movies Watched: 16 (+2)
• Other Series Binge Watched: 6 (+2)
• Voted for President: 1 (0)
• Sewing Projects: 2 (0)
• Lines of Executable Code Written: 15,836 (+860)
• Participation in Snowmageddon: 1 (+1) 
  • Duration: 8 days with 5 continuous days at or below freezing
  • Inches of Snow: 11 (+11)
  • Days without Power: 1 (+1)
  • Days without Water: 4 (+1)
  • Days without a Shower: 8 (+1)
  • Coldest Overnight Temp: 6 F

Bear with me on this, it's a great story of a 6-degree's of separation event and a Mitzvah has been done.

3 years ago I moved to Hill Country Texas from Southern California.
During my 30+ years of living in California, I took metal lessons from Deb. Deb grew up in Nacogdoches, Texas.
After moving to Texas I started working on Temari again and became acquainted with Holly via a temari group, who lives near Houston.

Then last week Snowmageddon 2021 hit.  
Over 2 storms we had almost a foot of snow and temperatures in the low teens. We lost power for a day and water for five. Other people around the state had it much worse, houses burned down and pipes burst. We will not discuss how the utilities mis-handled their respective areas.

During this time, one day on Facebook, Deb mentions that her 90 (yes NINETY) year old mom Mildred is alone in Nacodoches and she is worried about her.   I googled it and she is a 5 hour drive away, in GOOD WEATHER from where I am so just zipping over was not going to happen. Note: I know how to drive on snowy and icy roads it's the rest of Texas I don't trust. 

I then remember Holly has some church connections and just maybe she knew someone who knew someone out near Nacodoches, so I put the question to her. 

Sure enough, Holly knew someone (Mireya) who's god mother (Lorraine) is a Pastor at the Methodist church just THREE blocks away from Mildred's house. Phone information was passed back and forth and arrangements were made. 

This morning Pastor Lorraine has taken water to Deb's mom and verified she's doing well and Deb is very relieved. Plus Deb now has a contact who could assist if Mildred needs help. A call was made to Deb from Lorrain while at Mildred's house and a picture was also sent. Everyone is very relieved and happy this has happened. 

The ENTIRE state of Texas has been placed under a weather warning as a massive cold and snow storm was on it's way. All week the overnight temperature was dropping and we were warned about a chance of rain and or snow this weekend. 

And sure enough, at 10 pm last night it started to snow.  This morning we have a winter wonderland; it appears we had about 3 inches of snow!

It has begun!
I am starting the Temari Level 3 certificate which is  classified as Teacher. To officially teach Temari is Japan, this certification is required. FYI, Level 4 makes you a Master or Professor; I don't know if they would use the term Sensi for L4.  

For this certification are about 11 temari to make; of which 12 temari plus 8 new patterns and the temari from the patter are required. The all the patterns and 3 of these temari are sent to Japan to be kept by the Japanese Temari Association; sometimes they sell the temari to raise funds.

I have to work on this for at least 2 years before I can apply but it may be closer to 3 before I actually do.

Here is a temari I just finished for fun; it is not a temari that is required for the L3 certification.
​

Yup! it is that time again. Note: We are staying home and avoiding everyone!

• Months: 10 (+1) OR
  • 305 days
  • 6,352,000 seconds
  • 439,200 minutes
  • 7320 hours
  • 43 weeks and 4 days
  • 83.56% of a common year (365 days)
• Trips to the Office: 5 (2)
• Books Read: 34 (3)
• Temari Made:52 (2)
• Temari Tutorial/Pattern Written: 8 (0)
• Yubinuki Made: 8 (3)
• Haircut: 1 (0)
• Studio Ghibli Movies Watched: 14 (1)
• Other Series Binge Watched: 4 (2)
• Voted for President: 1 (0)
• Sewing Projects: 2 (0)
• Lines of Executable Code Written: 14,976 (1,960)

It's monthly pandemic stats update time with amount of change

• Months: 8 (+1)
• Trips to the Office: 3 (0)
• Books Read: 28.5 (0.5)
• Temari Made: 48 (3)
• Yubinuki Made: 3 (2)
• Haircut: 1 (1)
• Studio Ghibli Movies Watched: 10 (3)
• Voted for President: 1 (0)

In my prior post I made a Ninja Star temari. I decided to make a yubinuki ring stand for it instead using a plexiglass ring stand like those use to display stone spheres and eggs.   

For this core, I used part of a card board tube (the core of a toilet paper roll) and cotton quilt batting.  The design would be the same colors as the temari and have a small woven section so the ring base is similar but not the same as the temari.

It's monthly pandemic stats update time (totals)

• Months: 7
• Trips to the Office: 3
• Books Read: 28
• Temari Made: 45
• Yubinuki Made: 1
• Listened to Music: 9,194 - (mp3 in iTunes and today I start over)
• Vote for President: 1 (I voted early!)

Now that the course work and my patterns, for the Level 2 certification are done, all I can do is wait until February to submit and then in May/June I will be notified. 

I am now doing some temari for the fun it. First up is an advanced C8 from a Japanese book. This was a stitch-a-long in the temari group, back in September. It is call Ninja Star and if you quilt you might think of it as Monkey Wrench and if you weave it is similar to a hounds tooth.  If you don't quilt or weave, never mind!

The mari must be very round and the markings with in 1 mm or less of each other, otherwise it throws everything off.  Most of this temari is woven but a square structure is stitched on the mari thus giving a frame for the weaving to attach too. All the stitching is done with doubled thread and it is important to ensure that no twist happen as the threads are woven. 

I actually wound 2 mari. The first was too large for the pattern and I would have had to experiment to see if I could make it work with extra rows; it was just easier to wind a new mari in the correct size. After marking with regular sewing thread, it is removed later, I measured everything 4 times to make all the divisions and intersections as even as possible - lots of pins were used to indicate where I had been. Then the stitching and the weaving!

I was partway through the weaving and I almost gave up - twice as I was not seeing the design. But I do not give up and figured if it did not appear, I had at least learned what not to do. When I started the last set of wraps, the design began to appear - YIPEE.  I did have a lot of grooming to do - where you push the threads around to even and straighten them. 

​Next up, a Yubinuki base in the same colors for it. That will be my next post