• standard thimble base on 4.5cm form
• Orizuru No9 silk thread in three shades of green
• 8 sections, 2 paths with period of 2

This is the first thimble I have done on my new smaller form. Since it helps to know the number of stitches for designing, I decided to do a simple scales type design and count the number of stitches before doing something more complicated. To make it easier to count I added a dark stripe for every 4th row. Then when I was done I could easily see that there are 18 stitches.

I am finding that some temari designs seem to work nicely using a thimble and others don’t. I think it mostly depends on the rhythm and repetitiveness of the stitching. I do find that these thimbles are plenty sturdy for temari stitching even though they are just a bit of paper and thread. Now I am experimenting with the size of the thimble and the placement on my finger to get a more natural stitching action. I think this smaller size will work better for me than the slightly larger ones I was making on the 5cm form. We’ll see.

Another one that almost didn’t happen…

sorry for the crummy lighting... thunderstorm today!

• standard thimble base on 4cm form
• Orizuru No9 silk thread in red and white
• 7 sections, 2 paths with period of 2

Stitch one row at a time on each path. Red on path 1, white on path 2. I used the ‘trick’ that Chloe Patricia recently shared to find the starting place for the second path. If you were not comfortable with that you could mark the halfway sections between the 7 main sections.

You may notice that this one is a bit smaller than the thimbles I usually make. Here’s a couple of pics for scale:

with a 'regular' thimble and a cm tape measure

stacked with a 'regular' thimble just for fun

I use a homemade form for my thimbles and my 5cm one is getting shabby. I need to remake one but I have so little time. So, for this thimble I used a different form that I salvaged from a spool of thread. Instead of a spool it was a nice smooth and sturdy tube, surprisingly, of exactly 4cm circumference.

On of the members of the ThimbleRings group on Yahoo was talking about doing bead sized thimbles and she posted a pretty one on the Share Your Thimbles Flickr group so it got me thinking about beads again. The reason I saved this small tube in the first place was for the potential for making beads.

I did not increase the height from my normal 5cm thimble height (again, strapped for time so use the materials I already have cut). To get a nice barrel bead shape I would probably need to double the height from what it is now (about 1cm) and increase the padding amount across the middle. I would probably want a design that uses a path with a shallower angle so that I get better coverage across the face of the thimble too.

I do think the experiment was a success. Despite the small size that does not fit anywhere but the tip of my pinky finger, it was not really any more difficult to stitch. Dorian’s was 31mm in diameter. I am not sure I want to go smaller than my 40mm, but I’ll probably try at some point. She has a very nice proportion to hers.

About the pattern: I know this design has a specific name but I can’t quite remember it… feather? arrow? was it yubane in Japanese? I’ll have to go digging a bit and see if I can find it or ask Chloe Patricia about it. It is basically stitched the same way that bicolored scales is except for one key difference: the path goes around the ring twice crossing back on itself before getting back to the starting place. It is the multiple times around the thimble that makes it this design rather than scales. For scales designs each path only goes around the ring once to end where it started without crossing itself.

• standard thimble base on 5cm form
• Fujix TIRE No9 silk thread in blue and white
• 10 sections

Stitch one row at a time on each path.

Path 1: nine rows white (or halfway), nine rows blue

Path 2: nine rows blue, nine rows white

This is the last one in the series I’ve done exploring stripes. Did you guess what this one would look like? It may not seem like stripes, but that description will make more sense when I put this one in the context of the others I did in this series (a later post). I suppose that strictly speaking I should do one more thimble in the series but I know that it would be a simple bicolored scales and I just don’t feel like stitching one right now.

This is a fairly common pattern because it is so pretty, yet straightforward and easy to execute. Chloe Patricia has featured it on her blog for the March 2010 Share Your Thimbles and it is one of the patterns in the hardcover Japanese thimble book.

Speaking of Chloe Patricia, she recently did a fabulous post about the last thimble I made. She has a really neat method to simplify the pattern from 28 sections down to the minimal 7 sections needed. The original design in the book actually started with 14 sections. It is interesting to me to see the different ways to describe the same pattern. Of the three descriptions – mine, the book, and Chloe Patricia – I think that Chloe Patricia’s is the best. However, you would need to understand the ‘trick’ for finding the halfway marks. It is not difficult; just a matter of observation of how the thread paths go together on the ring. I’ve made the observation before but never actually connected it to a use in stitching. I just love learning new things!

This week’s thimble is an interpretation of a design in the Thimbles and Flowery Temari book (ISBN978-4-8377-0308-2). The color picture is #2 on page 21 with written directions on page 99. I altered the design by layering all of the paths instead of weaving the last two together so that this one can still go in the Share Your Thimbles Flick’r group. (Currently in that group the shared thimbles must have only forward stitching without weaving.)

Actually, I really liked the idea of trying this one without the weaving. The weaving creates a nice design but I saw some other shape possibilities that were disguised by the weaving and I hoped they would pop out a bit more without it. This is another one that is stitched with Kreinik Silk Bella.. pretty, pretty!

• standard thimble base on 5cm form
• Kreinik Silk Bella thread in two shades of coral (3013, 3017), a very light blue (5053), and a dark blue (5057)
• 28 sections
• Paths have a period (top point to top point repeat) of 8 sections.

Path 1: Fill one section with light blue.

Path 2: Fill one section with light blue.

Path 3: Fill one section with light coral.

Path 4: Stitch one row dark blue, fill the section with dark coral, finish with one row dark blue.

About the diagram, I did not include all of the letters to show how the paths continue around the ring. I think that all of the arrows and letters make the diagram cluttered and difficult to follow. If I am going to be diagraming these designs with a larger number of more complex paths then I will need to study the diagrams in the hardcover thimble book some more and see if I can come up with a better solution. Too many arrows and letters is confusing to draw and to read.

Happy stitching today!

• standard thimble base on 5cm form
• Fujix TIRE No9 silk thread in blue and white
• 10 sections

Stitch one row at a time on each path.

Path 1: six rows white, six rows blue, six rows white

Path 2: six rows blue, six rows white, six rows blue

The striping experiment continues! This week I alternated colors after 6 rows or 1/3 of the total number of stitches in a section. Now the design is starting to look like one that is more familiar. I wonder what will happen when I do the switch after 9 rows or 1/2 the total number of stitches… can you guess?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about thimble making resources recently. Someone asked in the comments about where you can find out about making these. There are some great resources on the internet. Check these out:

Chloe Patricia’s blog Ma Macerie: Chloe Patricia posts about thimble making including occasional tutorials and design instructions. Her designs are beautiful and inspirational. If you are looking for ‘how to’ info, there is a category for the tutorials: How I make my thimbles.

Share Your Thimble group on Flickr: This is a photo group on Flickr that Chloe Patricia started to encourage people to stitch and share their thimble designs. The shared work can be any size; there are bracelets and napkin ring size projects as well as thimbles.

Kat’s photo tutorials: Kat has shared a very detailed photo tutorial about how to make the base for a thimble. There are videos also. It is a great resource.

Yahoo Thimble Rings group: This is a Yahoo group for discussing thimble rings. You can chat with other members, ask questions, browse the photo albums and share your own pictures and insights.