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Investigating Multiple of Three Designs

Planning the Design

These designs create a number of colored centers surrounded by a background color of some sort. They can be all shades of one color or multiple related colors. The design I will use to teach the pattern will use three shades or colors. Think of them as the center, middle ground and background colors. Plan on wrapping your mari either in a neutral color or in one that matches the main or background color.

You will need either a large ball or a small thread in order to give enough room to build up the density of the design in multiple colors. These designs use a lot of thread so you may want to consider a fiber that comes in a larger quantity than skeins.

Step 1 - Marking the C10

Start by wrapping your mari and marking a C10. Be as accurate as possible. Although there is some fudge factor available later on, it is fairly critical that this marking be as even as you can get it. Use the center color for your design. Even if you do not normally tack your intersections, it is helpful to tack at least the pentagon centers and the 6-way intersections at their corners. It is not necessary to tack the 4-way intersections since they will get tacked in the next step.

Step 2 - Marking the 32 or 42

You will need to decide if you are starting from a 32 or 42 as the basis of the design. This is a combination of personal preference and the size of your ball and thread. A 32 based design will need more layers to get to a nice range of the colors for the centers and still have a nice background. It can be slightly more difficult in terms of color placement and may require a bit of creativity to get the density of threads you are happy with. I have had more success starting with a 42 on the shaded designs. I will show both 32 and 42 diagrams but the actual sample will be done with 42 centers. After this initial marking there is no difference in the stitching whether you do the 32 or 42 at this step. Use the same color that you used for the C10 marking. Note: the diagram I show for the 42 is for a complete 42 that has all hexagons split into 12. It may look a bit different than when marking a 42 by the diamond method. You can use the diamond method (nicely shown on japanesetemari.com) but you will need to add in the extra lines to split all of the hexagons into 12 sections when you are done.

32 centers - The solid lines show my preferred stitching path.
42 centers - The solid lines show my preferred stitching path. One of the diamonds has been shaded for reference.

Important places to tack

When you add these lines you will need to tack at the points of the new pentagons formed, making sure that they are placed correctly. The following pictures show the details for the placement. Also you will need to tack the 12-way intersections that are created at the hexagon centers. The tacking points are shown as small black circles on the pictures below. I like to do this with a backstitch as I place the last line through the intersection.

Correct placement of pentagons on a 32 marking. Note the highlighted triangle within the original C10 pentagon; the support lines intersect at its center.
Correct placement of pentagons on a 42 marking. Note the highlighted hexagon; the lines making the sides of the small pentagon are placed to make this hexagon as regular a shape as possible.

Step 3 - Using the multiple of three method with the next layer

For all of the additional layers you will be applying the multiple of three method in the color needed for your design. For the smoothest look you should use as continuous a line around the ball as possible. I find that if I start my lines in the area around a pentagon, it is easier to keep track of my place and it is easier to keep the line smooth. From here on out place backstitches to tack any completed 12-way intersections and also the corners of any pentagons.

This picture shows the first thread path in the 122 layer of the design. I am using the background color (yellow) for this layer. Notice the triangles that are outlined in the picture. You will start your thread at the corner of one pentagon and travel across that pentagon through the centers of the triangles. Take a small stitch at the center of the triangles. (Picky details about that below.) Continue the thread path across the hexagon, again going through the center point of the outlined triangles. It is not necessary to place stitches within the hexagon. The thread path is relatively straight there and the intersections will be tacked in the next layer.

Picky details about the stitches in the pentagons

I find that if I am careful about how I take the stitch in the pentagon I can get a smoother line overall and it makes it easier to anchor threads that cross those points later. It is a matter of taking the stitch with the thread over or under your needle. You do not have to take the stitches in this way; it is just the way that I found worked best for me to get a smooth line.

Taking the stitch with the thread under the needle (the 'normal' way). This results in a stitch that crosses with the right thread over the left thread.
Taking the stitch with the thread over the needle . This results in a stitch that crosses with the left thread over the right thread.
The thread path after the stitches are taken. Notice the the side of the soon to be new pentagon is entirely above the thread that continues the stitching line.

end of picky details - back to the stitching

You will continue the thread path around the ball, taking stitches in the pentagons and moving straight across the hexagons until you come back to the starting place. End your path and bring the needle up at the next pentagon corner. As you start the path across the pentagon again, you will cross the previously laid thread. Rather than taking another stitch which will add bulk, slip the needle under the thread, through the stitch that was taken before as shown in the picture.

Continue to stitch paths from each of the five corners of the pentagon. Your ball will look like this picture.

For the next thread path, start the thread at the point of the star you just formed (blue dot in picture) and travel across the hexagons as before. Take an anchoring stitch each time you come to a pentagon point. Work your way around back to where you started. Notice that this is now a complete 12 way intersection.

Stitch the paths for all five points. Your ball now looks like this picture. At this point I find it easiest to turn the ball to the opposite pentagon (S pole) and repeat the process of adding the lines on that pentagon. Then you will only have a few more to place around the midsection in order to complete the 122 layer.

The completed 122 layer; all pentagon areas will look like the one shaded in the picture.

Step 4 - Using the multiple of three method again

To complete the design you will continue to apply the multiple of three method until the density of the threads on the ball is to your liking. For this particular example I will do two more layers. The next one is a 362 facet layer and will be worked in the middle ground color (orange). You still want to use a pentagon as your starting point, placing the tacking stitches as before. Then, move to the opposite pentagon and lastly work the middle sections. There will be more rows to complete in the middle section for this layer.

Pictures of 362 layer

After the first pentagon is complete. Notice that the arrangement of threads is the same as before, only smaller.
After the opposite pentagon is complete.
A side view after top and bottom pentagons are complete.
The completed 362 layer. Each pentagon area looks like the one that was shaded in the previous layer picture above, only smaller.

The last layer for the example

On the last layer for this example ball you will need to use multiple colors to get the full effect of the shading. You will place the lines in exactly the same way but in order to get a smoother final look, you will not do all of the tacking stitches. This is true for the last layer regardless of the color scheme you are using.

Start by using your inner color (red in this case) to stitch the lines that go through the pentagon. You will leave off the tacking stitches inside the pentagon and only tack at its corners so that you get a smooth five point star. The first picture in this section shows where to tack (black circles) and the second one shows the pentagon area after all the lines are in place.

Notice in the first picture that the shaded hexagons are not complete at this point. Still using your innermost color (red) add the lines necessary to complete these hexagons so that they look like the one circled in the second picture.

Next, use your medium color to work the lines that are just outside of the center ones you just did. There will be the ones going through the corners of the pentagons and the hexagons of the previous layer.

Lastly, use your background color (yellow) to work the rest of the lines for the layer. Note that you do not need to tack every 12-way intersection as you complete it. You will get a smoother look to the ball if you only tack in the pentagon areas as needed to keep the thread on the right path. It is pretty difficult to see the hexagons at this point in the marking. But if you look carefully you can see the sections where the two yellow lines need to go. Just space them evenly in the section and don't worry too much about the hexagons. (Note: if you were actually trying to mark a 1082 with marking threads to use as the basis for a design then you would have to be more careful.) Congratulations! You've finished!

Next steps

You can use this method in lots of different ways and with other color schemes rather than just sticking with a shaded look. If you are trying to get a gradation of color out from the centers there are a few guidelines you can consider. The initial marking up to the number of centers that you want on the final design should be done in the color you want to have in the middle of the centers. The next layer after that should be in your background color to give the separation for the shaded centers. As you continue to add layers you will need to look to see where the lines you are adding are located relative to the centers and the background rows you did. If they are close toward the design centers then they should be colored in center colors, if they are in the background area they should be colored in background colors. In my experience it is not until you get to the 1082 layer that you typically need to have more than one color in a layer.

I've done a very limited number of variations with this method as I worked to figure out the shading. I have not fully explored some of the other possibilities that could be done. Here are a few that I can think of to try...

• You can try to alternate two colors between the layers or use a different color on each layer (pictured in the Edo Temari book).
• You do not have to stick to one color for each row of stitching; you can start and stop colors at any place of your choosing. For example, you might have a different color area in each of the initial C10 pentagons.
• You do not have to complete the marking on any given layer, maybe leave off the marking lines inside the pentagons when they get too small but continue to add them in the more open areas. Or choose to leave other areas more open.
• You could also use a single color for the marking, but use a contrasting color or colors to do the tacking stitches in each layer.

Variations I've played with

Pink Centers

A second attempt. This one still does not use a strict shading of colors. It is based on 12 centers rather than 32 or 42. The green was the 122 layer. The pentagons got too small so I left the lines out of their centers for the 1082 layer. This is notebook entry #070603.

Different colors in each layer

For this one I experimented using a different color in each layer. Again, I ran out of room in the pentagons and I found that I liked the look without the last layer complete. It is notebook entry #070605.

My Pansies ball

This was a much larger ball and was based on a 32 rather than a 42 for the design centers. I didn't seem to get as satisfactory a background fill as I do with 42 centers. I ran out of room at the 812 layer although if I really tried I probably could have finished the 2432 layer but I thought it would be too crowded. This one is notebook entry #070701.

Shades of Blue

This one uses the exact same method as the yellow/orange/red one I used as the demonstration for this page. The fiber used is DMC floche, which is slightly smaller than #8 perle cotton and softer. It is well suited for this sort of work. This is notebook entry #070805.

Yellow/Orange/Red

This is the ball used for the pictures in this investigation. It uses the exact same method as the blue one above but with #8 perle instead of floche. It is more difficult to get a smooth line with the perle because of the harder twist in the thread. This is notebook entry #071003.

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