Ask and ye shall receive

Last year I got terribly stuck on a Cosmo pattern. It bugged me for months. After many tries at working the ball from a picture (no pattern), several tantrums and a few balls being thrown across the room I reluctantly decided to ASK for help. I am a firm believer in the importance of mentoring. But I always have trouble asking for help. Ironic isn't it?

This week Shirley (one of the ladies in our expanding Temari making group here in Perth) was having trouble with TemariKai  Pattern 99LW10 so she asked me if I could work it out with her.  Well I looked at the sheet she had printed out and saw the diagrams showed pole views and an equator image. Then I scanned through the pattern wording and promptly led myself down the wrong garden path. Somehow when I went back to the diagram I had forgotten it showed pole views and that's where the problems started. I scanned over but missed entirely two crucial phrases 'Stitch triangles A-B-C-A on the extra marking lines', and 'The base of the triangles will cross the South Pole.' Yep I had myself thinking of it as an obi (stitching in the area around the equator) design with kikus stitched at each pole. Half a dozen rip-outs, several hours and two headache tablets later... it occurred to me that asking for help was the next logical step.

This is one of the most awesome parts of being a member of the Yahoo groups. There is a whole world of folk willing to share their expertise and different viewpoint just a few clicks away... and they all do it for no more reward than a hearty email thank you.

So while I tucked myself up in bed... several kind people on the other side of the world took time out of their busy lives to help me out by answering my query. 
Linda (the pattern author) emailed me twice - even though she was on holiday.
Barb illuminated me to the fact that the flower shape appeared only on the north pole and the basket crossed over the south pole.
Debi sent me a wonderful diagram showing a side view of the pattern and a detailed set of notes (even though she has never made this ball before).
Ginny confirmed there was no underground stitching in the basket area.
Charla dug through emails in an old email account to find correspondence between herself and Linda where there was a side view photo of the design.
and Kristy emailed to see how I was going with the design and if I'd managed to work it all out.
 

Wow!!! When I woke this morning all the answers were sitting in my inbox. By lunch time I had stitched the basket section of the design.  I did mess up a bit of the weaving in two places (should have gone under but went over instead) but I think so far it has turned out pretty good. Here is what it looks like so far...

Thank you again to everyone that helped out. I am really lucky to have made so many temari buddies all over who are so willing to share. If you're not already a member of one of the Yahoo Temari groups, I highly recommend you join up.