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Temari are layered in earthy images. The ball is marked according to the Earth's axis, from North Pole to South, then around the equator. The stitches are made "underground," through the "core" of thread wraps. The names in Japanese are evocative of earthiness; the names of Suess' designs are earthy with hints of the East: "Hands Around the World," "Long Life" "Guardian Star," "Heaven's River."

The ball I made is "Autumn Moon," a name that reflects not only the colors Suess chose for her model, but also the full orb of the autumn sky, with simple accent stitches that reflect the autumn harvest. With silvery threads as guiding lines, I began wrapping, like adding paint to a drawing. The skills needed are minimal: Winding string around a ball and making straight stitches to secure the ends and crossover points.

By the time I was wrapping golden floss around the equator, I realized that I was headache-free for the first time all day. I was pleasantly surprised by the symmetry and play of color shaping itself under my hands. I thought of nothing but laying one thread along another. I did not think about the next color, the next step until it came. It all flowed together. I didn't even notice that Suess had completed her ball and set it aside, and had, in fact, gone into the next room to fetch more balls to show me. When she showed me one ball, my mind goggled a bit at the interplay of pentagons and triangles. I turned back to Autumn Moon, one of the simplest designs in the book.

As I put in the final glittering stitches, she talked of making the book. With each pattern, she paired a haiku, researched in UNC's Davis library, where she pored over tomes of text now in the public domain. An artist friend, Peggy Taylor, painted a watercolor image that reflects the spirit of each ball. The patterns themselves are arranged from simple to complex, layering one method upon another.

As I gathered up the scraps of thread -- they're called "orts," if you want to be all properlike -- I noticed that the brown floss I used was really striking against my green shirt. If I paired those colors against a black core, with a touch of gold ... hmmm.

Suess looked at the temari.

"It's not like you can sleep with it, like a blanket, or wear it," Suess said, not really apologetically.

But it is a thing of beauty. And it has powers beyond itself, both in the making and the holding. Make one your own self and find out. Headache optional.

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