I have prepared 4 bases, as they are called in Japan, I was calling it a core which I guess is wrong and I will probably make a few more since there are some more silk threads for me to try, on the way. 

I used the same sized mandrel for all of the bases and I cut everything the same - the paper, the fabric lining and even the pattern paper and marked them with 30 divisions. I then took the silk I had, from my spinning supplies, to add the padding. To make sure all the patterns matched up I had to add a bit more or a bit less silk as I wound it around the base. 

The 4 bases are now ready for sewing, which I will cover in Part C and I will start with a size 8 Perle cotton.  

So I bet you are wondering WHY I am doing this. Well the answer is that I tried to sew this pattern with the Japanese silk and made an absolute mess of it. The silk kept twisting and knotting and I could not undo them so I had to cut the thread; my divisions, using the 15 per the original pattern and not the 30 I am suggesting you use, were all off and not evenly spaced;  and so I got frustrated with it and set it aside. 

That is when I had THIS idea to try different thread material and work my way down to finer threads.

This tutorial is a follow on to the The Hunt for Silk post from a few weeks ago. This tutorial will be made up of several parts that not only cover the pattern and sewing but I will sew the same pattern with different sized threads  - yes, I am making the same Yubinuki at least 4 times in cotton and 4 more in silk.  

So let's discuss the pattern (show below), here are the details

• Colors: 3 shown with Blue, Green and  White (shown as Grey)
• Needles: 3
• Divisions:  30

Sewing Notes: Each color is sewn, in order: once around in Blue, once around in Green, and once around in White. This is why you need 3 needles because using one needle and constantly re-threading the eye after each round would be extra steps. The sewing continues until all spaces are filled.

Note that after the first stitch at the top edge is taken, the second and all even numbered stitches, on the bottom edge is 3 divisions marks over.  The original pattern had 15 divisions and the second stitch was to be placed half way between two division lines, so I decided that to keep the sewing more even, it would be better to double the number of divisions; which makes the placement of the even stitch numbers much more accurate.

So what does the completed Yubinuki look like? Below the pattern are several images (used without permission) from the various Japanese books. 

So prepare your bases to follow along. 

Note: You may have to zoom in on the picture to see the lines, which are the threads, because with 30 divisions, I had to shrink the image to fit on the page.

And here is the completed Yubinuki