Cubine and Pokeroot challenge

It's a duotangle challenge this week from the Diva. One tangle (Cubine) I like and use frequently; the other (Pokeroot) I dislike drawing and hardly ever use. So Pokeroot is my challenge this week!

Here's my effort. It reminds me of a mushroom factory with packing crates. I thought I'd have time to do another or two, but no.

Chebucto and Copada

I just returned from two weeks vacation and noticed a blog post that made me exclaim, "Hey! Somebody used my tangles!" That's always cool.

Then I realized that it was a response to the Diva's challenge this week. Wowee! Do a duo-tangle using two of my tangles. It's the first time ever that a duo-tangle challenge is not official tangles. What an honor!

Here's my first response to this challenge. I've never done Copada like this before - it just happened - but I quite like the series of wavy lines; it's a little like wood grain. Trying to run Chebucto off into nothingness was quite a challenge. I don't think I'd recommend it!

I wondered what these two tangles would look like running into and through each other, so I did a very simple string (three lines in each direction) and tried to alternate the tangles. I'm quite pleased with this tile! I like the large white spaces.

Both of these tangles are trickier to organize around a corner or on a curve. That's probably true about most 'border' tangles. Here's a MINI-TUTORIAL about sending Chebucto around a corner.

MB duotangles

Another duotangle challenge! I quite like these, and this time we are to choose which tangles to use based on our initials. I thought I should use some of my own tangles too, so I used:

M - Morse

B - Boss

That was fun! I was taken with the idea and did another one, this one using:

M - Meer

B - Blake (scroll down)

Unfortunately it looked like a jumble of non-descript shapes, even when I make the background really gray. So I added a bit of color to define the Meer strips. It's a lot better. Both are on white tiles.

Auraknot / Mooka duotangle

That's this week's challenge from the Diva, who will soon be flying off to Providence RI USA for the next CZT seminar. :)

I took to Auraknot when it was first presented (and here), but Mooka has always been a bit of a nemesis. I like seeing it in others' work, but almost never like it when I did it. The ends always look blobby.

I admit it. I tore up the first tile I started. Mooka looked blobby again, and it wasn't working with Auraknot. I glanced at my desk and spotted some tan tiles and thought, "The tan tiles usually end up looking pretty terrific. Maybe I can scare a good Mooka out of a tan tile." Here's my second tile, on tan (Renaissance) paper, and I love it! I think I'm on to something to remedy the blobbiness!  More on that later.

I decided to try another on a black tile. I don't use those very often but I guess I was spurred on by success.

So, my little epiphany about how to avoid blobbiness? I realized that I hadn't been curling the top of the frond enough before adding the blob. When it curls more it actually looks rather elegant. It needs to curl way around, almost back to the original long line. There is a space between the blob and the stem and it's almost the same shape as the blob itself. See the difference:

TA-DA!!! Maybe now I can do a decent Mooka!

Well. Punzel needs practice.

A duotangle challenge again! The two tangles are Well, which I've done a few times and rather enjoy, and Punzel, which I really like the look of but find challenging to draw.

Earlier this week I had the lovely opportunity to visit with Laura (the challenge Diva), Lisa Heron (CZT from nearby Regina), and Jenny Farrell (CZT from far-away Melbourne Australia). Jenny gave us some Aussie cut-outs for potential tangling, and I did this week's challenge on the Australia shape.

I started with Punzel on the far right, from Mungkan Kandju National Park to Melbourne. I totally botched it, but it's still interesting!
I tried again, in the middle, in a north-south route through Alice Springs. It's a little less wayward, but still not Punzel or even Chainging. I decided that perhaps I should check the instructions. Aha! Discovered where I was going wrong.
Third try lucky. And fourth. Both in Western Australia.
Then I added various incarnations of Well in the blank spots. That was easy.

And here's a photo of we four CZTs, on Laura's fabulous new deck.

Margaret, Jenny, Laura, Lisa