SKYE - a new tangle!

Wow. I am really thrilled with this one! Yes, there are step-outs!

(Oh, alright! Skip to the step-outs! But come back up to see/read all the rest, okay?)

I noticed this interlacing on the box of the game Isle of Skye. It's a classic Celtic interlacing pattern, which, if you follow a strand, you'll notice is composed of two strands, not one. (I enjoyed the game, by the way.)

This is the pattern stripe from the game's box.

Deconstructing this pattern encountered a lot of false starts.

Once I had figured out how to draw it, I drew it a few times on a tile. I wanted to be sure I knew what I was doing before I pretended to explain it to others.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Pearlz, Skye, Tipple

Blue Skye! Honestly, I wasn't thinking that when I did this. I just had a tile with a blue wash sitting waiting.

Tangles: Bunzo, Crescent Moon, Pearlz, Phuds, Skye

The step-outs!

(Updated step-outs posted 2016 September 2)
Don't forget to shade it, although it looks quite alright without. Have fun!

Tangles: Cruze, Elven, single Pearlz, Skye, Zonked

Tangles: Skye, Tipple, and wavy lines

UPDATE: 2016 May 19

Well, my goodness! People are having lots of fun with this tangle, to the extent that some are posting alternate step-outs and video demos. Here are three videos offering basics and further explorations such as ending a row of Skye, and doing Skye in a circle.

The first is from Bunte Gallerie on YouTube:


The next is one is from Kathrin Bendel, also on YouTube. Kathrin is a CZT in Germany and made this (her first!) video as an additional instruction to some who were having challenges drawing Skye.


And one from Ellen Wolters, who has done video demos of a great many tangle patterns.

Celtic knot tangle sampler

Judy West posts a Celtic challenge every two weeks. I usually don't manage to participate, but #31 appealed because I'd have a sampler showing a good selection of tangles that are linear, for thin places and border ideas. FORTY tangles in fact! It will be a handy reference.

I copied the knot in pencil onto a 9" square of paper. I wanted it to have an even more Celtic look when I was finished so I chose some "Celtic" colors: red, blue, green, and brown and added a few small circles for 'jewels'. I caught myself in time and was able to organize the tangles:

'Official' Zentangle tangles are GREEN.
Tangles that I designed myself are RED.
Tangles that other people have designed are BLUE.

Tangles used:

'Official' Zentangle tangles : Avreal, Betweed, Chainging, Finery, Knase, Meer, Quib, Rain, Snail, Vega, Xyp, Zander (and Hibred, which is in blue).

Tangles that I designed : Chebucto, Copada, Ionic, Lamar, Many Moons, Prestwood, Seljuk, Zedbra as well as Ninja Stars and Screen, both of which are not linear tangles, but most square grid tangles can be used as a single row to make a linear pattern. Plus, of course, Black Pearlz; I can hardly do a piece without those!

Tangles that other people designed : Adente, Blake, Coaster, C-scape, Diamond Drops, Elven, Firecracker, Flez, Fohbraid, Japonica, Kandysnake, Paisley Boa, Puffle, Ragz, Snugz, Unyun, Wud, and Zewm and Hibred together in one section.

More triquetra strings

Last week I showed some Zentangle tiles using a simple Celtic knot triquetra as a string in this post. At the end I said I'd try some more intricate knots, so here goes!

The triquetra is often done with an added circle, so I tried one of those.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Beadlines, Fleurette,
Knightsbridge Aura, Ragz (with Rounding)

I also did one without doing 'bands', just the triquetra to divide the space.

Tangles: Flux, Providence, Purslane (a Flux variation),
Tipple, Tripoli (3 versions)

Here is the basic triquetra with an added loop in the middle.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Camelia, Cruffle, Pearlz, Tortuca

Celtic triquetra as a string

Tangles: Betweed, Black Pearlz, elements of Tripoli,
and Auras resembling Auraknot or Hibred

TRIQUETRA comes from the Latin for "three-cornered" and originally referred to a variety of three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it refers exclusively to a more intricate shape that is often found in Celtic artwork. It is formed from three vesicae piscis, interlaced. It's not unusual to see it with an added circle.

While Christians often use it as a symbol of the trinity, the triquetra has been used - long before Christianity - as a symbol of things that are threefold: infancy/adulthood/old age, mother/father/child, earth/sea/sky, the virgin/mother/crone of the Celtic goddess, etc.. It has been found on old Germanic coins and on northern European runestones. Here is a slightly different triquetra design on one of the Funbo runestones.

I've been learning a bit about how to draw Celtic knots recently. The triquetra is the simplest knot and makes a simple, interesting string to begin a Zentangle. I was quite pleased with the results. The biggest challenge for me was to place an equilateral triangle in a square! At the top of this post is the first one I did. I was intending to use Sue Clark's tri-shape string, thus the square in the background, but the circle didn't make it! I found the triquetra a bit small in that one, and in my next effort I filled the entire tile with it.

Tangles: Chebucto, Keenees, Mi2, Tipple

The trefoil is a related image; simply round the three outer points of the triquetra. You can see a tile I did with a trefoil, and a two-pencil string, at the end of this post. I will attempt other, more intricate knots. Stay tuned!

Over-the-top strings

from the Knotplot site

I don't really expect anyone to use many of these possibilities for Zentangle strings (although some of them are a tempting challenge!) There are some simple knots here too - and the images are such fun to look at that I just had to share. There are a lot of mandala-type knots too. Enjoy a cruise through the Knotplot site!

decorative knot on white, 15sept03b, from the Knotplot site

from the Knotplot site