Xyppity Doo Dah

I thought for a moment I might skip this week's challenge. There seemed to be so much to fit in. Mind you, it has made me look on Seton more kindly. I even went back and worked on the first effort for last week. It is coming along but still not yet fit for human consumption. And I did alter the spiral on the finished one, just a little, but it works well now. No longer a bump on a log.

The challenge for this week, to use three tangles (Trio, Huggins and Xyp), was a bit tricky. They are each great tangles (Trio is a new one to me, but I can see it rapidly becoming a favourite), but to put them together? Well, I suppose it is called a Challenge for a reason. It has taken me some days to work it out. Every morning this week I have woken at 4 am, on the dot, for who knows what reason (alarm is set for 6 am). But it has afforded me good thinking time for a number of things, including 'how do I put these three together?'

So here's the end result:

I didn't like it much until I loaded it into my photo-edit program to reduce the size. Funny how you can find ways to look at things anew. Turning them over for a few days (like last week), or putting them on a computer screen. I actually quite like this. 

Xyp was my starting point, with a two-pencil string. I love Xyp, as in really love. It has a lovely calligraphic quality, which can be really played up. Little Baroque flourishes, extra embellishments, all sorts of possibilities. I often play with this. My very first paying job was when I was twelve, using calligraphy to write names on invitations for the local music store (they had monthly concerts). So anything calligraphic I'm there.

And three cheers for the lovely brown Sakura pen. How to stop Xyp and Trio merging or competing in one easy step.

Oh, and you know how Maria says no erasers because nothing is ever wrong? Listen to her. Really, no erasers. I went a bit gaga with shading under the Xyp ribbon and hated it, so for the very first time I rubbed out something on a Zentangle tile. The paper really, really does not like it. It does not take it at all well. Next time I'll just live with it.