It’s Challenge Time!

When we worked with the triangles & pretzels, I showed how to do knots without that center band. I did that for a few reasons. Primarily, as you start to design carpet pages and work with the knotwork in irregular spaces, grids and what-not are going to be harder and harder to come by. The other reason is that I find it really fussy to *always* work it out on graph paper and then try to adapt it to an actual piece. So here’s the assignment: Can you do a simple twist around a circle without using a center line? And I’d like you to start getting used to using as few guide marks as possible (less erasing). I’ll show you how to set it up. But lets practice a bit first:

On your sketch paper draw 2 fairly long parallel lines, 1/2” apart. Make tic marks (top & bottom) every 1/2”. Give yourself as much room as you need to start feeling comfortable. Now, draw in your top & bottom curves, centered between the tic marks and letting the right-hand side cross over into the space for the next arc (remember the discussions on which direction the knots will “pull”?). These will be the outer edge of your bands. Here’s how mine looks:

Next, draw in the inner edge of your bands on the top. Extend your lines a bit more. Notice how the inner edge is aligned. It should naturally become the outer edge of the lower curves & create the “over” portion of the twist. You may need to correct some angles & extend your lines. Don’t worry if it looks a little messy. That’s what erasers are for.

Now complete the lower curves. Try to keep the width of your bands consistent. You may need to correct the angles and refine a bit. That’s fine. Notice mine is *really* sloppy looking at this stage.

Clean it up, and there you go. Mine still looks pretty rough. This is about 3 times the size I usually do a twist in… hmmm… maybe the teacher needs more practice too!

Now for the fun part. Let’s bend it around a circle.

Just like you did for the braid, draw a center line, pick a midpoint, measure up 2” and draw a circle 4” in diameter. Now make a tic mark 1/2” from that circle, moving back toward the midpoint. Draw in another circle using the tic mark & the same midpoint. This one should be 3” in diameter.

Now with the protractor, mark around at 20 degree intervals. Using your ruler, make tic marks to guide you.

So now that you’ve had practice doing a twist in a straight line, apply the same steps to going around the circle. I’ve re-discovered that at this scale, I’m much neater if I draw in both edges of the bands at the same time. Do whatever works best for you, just make sure your weave pattern is constant.

So those of you who aren’t math challenged have probably realized that this is two bands of interlace (twist = 2 curves for a full repeat; 360 degrees in 20 degree segments = 18 segments. An even number of curves keeps this two bands). The question is: is that what we want? Let’s pretend the answer is no. There’s a bunch of ways to address/fix it:

#1 Figure it out before hand. We need an odd number of curves, but want to keep them relatively the same size as we have here. If we make it 19 segments, instead of the 18 we’ve done, we’d make a tic mark at *about* every 19 degrees on the protractor (360 / 19 = 18.94736etc) . Or we could make it 17 curves. That would be a tic mark *about* every 21 degrees (360 / 17 = 21.17647etc). Or we could sacrifice size and make it 15 curves, with tic marks every 24 degrees (360 / 15 = 24). Oy. Makes my head hurt…

#2 Break the pattern & join the bands in some way (only once!) like these:

#3 Rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. Pick an area & rework the curves, sneaking an extra one in (my preferred method if I didn’t think of it before I started the whole thing & I don’t want to break the pattern). This is essentially the same as fix #1, except you don’t make yourself crazy counting little lines on a protractor!

Still with me? Next, some rules for working with braids & plaits.

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Rosemary (aka Tess) - [/color]
[FONT="Book Antiqua"]How does she do that??? Find out here:[/color] Celtic Art 101

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.[/left]

Hopefully, y’all aren’t completely tangled in bending a running border around a circle!

To start with, we’ll use a pretzel knot & a triangle knot. And we’ll keep it simple. If you’re aiming to make a border or a ring of a circle all one line, an easy short-cut is to create a repeat that uses only one band to begin with. Like a pretzel knot. Or opening a triangle knot (only once!) in some way. To show what I mean, here’s the pretzel knot we’ll be using. All I’ve done is replace the bottom curve of the pretzel with a twist.

And here’s the slightly modified triangle knot. In this case, I broke one of the curves & turned them into straight bands.

Now, the nice thing about this is that no matter how many of either of those you connect up, it’ll still be all one band as long as you’re using those open ends. If I go too fast or skip over something you’d like in more detail, definitely let me know!

Ready?

For this one, we’ll be doing a 9-pointed star ringed by a 4band plait. So just like for the previous section, we’ll start drawing in some concentric circles. Draw in your center line, pick your midpoint, & draw in a circle that’s 5” in diameter, then 4”, and finally 2”. With your protractor, make tic marks every 20 degrees. Going around the circle, draw in a solid line from your first tic mark to the midpoint. At the next tic mark, just make little marks across the lines for your circles to the midpoint. Once you’ve gone around, erase the midline that’s breaking the pattern. You should have something that looks like this:

Now from the tic mark on the outside edge of your 2nd ring, draw a straight line to the next solid line on the inner edge. From the same tic mark, draw in a straight line to the other solid line. After you’ve gone around the circle, you should have this:

So in your center ring, draw in the pretzel knot using the solid lines & your tic marks to help you get the spacing right. Pretty neat, eh?

Moving to the middle ring, flip the pretzel knot so the twist portion is pointing outward. Now, for this one, I won’t be joining the rings of knots. *But* if you want to, in order to keep your weave consistent, this 2nd ring will need to run the opposite direction as the center ring (it’s because these knots are only one band). So the center in my example is rotating clockwise. The 2nd ring rotates counter-clockwise.

Next comes the triangle knot. Work two of them in the spaces between the points like this:

After you’ve gone around the circle, you should have something that looks like this:

And last step, put a 4-band plait in that outside ring. For this example I’m not all that concerned about trying for all one line. So ‘cause its easy I’m doing 2 curves on the outside per section. And out of habit, I’ve got them pulling clockwise. If I wanted to connect the middle ring to the outside, the plait would need to pull counterclockwise. Use the tic marks to help you get the spacing right. I’ve done it here as a progression.

And here it is completed:

Thanks to a little photoshopping, here’s what it would look like if we had the middle ring rotating clockwise, too.

The difference between the two is very subtle, but it is there in how the viewer’s eye moves around the circle. This is something to keep in mind when you’re composing a larger piece. Sometimes, you need to run things in an opposite direction. It helps to hold the piece still for the viewer.

Ready to move on?

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Rosemary (aka Tess) - [/color]
[FONT="Book Antiqua"]How does she do that??? Find out here:[/color] Celtic Art 101

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.[/left]

Ok, on this one, we’re going to shoot the moon. By the time we’re done, it *will* be all one band. We’ll be using 4 main elements. A braid in that outside ring, then 3 different knots. Two of the knots are variations of the same triangle knot. Here are the knots:

Knot A should be fairly familiar from the pretzels & triangles thread. Now, notice that B and C are essentially the same, except instead of a point at the bottom, I’ve substituted a curve. That’ll make sense in a sec. If you want to see a step-by-step of how to draw these, let me know.

So lets start drawing in our circles. Just like before, draw your midline & pick your midpoint. We’ll be drawing 3 concentric circles again (did I mention I have a thing about threes?). Outside circle will be 6” in diameter, then 5”, and lastly 3”. With your protractor, make tic marks every 10 degrees. We’ll start by dividing our circles into 12 pie pieces. So starting at your midline, skip the next 2 tic marks & draw a line at the 3rd mark (30 degrees) that passes through the midpoint to the other side. Make tic marks for the other degree points across your circle lines (10 & 20 degrees). Here’s what mine looks like:

In that middle ring, start at your midline. Draw a line from the inner edge of the ring to the next tic mark on the outer edge of the ring. Repeat on the other side of your midline. Now do the same around the circle at *all* of the solid lines. You’ll end up with something that looks like a bunch of chicken feet like this:

So starting with your center ring, draw in knot B. As usual, I’ve done mine pulling clockwise.

In the middle ring, work knot C with the curve snugged up to the outer edge of the ring. Make sure it’s pulling the same direction as the center ring. Once again, mine is going clockwise.

Now work knot A in the triangle spaces you have left. Unlike the previous examples, we don’t need to do two of them. If the line that divides that triangle in half is confusing you, go ahead & erase it. I like to leave it ‘cause it helps me get the points right. But do what works for you. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, this is our repeat unit.

Now for the braid in the outer ring. This is the tricky part. Getting it to line up correctly with the middle ring is crucial. So instead of starting to draw your curves for the bands on the outer edge of the ring (like usual), start on the inner edge. We need a curve to run next to that middle curve of knot A and the curve of knot C. So start with those (ignore the erased bits… got a little ahead of myself).

Now fill in the other curves you need on that inner edge like this:

Now do the outer edge. Remember that for a braid the curves don’t mirror each other. So for this I’ve got 4 curves on the outside edge of the ring like this:

Ok, because I’m neater if I do the whole thing at once, I’ll go ahead and fill in the braid the rest of the way around. If you want to go section by section, that’s just fine. Just make sure all of your “overs” are pulling the same way. Looking at the outside edge of the braid, mine are going *counter-clockwise*. This is of *huge* importance a bit later when we start joining the separate knots together.

So now that I’ve got the braid finished, I’ll repeat knots A, B, & C around the circle like this:

Here they are, all filled in:

Whew. Next, let’s connect them.

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Rosemary (aka Tess) - [/color]
[FONT="Book Antiqua"]How does she do that??? Find out here:[/color] Celtic Art 101

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.[/left]

Ok, I have *no* idea what happened, but it’s been brought to my attention that these two layout images I posted are *not* correct for the simpler pretzel/triangle circle demo. They are correct for the monster-make-it-all-one-line demo. I’ll try to post the correct ones later tonight. So so sorry if I’ve confused anyone!

[/QUOTE]

Tess

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Rosemary (aka Tess) - [/color]
[FONT="Book Antiqua"]How does she do that??? Find out here:[/color] Celtic Art 101

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.[/left]