Huggins is an official tangle pattern from Zentangle originators Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. It is one of several patterns resembling weaving that are great fun to draw.
Recently CST® Vicki Murray posted her illustration of Huggins, here (scroll down to May 15, 2010).
A variant of Huggins is W2 (Warp and Weft), drawn using straight lines instead of curved ones, and squares instead of dots.
Check out the tag: zentangle for more official Zentangle® patterns here on tanglepatterns.com.
Got ideas for pattern variations? Share with us in a comment!
I struggled with W2 and I mean struggled. But after I “got” Huggins, I was able to do W2. I have to hand it to Vicki: she is the one who revealed the mystery of weaving and Shattuck to me. Hooray for Vicki!
Neither Vicki nor Suzanne McNeill (who gives steps for W2) give explicit instructions for beginning the “down” connection. And it took me a while before I realized it is a simple formula. In case it helps anybody, think of the horizontal line connectors as marching up, down, up, down, the up and down being relative to the squares or circles they are joining. Adjacent lines mirror this alternating connection. So, two horizontal rows would read
1. up, down, up, down, up, down
2. down, up, down, up, down, up
When you go to start the vertical connections, the pattern is inside, outside, inside, outside relative to the circles or squares. And the trick is, if the horizontal connector is up, the vertical connector is inside. Carry on the pattern from there. If the horizontal connector is down, the vertical connector is outside. This works at any point in the pattern (good to know for continuing the pattern in odd little nooks and crannies).
That looks TERRIFYING in print because it takes so long to explain but you can readily “see” it with just a couple of lines of example and prove it to yourself.
P.S. If you start off the vertical incorrectly, you might just want to carry on because the resulting variant is actually quite pleasing.
Thanks for sharing, Kim. I’m sure it will help out a lot of folks. This is definitely one of those patterns that requires total concentration.
I try and I try but I can not get this down:/
For many tangle patterns, one of the “secrets” is to be sure to turn your tile as you work.
So with this one, try doing all the horizontal lines first – Kim’s “up, down” tip helps with that.
Then turn the tile 90 degrees, and you’ve got horizontal lines to deal with again. It does require your full deliberate attention to each stroke.
Hope this helps! Keep trying, once you get it the “ah hah” moment is worth it.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I assure you I had reams of pages of mangled Huggins before it finally clicked for me.
I have just read my post above and it reads like gobbledy gook so I won’t refer you to it but I can tell you that this is one of those ones you really have to deconstruct in your own mind–it had to “click” for me before I could do it, I couldn’t even just imitate it.
good luck!!!!!! Please let us know if you crack it.
this pattern need a lot of concentration and i need a lot of help
It definitely requires focus – have patience and you will get it.
I also had a horrible time with this one, and it finally clicked after trying many, many, many times.