How to draw YAROPE

Hello my tangling friends, so good to see you again!

The fun and easy Yarope tangle to begin our week is from Texas tangler Alexandra Wright. This is her fourth tangle on the site, most recently we explored her Conkle tangle.

Alexandra explains her inspiration for Yarope and how she named it:

I spend a lot of time with yarn in my hands. I’ve been crocheting since I was 9 years old and I’ve been knitting for nearly a decade as well. The feel of the yarn slipping between my fingers as well as the repetitive motions of stitching are soothing.

One day, I set my crochet hook down and just stared at the yarn in my hand. I admired the way the fibers twisted. Close up, yarn often looks just like rope. My eyes followed the twist. Depending on the brand of yarn, it can be categorized as s-twist or z-twist. I realized, as my eyes traced a single fiber, that I was using s-twist yarn. It took a while to register in my brain, but the repeated S could be transformed into a tangle! I grabbed pen and paper, and before long I had strands of yarn dancing across the page.

So, I offer to the Zentangle community: Yarope. My inspiration for the name: YArn ROPE.

I like to start with the S-curve somewhere in the middle of the page and just add to either end, turning the paper as needed. It’s fun to watch the strand twist and curve, changing thickness and direction with a life of its own. However, if you want to structure where the strand of Yarope will lie, you can use one of your tile’s strings as a guideline.

In her example Zendala above, Alexandra combines Yarope with Conkle and Ennies.

I find the S-curve pleasing and mesmerizing to tangle, I frequently border the edges of my notebook pages with chains of them. For my Yarope example I used some striping as a fill and Alexandra shows us several other ideas to explore.

Alexandra illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Yarope below where her monotangle tile shows how by using double S-strokes and filling the spaces with orbs you end up creating the Zentangle®-original Purk.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining what copyright means in plain English. “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Jiminy Cricket

In this graphic Alexandra illustrates some ways to explore variations and embellishments.

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!

Check out the tag alexandraw for more of Alexandra’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

Related Links

1. Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
2. What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
3. Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
4. How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
5. Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
6. "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Thus patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
   • Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
   • Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
7. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
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