Greetings my tangling friends and welcome back for another week of inspirational tangles.
Today’s a national holiday in Canada called Family Day and it’s also a federal holiday here in the USA, Presidents’ Day. So it’s a nice long weekend for many of us and also the beginning of Spring Break for many students.
In addition, tomorrow marks the beginning of celebrations for Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year.
Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year is a 15-day festival that is celebrated annually depending on the sighting of the new moon. The occasion is also known as the Spring Festival.
The 2026 new year is the Year of the Fire Horse, “symbolizing energy, strength, and independence.”
Whether you’re enjoying a long weekend, Spring Break, or celebrating the Lunar New Year – good luck, good health and happiness!
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Our nice easy Monday tangle Tolee is a lovely one from Japanese CZT Yumiko Kobayashi and it’s her first tangle on the site. Tolee is actually a tangleation of two familiar Zentangle®-originals.
Yumiko introduces Tolee and gives some tips for adding shading as well as suggestions for using it,
Tolee is a tangle inspired by Rain, a tangle from Zentangle Headquarters.
From Rain, let Fescu grow freely and organically, then thicken those lines to add accents.
It is a tangle with a strong presence even on its own, and when placed around the edges of a tile, it creates a stylish, antique atmosphere.
For shading, feel free to add it starting around the Rain areas.
By changing the length and direction of the Fescu lines, or increasing their number, you can create many interesting variations.
At long last all my computer time and tangling have caught up with me and I’m experiencing a dose of carpal tunnel syndrome – between the keyboard and the mouse as well as tangling, my right hand and forearm are screaming “uncle!!” So my examples over the next little while could well be a little wonky but we’re going with that. Ergonomic mouse pad and wrist splint are on the way, gentle exercises done on the regular.
Yumiko illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Tolee below and in her lovely Zentangle tile shows some ways to embellish it for variety with more Zentangle-original touches of goodness.
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. “Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.” ~ Franz Kafka
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. Republishing images isn’t allowed. Thanks!
Check out the tag yumikok for more of Yumiko’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
Related Links
- 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.
- What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
- Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
- 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.
- 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.
- "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." 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?
- How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
- For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
- Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
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- If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!
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February 16, 2026 | 
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