UMT Diva Challenge 183: X-did

So, this week's challenge from our beloved old married lady Diva
is to use the tangle x-did by Annette Carlo. (see what I did there? Two links...one to the challenge, and one to the 10th Anniversary Edition of the blog!)

I struggled with this, truly. Because it is so linear and has so many sharp corners and not much free form, I was having difficulty being creative. I still think I haven't done it as much justice as many others, but have been playing with it daily for the whole week.

My first piece:

this was actually me just practicing it. I finished three rows, then started weighting the v on each repeat. When I put the circles inside the weighted v's, it began looking like a bird condo, so I put in a bunch of bird on a wire for fun.
The only thing I liked about this was that I let myself "see" something in the pattern as I played with it.

Now, this pattern has oodles of potential. You can change it up any way you want. Do it large, do it small, embellish it, add lines, shading, etc. I know this, and haven't been happy that I remained uninspired.

So I played with it some more. The main feature of this pattern that came out as I played is the trio of diamond shapes that sit, one on top of the other, within each repeat. I played with that over a few themes and came up with this:

I like this one a bit better, because at this point I was playing and letting myself delve into the pattern more thoroughly. I was pleased that it was showing me itself. (Note in the middle tier, the left most repeat, I flubbed it and covered my mistake with white gel. Sorry...right outside the zen quality of zentangle.
This still is so uncreative. Right inside the box, is what. But, the pattern is fun to play with, and I did have fun exploring.







And so, we come to my favorite sample:

when I singled out one repeat of the pattern and stopped and looked at it, there was Argyle Sock staring me right in the face!
It was even moreso, with color.

This pattern, looking so argyle-ish, would be fun to put with last month's UMT Mac Dee. In fact, wouldn't it be interesting to "plaid" some of the more linear and gridlike patterns?