Cabin Fever vs. Celtic Knots

Cabin fever, Day 11.  Another couple of inches of snow, on top of the ice, on top of the snow, on top of the ice.

Can't go out, too old to sled, too lazy to clean house. What to do? Zentangle, of course. But today I'm playing with Celtic Knots. I've always wanted to learn to draw them (and there is an actual Celtic Knot Tangle) and found a wonderful Youtube channel called The Celtic Goldsmith. The first lesson in his series is drawing the Celtic Triskele, perhaps the simplest and oldest documented Knot. Here's the "stepout" (a series of steps to draw a tangle): 

Not terribly difficult, if you follow instructions, and don't go merrily drawing the next step without checking the previous one, like I did in the crossed out step in the second row. Now for some tiles:

First the obvious. Four Celtic Triskele, with Betweed, Paushkalov (aura'd), on a background of Tipple. Except for the Celtic Triskele, all of these patterns can be found at tanglepatterns.com.

Next, I tried using the Celtic Triskele as a string, filling with Cadent, Fife, and Ditto. Again, these tangles can be found at Tanglepatterns.

Ruminations on a snowy day

After a week of being held captive in the house by a winter storm, it's time to stop procrastinating and start blogging. I've been thinking for awhile now that I should start a personal blog as a kind of journal. More efficient than writing in a book, prettier, too.

It will primarily be a place to share the art that I'm passionate about (Zentangle and pottery) plus a way to record experiences and feelings about cooking, gardening, Tai Chi, knitting, and life as an almost-70-yr-old retired fat lady.

Why Reluctant Rational? A while back, my niece posted a quiz on Facebook to determine which Keirsey Personality type you are. I so desperately wanted to be an Artisan. I've longed to be an Artisan most of my adult life, even though I was raised to value making money over making art. But alas, I'm a Rational. I'm too sensible to be spontaneous and creative and artistic. My mother's art genes went to my sister; My mother's music genes went to my brother. I was gifted with my father's tight-ass, rule-following, sensible genes.

Since I haven't tangled today, here are some shots of one of my knitted shawls, Come September:

 The completed shawl.

 I made the shawl to wear on our annual September vacation on Hilton Head Island. It's from a pattern by Boo-Knits called Ocean Breeze, knitted in Lichtfaden's Pure Silk Lace and Silk Halo, colorway "Promenade." Beads were added - Miyuki 6/0 Round, Pearl Ceylon, #6-591.

Come September draped over a chair in our condo.

Detail of the lace and beads.