Diva Challenge 293 - Happy New Year and UMT - plus String Thing 179

Hello and a Happy New Year to tanglers the world over. Here in sunny Spain I am noticing that more people are getting into Zentangle, which is great. Maria Perez-Tovar is a CZT based in Madrid and is spreading the word officially there with fantastic results from her classes. I love seeing how quickly people grasp the concept and start flying with it.

And here in my little corner of the world, Alcala la Real, I have been holding weekly classes since October for a women's association. At first, we weren't sure if people would want to commit to two hours every week but the numbers have increased over the months and after the Christmas break of three consecutive Fridays without a gathering, our first class last week was both a joyful occasion and - it's true - a huge relief for some of those who are clearly more addicted than others! So be sure, if anyone visits Spain and is within striking distance of our little and very beautiful town, please drop in for a Friday evening's tangling, won't you?
I would dearly love to do the official course in Rhode Island but we struggle sometimes to make ends meet anyway and live a quiet life in the country with our three children (all of whom we hope we can put through University) so for now, I glean my knowledge and information from the wonderful people who share their experience on the internet. Not least Laura and Adele - whose challenges I have been taking part in for several years. It's been a bit sporadic recently due to my increased workload, but I am so grateful for the community of people that I have been able to follow through their commitment to offering us a weekly challenge.

This week on the Diva's Challenge, it's Use My Tangle week and we had the lovely Orbs-la-Dee by Anneke van Dam. I have always like the look of this one but never actually used it so that was a good start to the new year - I enjoyed it very much. My tile has a bit of a sea theme, I think. (And why is it that the scanner never reproduces all the shading???)

Likewise, I have  had the time to do Adele's Tickled to Tangle challenge this week too. And not just once, but twice. She gave us this loopy string and the tangles Dust Bunny, Betweed and Curl.

I did one version and enjoyed the process so much that I thought I'd do a second. Just shows how very different you can make one string and three tangles turn out!

This one wanted the string rotated...to the right

And this one has the string upside down. Love Curl, can you tell?

Thanks for popping by - I will be taking advantage of a little extra time today to look at what others have done with the challenge this week. Happy New Year. I think we can safely say it will be an 'interesting' one....