As regular readers know, I love graphing radially symmetrical designs. Recently while graphing out a very large design, it occurred to me that the paper would be easier to use if it was laid out more like a web, with lines between the tethers. The original graph just had the radial lines laid out.



What makes it easier is that the lines connecting the tethers are spaced 5 beads apart, so there is less bead by bead counting to create a design. For the design above, I started by graphing the first ray.

As you can see, the design centers on one line with the outer beads between two lines. So following those lines and counting the length of beads before they angled, graphing out the second half was easy.


The open parts on the points of the hexagon were a little too closed, so I opened them up and continued graphing each link in different colors.


It went a lot quicker than usual, with no miscounted sections. After laying in all the sides, it was time to outline and do the over unders for the knotwork. Lover's knots are made of 2 twists which are knotted together. This one has 6 double twists to create the knots, and because of the size of the graph, the knotted parts are fairly tight. So I chose to do the lines in alternating colors to make it clear it's 6 separate pieces. Then put a simple trinity knot in the center.


You can find out a lot more about graphing out mandala type patterns here.

The design that inspired the new graph paper was a large trinity knot to put on teeshirts and other things at CafePress. I plan to do more patterns to put on items there, this will make it a lot easier!