a Clockwork Rabbit

Since the http://www.uniimi.com site for the $3 SCARF PROJECT goes live today, I’m going to be hosting all the images of the newer scarves here for a day before I upload them to the store. I upload new scarves almost daily!

So, if you’ve already purchased your $3 SCARF and still need to pick on out, be sure to check back here often!

HOVER over the images of the scarves to see which ones are still available! This list is updated OFTEN!

This is my third year doing the $3 SCARF PROJECT and it’s taking off like crazy! Here’s the big post about the whole thing: http://wp.me/p1EJ9-we

So, just to keep everyone together on this I want to post a few updates:

1) as you may already know uniimi.com is joining forces and putting the word out/hosting an amazing storefront that will have all the for sale scarves listed. (This should go live October 24th.)

2) I have already raised 90% of my $50 goal and the list has only been live since Sat! You guys are amazing!

3)… I forgot.

I am busy crafting scarves as you read! People are donating scarves and helping me make them as well, which is amazing!

Take a moment to stop by http://www.kiva.org and join the $3 SCARF PROJECT lending team! http://kiva.org/invitedby/tangela6595

Why?

Because you get to see where your $3 go and you can be better in touch with not only the benefits of your donation but also see how micro-lending actually helps not only ONE family but, over time, several!

You have no idea how excited I am!

If you’d like to go ahead and purchase a $3 scarf BEFORE the uniimi store front opens please feel free to contact me on twitter @filthyrotten or email me: filthyrottenangel@gmail.com

Stay warm! Do Good!

It’s that time of year again when I go through my stash of yarn and pull out all the odd-lots of hand-spun yarn and impulse buy yarn and do something worthwhile with my crochet skills.

I started the $3 SCARF PROJECT on Etsy as a way to destash my HUGE amounts of hand-spun yarn that had built up during the year as well as to practice my skills on different stitches. My first year I just gave scarves away for free- I don’t count this year, really…the first OFFICIAL $3 S.P. I gave scarves away for free and asked for shipping ($3 at most) the second year I raised $55 for a local animal shelter’s Spay/Neuter program and this year I plan on donating/lending to Kiva.

Kiva is an amazing program! Here is a blurb from their site:

We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

This year my goal is to raise $50 for Kiva, lend it and when it gets repaid…lend it again…and again…and again. This way the $3 you spend on a single scarf helps several different families across the globe for who knows how long!

The beautiful thing is, next year, when I do the 4th annual $3 SCARF PROJECT I will raise another $50 which will give me twice as much lending power!

AWESOME!

ALSO! If you don’t want a scarf but would like to join me by donating, too, or just to join #TEAM3SCARFPROJECT please follow THIS link and sign up.

I am going to open the $3 Scarf List on Sat and will tweet where/how to send in your donations if you’re not local (or if you’d just rather use paypal).

Rules:

1. 3 scarves max per person.

2. No custom scarves this year, I’m sorry!

3. First to donate first to pick which scarf they’d like.

4. If you live outside of Georgia you will have to pay shipping on mailed scarves.

NOTE:

Most scarves will be 1 or 2 colors in simple designs.

All scarves are pre made.

Thanks you guys! I’ve already received so much support for this years project, I can’t wait to start!

UPDATE 10.12 @ 2:32pm:

SO the AMAZING Kassondraof üniimi.com just contacted me about helping out with the 3/SP!! They want to invite other artists to help out, too!

I’ve also gotten DMs on twitter and comments from other interested knitters and crochet fanatics about helping make scarves! Oh, man! OH, MAN! You guys are OUTSTANDING!

UPDATE 10.15.11: IT IS TIME! I am going to open the list today… remember guys its first to pay gets first pick of scarves.
Please submit your $3 to my paypal @ filthyrottenangel@gmail.com.
PLEASE BE SURE TO: add twitter name + shipping information to your payment.

stay warm, do good!

My amazingly talented sister-in-law Angeline and I are collaborating on a comic/novel that revolves around: Ryose, a Yakuza hit-man just past the bloom of his youth; Etienne, a  werehyena who works for the Cirque du Soliel and a full cast of werejaguars, werehyena, lions, penguins, megalomaniac lamia, gods, a fairy tale obsessed goddess, surfers, time travel, gangsters, war, selkies, Aston Martins, sirens, mermaids,  power bases, love and curtains.

We are having one hell of a good time writing this and the comic is coming along shortly… but for now, please take a moment to read this excerpt and tell us what you think!

-Tangela (@filthyrotten) & Angeline (@sable_kitty)

Sip from Another Cup (working title)

Etienne rocked and rocked and rocked, holding herself tight. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be tortured and then dissected for science. She didn’t want school children in classes to look at her skeleton and handle her bones. She didn’t want…to…die. She’d tried so hard… just to fit in, she tried…

With another anguished cry she jumped to her feet. “Please… please? Someone? SOMEONE!” She shouted against the door, banging until her fists were sore. When there was no answer she backed away from the door until her heels bumped the cot and she sat down abruptly.

“Think…think…” she curled her legs to her chest again and watched the door. Deep inside of her there was a stirring as her Inner Beast woke and sluggishly curled against the surface of her. In the dim light her eyes, battered and puffy, glowed like the sea just before dawn. Her wounds knit, slower than usual, but the scratches and bruises faded and healed. Her shoulder…with a snap… readjusted itself.

Strangely, while it felt cold and remote, the Beast seemed to be chiding her for her panic. “Why be afraid?” it seemed to ask her. “Anything comes through that door and we’ll rip it from its skin, we’ll roll in its blood… we will hunt it’s children.” It was almost comforting, such gruesome thoughts. Slowly her cold skin gained warmth and her panic subsided as she sat, still and quiet and watched the door.

Upstairs Devin had more than once rose in his seat, the cards falling slightly slack in his hands at the panicked noised from below. Ryose stopped him with a glare and he sat back down, then spared one for the doctor who, while he knew better than to rise from the ratty couch, looked very uncomfortable with the much muffled screaming coming from below their feet. He turned an ear in the direction of the voice, he couldn’t make out what was being said, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Help, let me out, you can’t do this, same old same old. Once it became quiet again Ryose folded his cards and placed them on the battered table top.

“If you want to help,” Ryose’s voice was quiet, calm, “Grab the dish and come with me.”

Ryose didn’t bother to look and see if Devin had taken the bowl of rice that had been sitting out since when the men and doctor had eaten, he knew that he would. That’s what made Devin a good little lackey, he followed orders to a T. Ryose waved to the doctor as he passed and the narrow, older man stood as well, following Ryose and Devin down the long flight of stairs into the basement.

Ryose spared the courtesy to knock on the door before unlocking it and turning the handle slowly. The bottle of chloroform was pinched between his fingers and wrapped in the cloth, ready to shatter at a moment’s notice. His instructions were very specific: any harm that came to her, other than what was instructed, would be inflicted on him as well. Ryose was determined to handle this with kid gloves.

“I am coming in, do not try anything.” he said in Japanese.

Enne had heard movement coming down the stairs, even though she strained her preternatural hearing she couldn’t be certain if it was more than one person coming towards her. She tensed when she heard the key scrape in the lock and by the time the door swung open she was already cartwheeling across the floor. As soon as Ryose entered the room she brought both heels against the door, slamming it shut, rebounded and then swept his legs out from under him.

Ryose felt the world slow once again as she kicked his feet out from under him and he was- briefly- airborne. He threw his arms back to catch himself and his palms caught flat against the floor. The impact reverberated through his body and he used his training to turn it to his advantage, as the wave reached his feet he threw his weight into a flip that turned him to face her, crouching in a stance.

“Mesu inu!”  ((Bitch!)) Where’d she learn how to do that? She was the soft, pampered daughter of an opium dynasty. “Watashi wa anata o kizutsukeru shitakunai, de mo boku wa yaru yo!” ((I don’t want to hurt you, but I will!))

The last thing Devin was expecting was for the door to slam, literally, in his face. He was thrown backwards against the wall with the force of it, clutching his nose with his good hand, as the rice fell, the dish striking the floor with a metallic ‘clang’. The doctor leaned over him immediately, pulling his hand out of the way, but Devin swatted him and, cowed, the older man stepped back.

Enne had fallen back and her crouch mirrored his almost exactly. She narrowed her eyes at his growl and spat back, in French, “Yeah? Fuck you, too, asshole.” She didn’t expect the Authority to have such common henchmen and for a moment doubt flickered. Instead of succumbing to worry she feinted at him and prepared to shift… but the change wouldn’t come. Enne cursed and watched Ryose while warily liking her lips. “Who are you?” She asked in French then again in English.

Ryose was surprised to hear her speak… something, and then English which he understood nominally. “Shi.” He spat back. “Representing organization in your taking, Sakuya Mikoto.” His accent was thick, but he thought she understood his meaning. Doubt was beginning to take hold. He couldn’t have made this big of a mistake, he couldn’t have. He didn’t make mistakes this big.

Devin thought he heard fighting from inside and he stood up with a groan. He wasn’t in a hurry; Ryose could handle himself against a little girl. It was when he heard French and English from behind the door that he started to worry.

“Yeah?” She asked cocking her head. From traveling with the cirque she knew a smattering of Japanese. He balanced well which meant trouble. His accent was too thick to understand much of what he said but since it was English he was mangling she answered in kind “You are death?” She smirked while inside she was struggling with the change. Her Inner Beast slipped through her mental grasping and faded away. “Thought you’d be…thinner” she quipped right before she leapt at him.

He side stepped, she was fast, but not fast enough. In the same motion he turned on his heel and snagged a wrist in his long hand and slammed it and then her against the wall. He pressed himself against her to stop her struggling before catching her other wrist.

Enne gasped, eyes wide. She couldn’t shift, she couldn’t shift! Etienne went wild against him, bucking and straining forgetting almost everything as she struggled like prey. Like prey. Something soft and weak and ready to die, the thought sobered her and she forced herself calm. Something was blocking her from shifting into her werehyena form, she could figure this out…she could get out of this.

“Many faces does death wear, this is but one.” He sneered, “However it is not your death that I am seeking.”

His words sank in and Enne went stiff, rearing back her head haughtily and narrowing her eyes before, like quicksilver, her expression changed. “Non…? Then what is it you seek?” She almost purred as she slowly rolled her hips and parted her legs around him. Enne was petit but curved in all the right places, from her well-muscled legs to her softly rounded hips. She thought of herself as passably pretty but she knew how to use what she had. She softened her heart shaped face and widened her blue green eyes into a fine mimicry of coy innocence as she stroked her legs up his and pressed her breasts against his chest. “This? Will this win me my freedom?” She looked at him through her lashes and grinned as she locked her legs around his hips ignoring the thuds and bangs that went on in the stairwell as Devin desperately slammed his shoulder against the door, but it was jammed tight.

Ryose was not unused to the attentions of women, he was, by most peoples’ standards a handsome man. Thin, a little too thin perhaps, but tall, and with a sharp hawk-like face, deep green eyes, and perfectly creamy skin, the kind most women had to use lightening creams to attain. The fact that his branch had several night establishments meant that he never went wanting, he wasn’t unfamiliar with women using their body to get what they wanted either. This was obviously what she was doing, although the speed with which she had switch gears was a little surprising. He was about to tell her so, when suddenly the door sprang inward and Devin tumbled in with it.

When Devin burst into the room Enne tensed wedging her knees tight under Royse’s ribs.She tried to force her change but again her Inner Beast slipped away, stranding her.

One look at what was going on and Devin leaped to the wrong conclusion. He opened his mouth to say something and Ryose silenced him with a look. “It’s not what it looks like. Now speak to this devil-woman and tell her we mean her no harm.” He snapped in Japanese at the American, tightening his grip on Etienne.

Devin put his palms forward in a calming gesture. “私たちはあなたを意味する…” He started.

“IN ENGLISH YOU OAF!” Ryose spat in Japanese, and Devin switched gears, cheeks coloring with anger and embarrassment.

“We mean you no harm. Please calm down, miss.” Curious as to what was going on the doctor peered around the door jam. Enne looked between the two then at the inquisitive face of the third man.

“Fuck…” she muttered mind racing.  Fight, fight, fight… rumbled her lazy inner Beast that had coiled down as if to sleep, leaving her feeling desperately abandoned. She slowly sagged back against the wall… seemingly defeated.

On Ryose’s instruction Devin ushered the doctor in and shut the door, turning the key and pocketing it. “He’s going to let you go now, so the doctor can check on your wounds.” Devin paraphrased after a harsh bout of Japanese from Ryose, “Please don’t fight.”

Enne narrowed her eyes at Devin, looked at the doctor then slowly looked at Ryose.  She locked eyes with Ryose and in a  moment of quick calculation made up her mind. She nodded and lowered her legs then bowed her head. Ryose loosened his grip on her wrists slowly then stepped back and crossed his arms, his eyes never left her face.

She was pretty with her long black curls and summer bronzed skin, he supposed, now that she wasn’t trying to kill him. Though, the more he looked at her the more he thought that she wasn’t Sakuya Mikoto. Devin stood behind him and translated as Ryose began firing off questions. “Why aren’t you speaking Japanese?” He asked, hoping there was some reasonable explanation to this. As Ryose spoke and Devin interprated the doctor moved towards Enne with a small light in his hand.

Enne side stepped towards the doctor. If she attacked she’d be stuck in a room with the three of them… and the tall American looked like he could take on the Rock with one hand. She wet her lips and stood still while the Doctor flicked the light in and out of her eyes. “Why…” she paused and looked at Devin, eyes narrowing again. What an odd question. Why would she be speaking Japanese?

She looked at Ryose and thought hard as she frowned “…because I would rather not.” She hedged.

“Her pupils check out fine,” the doctor muttered, mainly to himself, as he pulled a stethoscope from his bag and listened to her heart as he pressed two fingers against her wrist.

Rather not? Ryose frowned. It should be her native language. Why was she speaking in English, and so well? “Where are you from?” Devin said without waiting for the question from Ryose. What was he thinking? Why would Devin ask a question like that? Ryose wondered, the girl was Sakuya’s daughter, wasn’t she?

Enne’s thoughts were rapid and quickly growing tragic. What was going on here? Did they think she was someone else? Oh, god. She really looked at the men in the room with her. She could snap the Doctor’s neck… but the other two… instead of answering she looked at Devin with wide eyes. “Why did you kidnap me?” She asked voice small “Did I break a law? I was lost… I didn’t know! I’m sorry. Please let me go home.”

Devin’s heart broke slightly, he shouldn’t be here, he knew he shouldn’t. He should be back on the docks, he should be running the tables. How had he gotten pulled into this? Favors. He owed too many favors. For letting young women like her take too many pots. His eyes slid over to Ryose and he waited for the man’s response.

“You didn’t break a law,” He replied as the thin man did, “You were taken because of your father. And because of that we can’t let you go.” Devin paused, then added of his own accord. “You will be made as comfortable as we are able to…” Ryose’s lip twitched slightly. Lost? How could she be lost on her own estate? The doctor finished his exam and nodded satisfactorily. She was healthy as a horse, a little too healthy perhaps, but they didn’t pay him enough to… well, they didn’t pay him at all and quite often it was he that paid them. So if they had an overly healthy and dramatic young woman on their hands it was their problem. He was only here to make sure she was ok, and she was at that.

Etienne wet her lips and nodded slowly at Devin, marking him as a weak link. She thanked the doctor after he finished clucking and humming over her and put his tools back in his bag. Etienne knew now that these men weren’t with the Authority and that they’d gotten the wrong girl… she swallowed repeatedly as the implications piled up. As soon as they figured it out they were going to kill her… or try to. Ordinary bullets had no effect on her, well… no lasting effect, unless it was a head shot. She shivered at the thought and closed her eyes briefly. Even if ordinary bullets couldn’t kill her she couldn’t be sure that her innate healing ability, as slow as it inexplicably was, would heal the damage before she died.

She looked at the men around her. The doctor was talking to Ryose whose eyes were pinned to her face, narrowed with suspicion. Too much was going on. Where was she? Why were these men speaking Japanese? Why was the one who spoke English dressed like a 1940′s dock worker? Etienne but her shaking hand to her mouth…and suddenly she felt it… the moon, rolling under horizon like a bloated ball.Where usually she only felt this sudden deep weight on the night of the full moon, it came now as a belated blessing.

Unexpectedly her Beast rippled to the surface like an explosion and it was as if all her attempts to shift earlier only fueled the fire. Deep inside the Beast roiled and uncurled, stretching and raking claws against the very soul of her. Etienne cried out as her knees buckled. It was too much! The pain was more shattering and sharp than the first time that she’d ever shifted. She moved so that she was leaning back against the door, looking up at the men in the room.

Without warning, she chuckled, a low and dark sound as her skin pulled and rippled over shifting muscles. Enne’s jaw cracked and elongated and she rolled her eyes in something akin to pleasure as the shift sped up, conquering her human form until finally, rolling free of her clothing, she stood on all fours. Enne shook out her fur and chortled. Taller with longer legs and body than a wild hyena and with white fur that was barred with stripes and spots of an inky black, she curled her dish like ears towards Ryose and bared her fangs. Her expression was slant eyed and happy, alligator mouth drooling. The hyena that was Etienne tensed to spring at Ryose but the doctor’s sudden, heart breaking scream snapped her attention away and with a movement that was almost too fast to see she spun and sprang at the unfortunate doctor’s face.

His scream, high and trilling ended in a muffled gargle as Enne rode him to the ground, crushing his skull between her teeth. Unable to help herself she worried his still thrashing corpse, reveling in the scent and feel of blood and gore. It had been so long…so damn long. She tore herself away from the body and grinned again at Devin and Ryose, rolling her crimson tongue around her horrible teeth. Before she lost herself to the beasts hunger she snorted at them and, in a heyna’s shrieking cackle; laughed, laughed, laughed.

CRACK CRACK CRACK went Ryose’s gun. Where Devin had hesitated, no doubt concerned for the well being of the girl who had first collapsed and cried out and then changed, inexplicably, into the creature that savaged the doctor, Ryose did not hesitate. He grabbed Devin’s shirt sleeve and shoved him to the door, pulling the gun from its holster in the same motion and unloading three shots at the girl… creature… he wouldn’t even pretend to be unphased.

The bullets ripped into Enne’s side, hip and haunch causing her to stumble and roll through the doctors pooling blood. She snarled and bunched up to leap when a second round of bullets caught her in her shoulder, felling her.

Nothing he’d ever been through could have prepared Ryose for this. He was covered in blood spray from the man whose body she had ravaged, a body that was barely even recognizable as human anymore. That didn’t bother him so much as when it laughed. It laughed. Ryose cursed loudly in Japanese and shoved Devin to the side as the larger man fumbled with the key in the handle of the door and turned the key himself, only hoping that Devin had the sense to keep shooting if the thing lost interest in the doctor and jumped at them again.

Shaking her head, Enne stumbled and by the time she could recover Devin and Ryose had already slammed out the door, locking it behind them. She flung her body against the door, causing it to creak and crack and bounce in it’s frame.

Ryose felt the tremors reverberating through the door and the wall he leaned against opposite the door. He was visibly shaken, as was Devin. Slowly, guns drawn still, they made their way backwards up the stairs. Faster and faster until they were running to the top, the eerie cackling and booming following them up.