going bald for cancer

alright guys, i know i've been lame. i know i haven't posted in a while, and i know i deserve nothing from y'all... but i'm here to ask for it!!

i'm in a desperate race to raise as much money as possible for a children's cancer charity before 5pm tomorrow... when i get my head shaved! that's right, tomorrow, i go under the blades at the st. baldrick's party!

so please, i'll love you forever and you'll be eternally in my heart if you'll CLICK RIGHT HERE and head over to the page to drop off a little donation. or, if you'd like you can paypal me your donation, brokedown_tiger@yahoo.com and i pinky-swear that i'll forward the amount directly to st. baldrick's (as long as you put the name of the charity in your subject line or something).

in addition, i'll be sending random gifts to 3 of my donors... names to be selected on sunday once my head's all cold and stuff.

so c'mon, please, pull out those credit cards. crack open that paypal acount. if you live near me, i'll even take a baggie of pennies. i'm going bald for children with cancer, won't you please help me out? and tell your friends!!!

***************
on a more personal note, my aunt had her last chemo session last friday, i'm so happy!

FINALLY, a finished clapotis just for me...

threesixty6 day1
Originally uploaded by through the looking.

yep, finally... a finished clap for myself. did you know that's my FIRST one?? ok so i've given out one or two, but this is the first one i've kept. i've had this yarn so long i don't even remember what it is... some kind of 100% wool ribbon, i remember that much...more details on this FO later, i just wanted to share!! :)

in other news, i started my threesixty6 project today. it would've been 365 but i'm going right into a february 29th here... so 366 it is! this picture is day number one... i have a feeling a lot of my pics are going to have knitting in them, heh.

real post later... modd jobs now!

have i ever told you lovely folks how amazing and talented my real life friends are, too?



i love brandon :) check out some of his other videos on there... his music was used in a couple of adult swim ads, he's an amazing boy.

look, i'm participating in something!

i've always loved miss brigid... so i think it's only appropriate that i participate in this celebration of her feast day. thank you, branchesup for organizing this again :) and i'm so glad i remembered it in time this year, instead of finding it a week too late and feeling left out again, hehe.

so i know it's a "silent" poetry slam, however... i feel this poem just has such a greater impact when heard. i just had to share. enjoy, and may brigid inspire you and your hands!

off topic... strange wilderness!

if this doesn't make you giggle, well then frankly... i don't want to be your friend! :)

(just had to share. i was having a cranky day, and on cranky days i watch silly things... like this trailer, over and over and over again. yay!)

OMG I SUCK, i almost missed it... A is for...

ASPARAGUS!

seriously, i cannot get enough of this lovely green monster. crunchy, delicious, tender... ohhh how i love it. grilled, sauteed, baked, whatever. can you go wrong with asparagus? i think not.

i love candles too, so how cool of my aunt to combine two of my loves with this beautiful gift? is there anyone who DOESN'T love the sweet earthy scent of beeswax?

make new friends, but keep the old...

i've been in a strange mood with projects lately... every time i sit down to knit, i reach for either some little toy (see previous post) or one of my older projects. it's about time i get some of them off the WIP list!


the clap... i started this back in the days when EVERYONE had at least one clapotis on the needles. Dogs steal yarn made a beautiful story post about a silk garden clapper, and i just HAD to have one! it just looked like something so 'me', and i hadn't really noticed it until i saw her particular take on the piece. someday, i will have my own! :)


lady eleanor, from simply scarves i believe. one of the lovely boys whose blogs i read (ok at this point i'm just too lazy to find the link) just recently posted a BEAUTIFUL eleanor, and i was inspired to dig mine up and start working on it again. i'd like to finish it while it's still cold enough to need a huge-ass wrap like this!

oddly enough, i was reading through old entries last night and it turns out that i went in search of this project once before when i was at another not so great point in my life. something about this is a bit of a comfort project... i bet when i finish it'll become something like a linus blankie for me, haha. that is, IF i ever finish!


this... is the barest of beginnings on a harry potter scarf for my brother. this right here has been the thorn in my side for YEARS. in fact, i actually started knitting about 4 years ago BECAUSE of this scarf.

back in the day, i was crocheting a lot of little knicknacks and huge triangle shawls. nothing complicated, just a little playing around. my brother's birthday was coming up, and i asked him what he'd like me to make him. his IMMEDIATE response was "a harry potter scarf!" so like a good sister, i hauled myself off to my LYS the next day and found just the right colors in some plymouth whatever. yeah, acrylic. shuddup. i knew NOTHING back then. so i asked the lovely ladies at the store just how much yarn i'd need to make a good sized scarf. being a smart lady, the owner asked me if i was knitting or crocheting. when i asked why, she explained that crochet actually used more yarn per stitch, so that would factor into how much i would need. me being broke, i said "i'm knitting of course!" i went home with two balls of burgundy, and one of a nice marigold color... and promptly started searching the internet for instructions on learning how to knit!

by the next morning... i had mastered the knit and the purl. i LOOOOVED it. in my search i found a lot of different techniques, and since i had figured out knit and purl so fast i DEVOURED anything else i could figure out. within a week, i had increases and decreases down. two, i was cabling. three, i made a sock! ok, so it was grossly oversized and knit with chunky yarn on huge needles, but i was soooo proud of myself.

see the problem here though? i got SO distracted by falling in love with knitting that i forgot all about the scarf. every now and then i'd pick it up again... or find some other yarn with the right colors and try to start again. i even had one misguided cotton attempt. every now and then, my brother will poke fun at me and ask how his scarf is doing.

well, i'm smarter now. and i've got skillz, man. so i pulled out the same patons classic wool that i used to make his slippers with last christmas, and decided that damn it, he is GOING to get this scarf before he turns 16! so i've got 8 1/2 months to go :-D

attack of the killer Nautie... (v. photo heavy!)

nautie lloyd is a very tricky creature. after all those years of cats playing with yarn, this particular creature has decided to exact his revenge on one poor unsuspecting kitty.


woken, rather rudely, from a delicious nap... rowan is outraged at this turn of events! she gives him a good stern talking to.


chastised, nautie retreats. he knows this battle has been lost. rowan settles back down; threat neutralized, time to return to napping.


even though she knows she's won, ro decides to play it safe. sleep with one eye open, and keep a weapon close.

ok so the captioning is not my best. i can usually come up with better material... but i procrastinated enough with this post (i've had the pics since saturday) and i needed to make up for not posting yesterday! sorry... the reason's over at unravel me if you're curious. i'll wrap this up with FO pics of this, and the mer-kitty i made for my brother's girlfriend.


pattern: nautie from knitty
yarn: caron simply soft, can't remember the colors.
needles: us4, a little tight but i wanted to make sure the stuffing wouldn't poke through
made for: my rockin' brother patrick.
modifications: i made this guy really mini, so instead of doing i-cord tentacles, i tied a knot in a little piece of yarn, pulled it through, and then tied a knot at the end of the tentacle so it wouldn't fray.
more pics over at my ravelry page for this project.


pattern: my own, loosely based on this adorable sewn kitty that i saw on someone's craft blog ages ago
yarn: caron simply soft, same deal. i was asked that these both be washable
needles: us4
made for: pat's girlfriend kyla. she's very picky about what she wears, so i didn't want to make her a garment or anything. but ohh if i could've gotten a picture of her face when i gave her this, she was so happy!
notes: the flower is from a free ravelry pattern, i WISH i could remember which one. and at the last minute, i decided to stitch it onto a safety pin, making it removable and therefore extra fun!
again, more pics over at my ravelry page for this project.

why so serious?

heath ledger died this afternoon. and you want to know what an insensitive prick i am? my first thought was "well if joker doesn't die in 'Dark Knight' then we're fucked...!" god i'm lame.

i'm gonna go watch 10 things i hate about you, i'll be back later with an actual post.

patriotic stirrings

boy does that boogie have some timing! my cousin called me this afternoon and told me that his deployment is confirmed... he leaves february 8th for NC where he'll be training for a little over a month... then it's off to Iraq with him for, at the very least, 9 months. robert's gonna be gone until just after christmas!!! then he goes back again after a (way too) short time at home.

other than the standard "liberal/leftie" objections, there's a few more reasons why this pisses me off...
a. robert and i have actually become very close in the last couple of months, and after years of 'family tension' (long story) it's soooo nice to have gotten a chance to call him my friend.
b. his mom left his dad the week after robert's older sister got married back in october. (not gonna get into the whole deal, but robert's mom isn't his sister's mom, and robert's not ACTUALLY related to me, but his sister is... oh hell, you'll see me explaining this all on springer some day, haha.) so now my uncle bob's gonna be all alone... in a house that might possibly be foreclosed on by the bank... because his wife is a crazy bitch.
c. robert REQUESTED this posting. yeah. wrap your brain around THAT. he spent two years in georgia guarding a marine base (he's navy, long story) and apparently that wasn't enough ACTION for him. i could kick him. in fact, i will.

oh but back to boogie! go check out the post that links to... i've always been interested in finding some charity to knit for... and i think the ships project will be the one.


if a face like that doesn't inspire you to knit, i don't know what will! if anyone knows that particular soldier, please feel free to pass my blog address on to him! :D (photo from the ships project site)

maybe i'll knit one or two for robert before he ships out... hey amy, will that still count? :)

so here's to seeing how many hats and slippers i can get done by... lets say... valentines day! its very likely i'll be spending v-day by myself, so this'll be a great way to celebrate a little love on a day like that, heh.

****************************************************
amusing quote heard on SVU while typing this entry:
cop- caught this one with his pants down, about to rape her
suspect- i was just trying to help her up!
olivia- with your penis?