I started a new job in December.
My new job makes me very tired.
My new job makes me want to sleep a lot.
Sleep, Queen, Sleep.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Friday, November 16, 2012
In Which the Queen Travels and Knits
Your Queen has had a busy month. First there was the royal progress to California, which was a 2-day whirlwind trip but serious fun. Look, I have pictures to prove it!:
We didn't get many pictures from this trip because we stayed in our pajamas most of the time. Hey, even a Queen needs frumpy time!
Upon our return, the King and I determined that the expense of maintaining Castle Slop requires that I either raise taxes on you, my loyal subjects, or get a job. Since raising taxes would necessitate the hiring of another tax collector, additional money counters, and a second executioner devoted to dealing with tax dodgers, it seems that finding a job will be more fiscally responsible in the long run. No need to thank me; I know that you will show your appreciation by leaving the appropriate tributes at the castle gate (Cash, yarn, or wool-bearing livestock only please).
Keeping in mind that I will (hopefully) soon be spending my days away from my beloved Castle, I've been filling my time with lots of knitting and spinning. Voila!:
I can't get a job! I have too much knitting to do!!
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| Disneyland! |
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| Joey's BBQ |
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| Me and Martha's new horse Chester, the reason for the trip. |
Then there was a week and a half back at the Castle before the trip to Washington.
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| Me and Dad |
Upon our return, the King and I determined that the expense of maintaining Castle Slop requires that I either raise taxes on you, my loyal subjects, or get a job. Since raising taxes would necessitate the hiring of another tax collector, additional money counters, and a second executioner devoted to dealing with tax dodgers, it seems that finding a job will be more fiscally responsible in the long run. No need to thank me; I know that you will show your appreciation by leaving the appropriate tributes at the castle gate (Cash, yarn, or wool-bearing livestock only please).
Keeping in mind that I will (hopefully) soon be spending my days away from my beloved Castle, I've been filling my time with lots of knitting and spinning. Voila!:
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| Sweater knit by me. Out of fingering weight yarn. Yes, it took forever |
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| A little spindle spinning. |
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| A little colorwork. |
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| Merino purchased at Taos Wool Festiveal |
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| Lace weight shawl in progress. |
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| The start of a cabled sweater for the King |
Plus I've got 14 inches of a sweater for me on the needles, as well as two pairs of socks - one for me and one for the King.
I can't get a job! I have too much knitting to do!!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
I'm The Slop Queen and I Approved This Message
Disappointing result aside, I am so relieved that the elections are finally over.
Don't get me wrong. I believe elections are important and I'm sure I'll long for the good old days of endless campaign commercials after President Obama has himself declared king for life. I expect the next four years to be interesting, to say the least, what with our president busily increasing government control over the people through the use of "assistance" while he and Secretary Clinton find new and exciting ways to circumvent the Constitution and turn the good old U.S. of A. into the UN's bitch. That is if Iran doesn't blow us all to kingdom come first. Should be fun, don't ya think?
But seriously folks, I shouldn't bash the president too hard. We've already had him for four years so we know what he is - a media whore/darling who thinks that we should all fail if one fails, a man who never grasped the concept that life is not fair and that reducing everyone to the level of the lowest common denominator only works in arithmetic. He is the first American-born, un-American president we've ever had. He spends like a shopaholic on a bender with her boyfriend's credit card. Hey America, we aren't broke, the president still has checks in his checkbook! Johnny still can't read, let's give the teachers a raise! 12 million U.S. citizens are out of work? No worries, let's get 'em on the dole so we don't have to do something really hard like *gasp* support businesses that create jobs! Nuclear missiles? Yes, I know... they're so awkward aren't they? It's so...unfriendly... to have a national defense system. Let's all have a global group hug and disarm, shall we? Who wants to go first? Russia? No? Okay, we'll go first because we're all pals and we want to make Vladimir happy. Yoo hoo, Iran...now you boys play nice and put away your centrifuges okay? No more threatening to annihilate Israel or we might get mad and stomp our foot! And by the way, we're really sorry that we have freedom of speech and religion in the U.S. Another four years of bashing away at that pesky Constitution and we'll have that little problem solved. Just be a patient and soon we'll be as helpless and impotent as most of Europe. Benghazi? Dead Americans? Protestors with RPGs? What ARE you on about? Oh, have you read my latest book? It's called "Liar, Liar, Our Embassy's on Fire."
No, the next four years won't be the president's fault. We'll be getting exactly what we deserve because we re-elected him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... you get the idea. Obama got elected the first time because he promised us hope and change. Even I fell for it. We didn't know him but we were tired and bored and wanted a break from the seriousness that was The Shrub. We were tired of being responsible. We wanted everything to be someone else's fault and problem. We wanted to party. We wanted life to be easy. Obama was the faith healer at a tent revival and we lined up to be SAVED! THANK YOU JEEZUS! Be sure to pick up your complimentary government tit at the door.
Only it hasn't been a party. We aren't healed. Instead we've been bled nearly dry. We're crippled by our dependence, a dependence that our president has encouraged. Meanwhile, we're weakened by his philosophy that everyone should be the same. Obama's "noble poor" sentimentalism wants us to be ashamed because we don't get all our meals from a garbage dump and live in a 5 x 5 dirt floor shanty with 30 of our closets relatives. Yet at least half of us thought it was a good idea to bring him back because "The best is yet to come." Oh goody.
We've willingly abdicated our responsibility to a man who tells us it's not our fault, here take another hit from the government crack pipe - it'll all be okay. And we've embraced him. Because hey, who doesn't love their dealer?
Get a shovel America, it's time to pick out your dying hole.
Don't get me wrong. I believe elections are important and I'm sure I'll long for the good old days of endless campaign commercials after President Obama has himself declared king for life. I expect the next four years to be interesting, to say the least, what with our president busily increasing government control over the people through the use of "assistance" while he and Secretary Clinton find new and exciting ways to circumvent the Constitution and turn the good old U.S. of A. into the UN's bitch. That is if Iran doesn't blow us all to kingdom come first. Should be fun, don't ya think?
But seriously folks, I shouldn't bash the president too hard. We've already had him for four years so we know what he is - a media whore/darling who thinks that we should all fail if one fails, a man who never grasped the concept that life is not fair and that reducing everyone to the level of the lowest common denominator only works in arithmetic. He is the first American-born, un-American president we've ever had. He spends like a shopaholic on a bender with her boyfriend's credit card. Hey America, we aren't broke, the president still has checks in his checkbook! Johnny still can't read, let's give the teachers a raise! 12 million U.S. citizens are out of work? No worries, let's get 'em on the dole so we don't have to do something really hard like *gasp* support businesses that create jobs! Nuclear missiles? Yes, I know... they're so awkward aren't they? It's so...unfriendly... to have a national defense system. Let's all have a global group hug and disarm, shall we? Who wants to go first? Russia? No? Okay, we'll go first because we're all pals and we want to make Vladimir happy. Yoo hoo, Iran...now you boys play nice and put away your centrifuges okay? No more threatening to annihilate Israel or we might get mad and stomp our foot! And by the way, we're really sorry that we have freedom of speech and religion in the U.S. Another four years of bashing away at that pesky Constitution and we'll have that little problem solved. Just be a patient and soon we'll be as helpless and impotent as most of Europe. Benghazi? Dead Americans? Protestors with RPGs? What ARE you on about? Oh, have you read my latest book? It's called "Liar, Liar, Our Embassy's on Fire."
No, the next four years won't be the president's fault. We'll be getting exactly what we deserve because we re-elected him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... you get the idea. Obama got elected the first time because he promised us hope and change. Even I fell for it. We didn't know him but we were tired and bored and wanted a break from the seriousness that was The Shrub. We were tired of being responsible. We wanted everything to be someone else's fault and problem. We wanted to party. We wanted life to be easy. Obama was the faith healer at a tent revival and we lined up to be SAVED! THANK YOU JEEZUS! Be sure to pick up your complimentary government tit at the door.
Only it hasn't been a party. We aren't healed. Instead we've been bled nearly dry. We're crippled by our dependence, a dependence that our president has encouraged. Meanwhile, we're weakened by his philosophy that everyone should be the same. Obama's "noble poor" sentimentalism wants us to be ashamed because we don't get all our meals from a garbage dump and live in a 5 x 5 dirt floor shanty with 30 of our closets relatives. Yet at least half of us thought it was a good idea to bring him back because "The best is yet to come." Oh goody.
We've willingly abdicated our responsibility to a man who tells us it's not our fault, here take another hit from the government crack pipe - it'll all be okay. And we've embraced him. Because hey, who doesn't love their dealer?
Get a shovel America, it's time to pick out your dying hole.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
New Tools
A few weeks ago, after reading a book review, I bought Fleegle Spins Supported. Great book. Loved it. Decided I wanted to try supported spinning.
I am a scorpio. Read most any astrological description and you will find that we scorpios can be pretty intense people. We don't do things halfway. When we get interested in something it's generally a good idea to just step out of the way.
So, I hear you asking, what does this have to do with supported spinning?
Well, you might say I've been "interested"...
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| Russian from Texas |
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| Custom Tibetan and bowl |
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| Russian and bowl, from Canada |
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| Tiny Bowl. I love this bowl. |
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| Another Russian and bowl from Canada |
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| Esmeralda McFairy-Pants of Unicorn Gulch. |
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| Teeny-tiny supported spindle. |
I'm gonna go make more yarn now.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Love
I love this shawl, even though I totally strained a tendon in my left wrist while knitting it:
I love these spinning batts. They're the first I've ever made using the drum carder the king bought for me shortly after I started spinning:
Looks like felted cat gack right?! I totally thought I'd ruined it when I spread it out.
I love that sunsets here look like this:
And I love that this guy has made his home outside our kitchen doors, getting huge and sassy on moths and mosquitoes who threaten the stash:
And finally, I love this:
How could you not?
I love these spinning batts. They're the first I've ever made using the drum carder the king bought for me shortly after I started spinning:
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| They have sparklies!!! |
I love how fluffy and soft this alpaca turned out after I washed it:
I did NOT love how dirty it was to begin with:
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| Water after 1st wash. |
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| Water after 2nd wash. |
I stopped taking pictures after the 2nd wash but it took one more wash and 2 rinses before the water stopped being brown. And this would be why buying raw fleece is cheaper - prepping a fleece to be spun is a lot of fucking work.
And here is what it looked like before it dried and became the fluffy beauty pictured above:
I love that sunsets here look like this:
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| Photo taken by the Slop King, who I also love. |
And finally, I love this:
How could you not?
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
In Which I Spin Unicorn Farts
Happy Wednesday to you, my loyal subjects! Lots of spinning and knitting at Castle Slop since our last visit. Very little cleaning. The dungeons need a good scrubbing and the royal hounds have shed so much hair on the banquet hall floor that sighting of the mythical dog-hair bunny have become common. I really must find out where all the servants have gone. I don't remember ordering any beheadings lately. Perhaps I have been lax.
In any case, I believe that a ruler must lead by example so I give you the Slop Queen's "To Do" list for today:
My TdF efforts were not without merit. I finished the Tour with these yarns finished, washed, whacked, and photographed:
The Queen is pleased, especially with the blue and the southwestern-y skeins. They will be assigned to projects as soon as I stop petting them.
Because the Castle Wool Room is still jammed to the ceiling, I immediately started spinning up these batts:
To the uninitiated, they look like pink cotton balls. But think about it, would the Slop Queen spin pink cotton balls? I think not. Those, my dear subjects, are Unicorn Farts mixed with the finest Pixie Snot in the land. They are soft, they are sparkly, and they immediately awakened in me a desire to make more sparklies. A visit with a local Pixie Snot merchant yielded prime snot as well as My Little Pony manes. Behold!:
Who needs a court jester when you have a drum carder?
Alas, even a drum carder with dingle balls and a jester hat would not amuse the Tortie-Bitch. She'd like more beheadings please:
In any case, I believe that a ruler must lead by example so I give you the Slop Queen's "To Do" list for today:
- Make a batch of slop
- Tidy up the Castle
- Bathe the Royal Mutants
- Rip back half a row of the Bored with Daybreak shawl and find the 3 stitches I lost somewhere
- Set up the drum carder and make Pixie Snot batts
- Shake the dust out of at least one alpaca fleece and get it washed, in the name of (insert your personal deity here)!
My TdF efforts were not without merit. I finished the Tour with these yarns finished, washed, whacked, and photographed:
Because the Castle Wool Room is still jammed to the ceiling, I immediately started spinning up these batts:
Alas, even a drum carder with dingle balls and a jester hat would not amuse the Tortie-Bitch. She'd like more beheadings please:
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Spin, Span, Spun!
Even though I haven't actually been, ya know, riding a bike a gazillion miles through France, I feel like I have. The Tour de Fleece has been a great spinning motivator this year and I have finished yarn to show for it.
BEHOLD! (insert trumpet fanfare of your choice here):
That's 628 yards of Polwarth/Mixed BFL, spun and plied from approximately 4 oz of fiber. Add it to the stuff I spun up before TdF started and I've got a total of 1,292 yards of this yarn. I'm way into shawls right now so I think this will probably get turned into a lace shawl eventually.
I also finished what I have been calling the blue-mohair-monster-that-would-not-fucking-die:
618 yards from about 4.4 oz. of fiber. I probably could have gotten an extra 20 yards or so if I'd been willing to pull the last bit off of the bobbin and ply from a center pull ball. I wasn't willing. While I'm REALLY happy with the result and surprised that it turned out so well, I fucking hated spinning this stuff. The top seemed really compressed and I was having trouble with slubs as I spun. I tried pre-drafting a little, pre-drafting a lot, various draws, etc. Finally said screw it, used my usual modified long draw and powered through as fast as I could. Only after I'd spun nearly the entire 4 oz this way, did I realize that mohair probably wants less twist. Let this be a lesson to us, my loyal subjects, sample, sample, sample. It took me about 20 hours to spin and ply the mohair. I could have probably saved myself 20 hours of aggravation if I'd spent an hour sampling. Hindsight. It's always 20/20. Anyway, I think this is destined to be knit up a a lace something, I just don't know what yet.
Today I'm going stash diving before I make a final decision about what 8 oz. I want to spin to finish out the Tour. I've got so much gorgeous fiber that I need to spread it all out and look at it to remind myself of what's there.
Ozzie's dental went just fine and I'm now trying to convince him that he really doesn't need to eat ham flavored baby food for every meal. I don't think he believes me.
BEHOLD! (insert trumpet fanfare of your choice here):
I also finished what I have been calling the blue-mohair-monster-that-would-not-fucking-die:
Today I'm going stash diving before I make a final decision about what 8 oz. I want to spin to finish out the Tour. I've got so much gorgeous fiber that I need to spread it all out and look at it to remind myself of what's there.
Ozzie's dental went just fine and I'm now trying to convince him that he really doesn't need to eat ham flavored baby food for every meal. I don't think he believes me.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
A Horse, A Horse, My Kingdom for a Horse!
Or at least for a sewing machine. I'm this close to done with the quilt top for our bed.
BEHOLD, CRAPPY CELL PHONE PIC:
The only thing missing is the border. Well, and the batting, backing, and quilting but we won't talk about that right now. Sadly, my sewing machine started squeaking in that way that said "Bitch, if you don't take me in for servicing now I'm gonna fuck with you by turning into an expensive problem later." So, off to the only sewing machine repair joint in Santa Fe. They said it'll be at least 4 weeks before the machine comes back so our quilt will have to hang on the back of my office door, borderless, until then. Cause y'all I am NOT attaching that border by hand.
I still have a TON of these fabric strips so I'm thinking I'll be trying something like this for the next quilt.
I managed to finish the gift shawl I talked about in my previous post. That was a slog. It got mailed off to the co-gifter today for blocking. And to wait for the holiday somewhere where I don't have to see it and curse it for the next 6 months.
I've made some progress on the feather and fan shawl that I started for me. Voila:
And some progress towards my Tour de Fleece goals:
That blue stuff is mohair. It's pretty but it hasn't been a fun spin and I'm sick of it. Except that I still have two more ounces of it to spin for TdF. Plus I still need to spin this:
AND another 8 ounces of anything in the stash. These two are definite candidates, I just have to decide who wants to go first:
We went to the Abq Zoo a week or so ago when it was really too hot and we really shoulda kept our asses home, parked under a ceiling fan with a lemonade. We got there first thing in the morning and only stayed for a few hours but it got hot a lot faster than I anticipated. The King suffered heat exhaustion (he's fine now) and I GOT TO FEED A REAL LIVE GIRAFFE!!!!:
We are planning to visit again when it cools off down there. Maybe around November.
Lastly, we discovered that the peasant assigned to brush the Royal Mutants' teeth has been neglecting his duties. The culprit will be burned at the stake next week. Oh wait...we don't have any peasants, just the King and I. Note to self: tell the Lord High Chancellor to cancel the b-b-q.
So anyway... Ozzie is getting a badly needed dental tomorrow. His blood work is good but he's got two molars that are so bad I've had to feed him chicken flavored baby food for the past 3 days. He doesn't seem to mind though. I think he fantasizes about taking over the kingdom so he can get the treatment he DESERVES all the time.
He's always been a smug fucker. There'll be no living with him after this.
BEHOLD, CRAPPY CELL PHONE PIC:
I still have a TON of these fabric strips so I'm thinking I'll be trying something like this for the next quilt.
I managed to finish the gift shawl I talked about in my previous post. That was a slog. It got mailed off to the co-gifter today for blocking. And to wait for the holiday somewhere where I don't have to see it and curse it for the next 6 months.
I've made some progress on the feather and fan shawl that I started for me. Voila:
Lastly, we discovered that the peasant assigned to brush the Royal Mutants' teeth has been neglecting his duties. The culprit will be burned at the stake next week. Oh wait...we don't have any peasants, just the King and I. Note to self: tell the Lord High Chancellor to cancel the b-b-q.
So anyway... Ozzie is getting a badly needed dental tomorrow. His blood work is good but he's got two molars that are so bad I've had to feed him chicken flavored baby food for the past 3 days. He doesn't seem to mind though. I think he fantasizes about taking over the kingdom so he can get the treatment he DESERVES all the time.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Mostly Wordless Wednesday
Why anybody thought I would be bored at home is beyond me.
Since my last post, I finished this sweater:
Started this gift shawl (it's now much further along than in this photo):
Started a new quilt for our bed:
Started a new lace shawl for me (it's about 3 inches further along than this photo shows):
And started spinning some electric blue mohair that I don't have a picture of. Plus the usual cooking and cleanup.
And yet, despite all my effort, Thomas remains unimpressed:
Since my last post, I finished this sweater:
And yet, despite all my effort, Thomas remains unimpressed:
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Finished and New
I spent a lot of last weekend at the spinning wheel watching Ken Burns' "Civil War" and "The West" on my computer. I recently set myself an unspoken goal of spinning and knitting strictly from stash without making any new fiber purchases.
Stop laughing.
Seriously...
So okay, I bought 7 new fiber braids from Knitted Wit. I couldn't help it. Lorajean is a really nice woman and I really like her and her merino/tencel blends are to die for and ...
Oh shut up!
ANYWAY. I finished spinning 4 oz. of this:
Plied the singles together and turned them into this:
664 yards of fingering to light fingering weight yarn. I have another 4 oz. of this pair to spin up and am hoping to get about the same yardage because then I totally have a shawl right there.
That 664 yd. skein is the result of about 25 hours of spinning/plying. I need a little break. SO I did a some browsing online then dove into the fabric stash and spent a couple of hours slicing fat quarters into 1 1/2 inch strips:
I'm hoping there's a new quilt in there somewhere. We'll see.
Cleo has expressed some doubts.
Stop laughing.
Seriously...
So okay, I bought 7 new fiber braids from Knitted Wit. I couldn't help it. Lorajean is a really nice woman and I really like her and her merino/tencel blends are to die for and ...
Oh shut up!
ANYWAY. I finished spinning 4 oz. of this:
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| Mixed BFL on the left, Polwarth on the right. |
That 664 yd. skein is the result of about 25 hours of spinning/plying. I need a little break. SO I did a some browsing online then dove into the fabric stash and spent a couple of hours slicing fat quarters into 1 1/2 inch strips:
I'm hoping there's a new quilt in there somewhere. We'll see.
Cleo has expressed some doubts.
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