Two big days

Last Thursday I did something I don't often do: I earned some money by working at a poll for the Ontario election.

I spent 14 hours, from 8 am to 10 pm, telling people which line to stand in.

Basically, that is all I did! I managed to sit as much as I could, but we were greeting people and waving our arms and so on, and lifting baby strollers and walkers up the little step, and my feet were killing me by the end of the day!

Our little poll voted overwhelmingly for the NDP, but overall the province went Conservative. I'm pretty sad about that. But it did give me the opportunity to make a couple of hundred dollars, days before we took a road trip to a fibre festival.

We drove to Fenelon Falls, Ontario, a small town north of Peterborough, a couple of hours' drive away. It was sort of a practice to seduce my friends into going to Rhinebeck in the fall.

This was the first year of this festival, the Kawartha Yarn and Fibre Festival. They set up in two gyms in the high school, and when we got there about 11 am, the place was jam-packed! Lots of independent dyers, almost all of whom were selling fingering weight wool/nylon blends and not much more. My friend bought some wool fresh off the sheep, browns and grey and white. Beautiful!

I bought Westknits Book 2, full of big, squishy sweaters of all shapes and sizes. Most of them are best made with odds and ends, scraps and bits. So I didn't feel compelled to buy yarn to make a specific sweater, but I did buy more than enough yarn for a shawl!

Four skeins of yarn: grey, green and two splotchy ones.

I might end up with a Parachutey, but only time will tell.

I also couldn't pass by the Studio Loo stall without stopping. I remember a few years ago this yarn was available in the shop up the street, but I could never figure out what to do with it! This time I didn't let that stop me, and I got 109 yards of bright yellow fun.

I knit it all up on one 10 mm needle and one 15 mm. The whole thing didn't take more than a few hours last night and today.