Fleeced

Such an exciting week in spite of a few setbacks on the Giant Urgent Project front

(and the whole e-mail virus thing that kept slinking back yesterday in spite of my antivirus software continually spotting and eradicating it, grrr.)

This is mainly due to a continued influx of new things, really to quite a large degree for somebody not spending money on yarn until a big hunk of physiotherapy is complete and paid for.

First off, I got my November installment of the Twisted Fiber Art fiber club and, ohhhhh,

it's um really just so far beyond, whoa, I want to spin this

NOW

and can't.

I mentioned the Giant Urgent Project, right? Yeah. H'mmmmm.

There was a little bonus tucked into the same envelope:

and yes, it's soft. Softer than it looks even.

I think perhaps we should take a moment to admire what a responsible person I am to keep my professional responsibilities a priority under the circumstances, don't you? And maybe have a motivational cookie as well.


Or not, because I did take Monday evening off to go to the Royal Winter Fair, a huge agricultural fest that just amazes me for drawing so many people into the city to live at the Exhibition grounds for 10 days while showing their (astonishingly gorgeous) animals and/or staffing a booth.

(my favourite in the latter category showcased the wonderfulness of canola and featured not only Carol, a super nice lady with a quilt shop in Saskatchewan, but also a big bin of canola seeds with construction truck toys to drive through it all. Canola seeds feel so far beyond wonderful in your hand, Carol and I agreed they should be sold in bags for therapeutic use. )

I'm not a horsey person at all, either, so it's a constant revelation to walk through booth after booth of tremendously expensive equestrian gear and to watch the horses all groomed up and strutting and even pulling elaborate carriages. Sort of How The Other Half Lives, except that the first time I went I hadn't realized such a Half lived at all.

But mostly it's the living at the Ex thing that gets me. Not everybody does it - I think mostly only when you're looking after animals - but even if you're just covering the opening hours that's a long haul. Even this time, I heard so many people saying to each other, 'Good thing it's only 10 days!' as they bought another bag of kettle corn (and having brought home a bag myself I have to agree, because if I was in any closer proximity to that stuff there would be trouble.) It's like a surreal world there, away from natural light and breezes and grasses, all the animals resting on giant piles of hay in open areas for school groups to come through and learn about. 10 days of it must be so weird.

Weird but also fun, and not least because it's like any other Fair where things get judged and awarded ribbons. Things like wool, in a much more raw form than what I got from Twisted.

I loved this summary of what makes wool so wonderful - you can click on the image if you want to read it too:

but also, I loved looking at a huge pile of fleeces. I know in theory that there are all kinds of breeds out there, but even so it was amazing to see this big a variety of colours and textures.

I took a closeup of the winners, but I would need to know a lot more about wool before I could tell you what made them even more outstanding than the others; from this distance, they all look purely delicious.

Not kettle corn delicious, but still. Yummy!