Got outta town

I love Montreal, but I love getting away from it, too. Yesterday I spent the day in the country (about 45 minutes away, near Hemmingford), at the Roxham Wool Gathering. I went with fellow Montreal Knits ladies Robyn, Angela, and Kadi. We ran into Kate there, too. (Robyn went both days, and blogged about it here and here with lots of photos.)

It was a "wool gathering," but there was a lot more than wool -- or rather, there was lots more than yarn and roving for knitters. Several vendors were selling things made of wool, like these really fun felted hats by Elaine Saucier:


I loved the mittens, helmets, scarves, and pillows made of recycled wool sweaters by Genia (who doesn't have a website but sells her wares locally at L'Arterie):


There was a vendor selling alpaca yarn, finished alpaca socks and scarves, and the softest alpaca bears. Kadi met her new BFF:


There were also handmade crafty things that had little to do with wool. I loved the dolls by Raplapla (seriously, click that link), and I bought a typewriter-key (asterisk/hyphen) pin by Misssoka Salvageware.

It was great to get out of the city, and it was really great to be surrounded by such inspiring creativity. It was pretty fun to hang out with Robyn's little boy, too; Sean was all smiles, all day:


I even saw my first real-life sheep shearing!


Kadi and I were both ready to move to a farm by the end of the afternoon. Why not? Even the weeds are beautiful there:


Oh my, I can hardly wait for Rhinebeck...