After all the hard work yesterday of getting the wool sorted into bags, it was time to attach printed toppers to each bag. (I stayed up way too late printing those toppers!) There were green ones for English Longwool, purple ones for other wool varieties, and gold ones for the exotic fibers. I woke up early (ahead of the boys) and carried tubs and tubs of wool into the kitchen, spread out all the uncut toppers and started cutting . . . and cutting . . . and cutting.
The knock on the screen door startled me out of my wits. My hand had begun to cramp from all the cutting, so I sincerely hoped the loud bang at the door meant that help had arrived.
Click photos to enlarge.
It was Harold! Help had arrived! Always thoughtful and ready to help in more ways than one, he'd even stopped on the way over and picked up a box of doughnuts for all the "workers". The only problem was clearing enough space on the crowded table for the box . . .
Harold was a bit nervous when he saw so many tubs of wool in the kitchen, but I told him not to worry. We were only going to be working on the bagged wool that day. The balls of roving were going to be displayed in tubs at the show, so they didn't need bags and toppers. (Can't afford to make your volunteer help nervous before you've even started working!)
I couldn't resist a quick peek at what Harold had brought. Three flavours, including my favourite . . . nope, I'm not going to tell you which one it is . . . not yet . . .
I couldn't resist a quick peek at what Harold had brought. Three flavours, including my favourite . . . nope, I'm not going to tell you which one it is . . . not yet . . .
Boy, it sure is different to work with Harold than it is with Eliot. Harold was so ready to sit down and get to work that he didn't even have a doughnut! He just sat down and asked me what to do and how to do it. I could tell that we were going to get a lot done, but I thought the doughnuts need some attention first!
While I cleared up the paper scraps and stacked up the toppers, Harold (who is always hungry) figured he might as well make sure that the doughnuts were "safe to eat". Ha! It's the chocolate that was calling him!
Once the table was cleared for work and Harold had washed his hands (paper toppers don't react well to greasy sugar goo), we sat down to start folding. Harold opted for the wool varieties, while I folded the English Longwools and Exotics.
In just minutes, we had a bunch of toppers folded and ready . . .
. . . and it felt like no time at all before we had all the toppers finished! (My thumb is still a little sprained from all the hard pushing.)
Next, we started attaching toppers to their bags. And, boy, did it take a lot of concentration to keep them all straight! What worked best for us was to line up all the folded toppers, sorted by colour. I made sure the stapler was filled, while Harold brought up the first tub of wool bags to work on. He's such a strong boy and good worker!
Each bag had a scrap of paper inside with the name of the wool in that bag, so it was time to find the matching topper, remove the paper scrap and staple the topper onto the bag.
In no time at all, with our great teamwork, we had a whole tub of bags ready for the show! I think it was the chocolate doughnut that gave Harold all this energy . . .
Before we knew it, we had all of the bags ready, sorted and packed. Whew, what a day! It sure does look nice, though, and I'm so happy with how well we're coming along!
Another day's work well done, and it was starting to feel like the wool show would be a reality after all. Harold and I decided to reward ourselves with a doughnut and some hot chocolate. While Harold ate another chocolate one, I had one with strawberry icing -- my favorite!
With all this great help from the boys over the past few days, things are really rolling along. There are some more fun preparations going on today, but I don't need the boys for anything. Check back tomorrow for a fun DIY tutorial! Hmm . . . would another doughnut be too bad? I sure would like to take off my shoes and relax . . .