Corey, given your circumstances, the bamboo skewer idea would be the way to go. Have a look at the Rix telegraph poles at their web site to get ideas about how to make realistic crossarms. The poles themselves, with the exception of that correct diagonal cut at the the tip, really don't get much attention, but the crossarms make or break how realistic the telegraph pole looks. Unfortunately, toothpicks are way out of scale for crossarms. Here's a picture of a scale crossarm and a toothpick for comparison:
You can shave the toothpick down to get it closer to scale but it's tedious and, just when you get the right size, you're likely to break it. I'm not a great woodcarver and here's a picture of a scale size crossarm I shaved down from that toothpick but it broke in the middle just as I got it to the right size:
I guess the best compromise would be to shave the tooth pick to about half the original size. It will still be larger than scale but not as gross as using a toothpick straight out the box.
For insulators, get a box of thin straight pins. Stick the first pin in the top of the arm and then use a nippers to clip it off at what looks like the right height for an insulator mount. Use the remainder of the pin to do the same thing as you work your way down the crossarm. You should be able to get about 8 insulator mounts per straight pin.
Put a tiny glob of plastic glue on the top of each pin and let dry. While you were at Wallyworld, you have also picked up some green glitter nail polish. Shake well and apply a small glob of this to the dried glue glob. It will look very close to real green glass insulators.
Also note the "V" shaped braces on the scale crossarm. These were almost universally used to prevent the crossarm from shifting on the pole. You can use thin styrene cut to size to simulate the braces. A cheap source of thin styrene is the "For Sale" type signs at Wallyworld. You can get one for about $2 and it will provide you with all the material you need for braces.
Making your own telegraph poles is a somewhat tedious process but, when you've got more time than money, the methods I've described will provide a reasonably scale looking pole. I've seen some really nice layouts with scratch built telegraph poles that were completely out of scale and it really ruined the impression of an otherwise nice scene.