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(363) (227) (97) (46) (34) (13) (6) (3) (3) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2)But for participants in the 30th Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl Competition, patience, skill and speed all come into play in a contest that tests the abilities of some of the best fiber artists around.
Two local teams had strong showings among the eight competing in one of the most popular contests at the Farm Show, drawing thousands of onlookers Wednesday afternoon. Red Rose Treadling Toes, comprised of Lancaster County and Lebanon County residents, finished in second place, while Treadlers thru Time, a team from Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks counties, finished in third place.
Gerry Heefner, a spinner for Red Rose who lives in Lancaster, said the planning and the competition make the event worthwhile.
"(The Farm Show) really gives us a chance to work together," Heefner said. "It's something that's a very natural process, and with all of us being interested in the fiber arts, it just seems like the place for us to be."
Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff said Sheep to Shawl is part of a longstanding tradition at the Farm Show and a great way to showcase sheep and wool production in Pennsylvania. He said the sheep and wool industry contributes about $8 million to the state economy.
Competition scoring is based on several factors including consistency of the weaving, speed in creating the shawl, quality of the shearing and technical difficulty of the spinning.
The Treadling Toes theme this year for its shawl was "recycle, reuse, redesign," utilizing yarn left over from previous shawl projects.
Barbara Noble of Lititz is another spinner on the team. She said she has been spinning wool for 16 years as a way to unwind.
The fleece was still warm as Hoyt Emmons of Pennsburg sheared the Jacob ewe from Rise and Shine Farm in East Berlin. Noble spent an afternoon at the farm late last year looking for a fleece similar to the one the team used in last year's competition so it would blend together.
Noble said the fleece turned out to be the nicest the team ever had to work with, complete with a blend of colors, including gray, white and black.
The spinning team, which includes Dave Keefer of Little Britain, attempted to create more than 2,000 yards of a fine two-ply yarn to make the shawl light and soft. Earlier this month they did a trial run and created a shawl weighing 11.8 ounces.
It took a little more than two hours to create the shawl, which measured 86 inches long and 24 inches wide.
Sue Fry of Lebanon did the carding for the team, cleaning the wool to prepare it for the spinners. She said she took knitting lessons a few years ago and wanted to learn how to make yarn.
"(The fleece) practically spun itself," Fry said.
Last year the Treadling Toes finished in sixth place, so the team was pleased with its improvement. It also was the second year in a row the team won the premium spinning award.
The team's shawl sold for $425 at the auction after the competition. Last year its shawl sold for $1,000.
Rae Newhouse of Millersville worked the loom. She has been weaving for 16 years. She said her mother was interested in knitting and crocheting, but she said that didn't appeal to her and she wanted to do something different.
Newhouse just started teaching special education at Penn Manor School District. Last year she was a long-term substitute and taught students how to weave on miniature frame looms made by a tech teacher at her school.
When Newhouse is weaving, she said, she doesn't see the total project and instead concentrates on making the edges and lines straight.
"(My teammates) give me good yarn — that helps," Newhouse said.
Besides the Treadling Toes, two residents from Lancaster County participated with the third-place team, Treadling thru Time.
Tina Volz of Holtwood, the weaver for the Treadlers, was wearing a homemade futuristic vest with LED lights flashing the team's name to go along with the theme of looking at the past, present and future of spinning and weaving. She would help to create an 82-inch-by-23-inch shawl that sold for $800 at the auction.
Jeri Robinson-Lawrence, a Lancaster resident and the new carder of the team, was dressed as "Rosie the Riveter" as an homage to the past.
The team used a sheep she just bought, a year-old Corriedale and Romney cross named Noel, for the fleece.
E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com
