ShareThisSpeed matters, but consistency is what counts most.
That's what competitors in the Pennsylvania Farm Show's 30th annual Sheep to Shawl contest in Harrisburg said Wednesday.
Teams of six had 2-1/2 hours to shear a sheep, spin its fleece and weave a shawl. All the while, a team of judges watched every clip of the scissors, spin of the wheel and pass of the shuttle.
Eight teams competed, including the Loyalhannon Spinners of Westmoreland County, Pa., who took second place last year and were hoping for a win this year.
For the Loyalhannon team, it began with Gandolf. He's the Shetland sheep who sacrificed his fleece -- along with his dignity -- when he was shorn before a crowd of at least 700 in the Sale Arena stands. He had been growing his fleece for a year. The thicker the better, said Galdolf's owner and spinner, Sandy Truckner.
The fleece comes out in locks -- tangles of fibers -- that "carders" wrestle with using stiff wire brushes called cards. "You can do your knuckles in pretty good if you're working with really short stuff," said team captain and weaver Susan Rex.
"No blood yet," Truckner confirmed about 45 minutes into the contest.
Truckner started weaving in 1999 when she realized how soft the wool was on the Shetlands she was raising with her husband at Twin Springs Farm in Avonmore, Pa.
"Shetlands have such pretty fleece; I wondered what it would look like as yarn and the only way to find out was to spin it," she said.
Before that, she had never even considered the ancient textile art.
"I didn't want to spin. I thought, 'Why would I ever want to do that? If I want a sweater I'll just go to Walmart,' " she said.
After she tried it, though, she was hooked. She joined a spinning club, which meets about twice a week at different members' houses.
Nancy Solinger easily got into the rhythm of the competition." I was nervous, but now I'm excited," she said as her spinning wheel made its first few turns.
The team wore matching pink shirts, black socks and black shoes -- although Rex kicked hers off before the competition, the better to feel the pedals to maneuver the loom's four harnesses, which determine the pattern.
The last half-hour was the most hectic as competitors watched faster teams finish. It's also when backaches set in, thumbs felt raw from fleece running over them, and knuckles were scraped from carding.
"Bobbin. I need another bobbin," Rex called out impatiently at teammates who scrambled to wind yarn. "Break it off. I need it. Break it off."
With 14 minutes to go, she panicked.
"Something's wrong. This isn't right," she said, stopping to adjust part of the loom that had begun to stick. Satisfied, she continued.
After a few more passes of the shuttle, she hand-hemmed the final row. The shawl was short of the 90-inch length she had planned for. Stretched on the loom, it measured 87 inches, but it would shrink when taken off.
(E-mail Tracie Mauriello at tmauriello (at) post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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