By 2:30 most of the seats in the sales arena were filled for the Sheep to Shawl competition, which started at 3 p.m and ended at 5:30.
Five teams took part in this year's competition. They had two and a half hours to produce a shawl, 78 by 22 inches, starting with shearing the sheep, then carding the yarn, spinning it, and weaving the shawl. Here a shearer readies his sheep for the start of the event.
Each team has name for itself. Five teams took part this year: Friends thru Fiber, Treadlers thru Time, Time Warp, Dream Weavers, and Butler County Pedalers. Treadlers thru Time won the shearing award.
Wool was sold during the competition.
The Treadlers thru Time members finish off the shawl once it was removed from the loom.The Sheep to Shawl competition, which has run for 31 years, is one of the high points of the Pennsylvania Farm Show. PCN, the Pennsylvania cable network, has excellent coverage of the event, which is hosted by Tom Knisely, a teacher at the Manning School of Weaving. It's impossible in person to get the close-up looks and explanations that cable coverage affords but it was nonetheless fascinating. The shearing of the sheep, the most dramatic part of the event, is quickly over, but many in the audience stayed till the end of the two and a half hours of the competition, which ran until 5:30, then stuck around till 6 pm to hear who had won.
Teams are judged on shearing, fleece, spinning, weaving, design, and speed. First to finish? The Time Warp team from Montour County. In the end, they won the event with a beautiful shawl in shades of tans, browns, grays, and black. Each team designs its shawl around an theme, which is also used in a team display. Time Warp based its design on the striking colors and patterns found in the state bird, the Ruffed Grouse. The fleece for the weft wool was provided by Bear, a Shetland wether and five-year veteran of the competition.
I had been rooting for Treadlers thru Time, the team that was working almost in front of us. Their shawl was based on Pennsylvania skies, incorporating hand-dyed warp threads in soft shades of blue. Both colors and weave were lovely. The Treadlers won awards for shearing and carding and over-all team but came in second. When I saw the finished shawls, though, I had to give it to the Time Warp team.
