It's been a week, and I still haven't posted anything about this year's Sheep to Shawl contest. With the kids home from school for the summer and Mr. Debbie globetrotting again, I've barely touched the computer all week. But I've finally evicted the offspring, downloaded the photos, and have almost forty minutes before my next chauffeuring task, so here goes.
Here's Team Chutzpah early in the morning, listening to opening remarks from Debi Dodge, this year's judge, and Jill Klawonn, the superintendent. You can tell it's still early because everyone is smiling. From left to right, Nancy (hiding behind her hair), Rebecca, Dianne, and Judy. Above you can just see the past year's shawls, hanging from the tent support pole. You can barely see the loom in the back corner. The idea was to minimize interruptions for the weaver (me), as the 8 shaft twill I was weaving has a long pattern sequence, and it's difficult to see the mistakes from the top. It was a good plan, but it didn't really work, and it wouldn't be Sheep to Shawl without passers-by asking questions. I think a better plan is to have a simpler treadling sequence in the first place (yes, team, that is a hint!).
Our intrepid alternate, Marta, was there bright and early, bearing doughnuts to boot. She was itching to spin along with the team, but will have to wait till next year.
We had a little excitement before the contest started. When we were loading the Baby Wolf in the truck, one of my sons must have placed the reed peg into its hole, and during the ride up to Estes, somehow that peg got bent. What this meant was, once the loom was set up, the reed was immobile, as the peg was bent in place at a 90 degree angle. After a frantic search for some tools, Carl Lee lent us a pair of pliers and a wrench, and Nancy muscled the peg out so I could weave. Good thing we had that chocolate bourbon cake along to pay for the tool rental.
At the stroke of 9, the fun began. As I had no yarn to weave with (yet), I got to take some pictures. Don't they look busy?
Yes, they're all spinning on Schacht Matchless spinning wheels, and I was weaving on a Schacht loom as well, but it was entirely coincidental. It was suggested by so
me of the visitors that we seek out corporate sponsorship next year...
Fast forward five and a half hours, as once the yarn starts coming in, there's no rest for the weaver (except the mandatory half hour lunch break). Once the second end was hemstitched, and the shawl cut off the loom, everyone started looking for errors and loose ends. The gray warp and white weft were fairly close in color, so the pattern is very subtle, but the bottom of the photo shows it off fairly well.
There were three mistakes in the treadling sequence that we found, so I had a busy few minutes needle weaving a repair row over the long floats on the reverse. Then into the bucket of hot water it went. After some brisk toweling, a fringe trim, and a final check for dangling threads, we handed it over, the last of the three teams to finish.
The judge got all three shawls before the 2:30 deadline, and headed off for the hard task of judging them all. We expected her back between 3 and 3:30, and the cheering sections started gathering around 3, so we were all getting quite concerned that she and our shawls had headed off into the sunset when they finally reappeared a
t 3:48 pm.
First place went to Sheep Thrills, a team from Denver and Iowa. Their brown and white houndstooth check used a gorgeous dark chocolate fleece, really consistent spinning by the team, a fun narrow border at each end, and was beautifully finished. As Nancy said, there's no shame in losing to a shawl like this.
Our braided twill ended up placing second. You can see the great drape in this photo, even though the shawl was still damp. I think some more interest, maybe a border or mix of patterns, might have garnered some more desig
n points.
And our worthy opponents at the Laramie Fiber Guild took third place with their network twill shawl. The needlefelted flowers (forget-me-nots, not pansies) at both ends added some lovely color to the contest, which only allows natural colored fiber for the fleece.
One final photo of the team with shawl (and a ribbon!), where you can get a peek at the pattern on the other side. Will we be back next year? Well, I think the shawl was still being judged when the first person said, "I think, for next year, we should..."
