I wasn't really supposed to be spinning alot as I'd pulled a muscle and was supposed to let it rest. However, I got the medical okay if I followed certain conditions. I was part of the Guelph Handweavers and Spinners Guild team for the Sheep to Shawl competition at the Royal Winter Agricultural Fair, which competed in the Sheep to Shawl competition last weekend. It was a huge amount of fun and an equally huge amount of work.
We had a lovely hand dyed warp on the loom with very fine wool. We had to spin a fairly freshly shorn Ramboulet fleece (or so we think) to match not only the warp but each other's spinning. We had 4 hours to make a shawl that was about 24 inches wide by 72 inches long, not including fringes. It took us almost 3.5 hours to get the necessary wool spun and a few more minutes to get the shawl off the loom, checked over and on the judges table. We scored 97 of 100, garnering perfect points on the display ( it was awesome, interactive and beautiful) and losing 1 point each for timing ( we were the 2nd shawl on the table by a time of 1 minute), the spinning and the weave structure.
The shawl was woven in a plain twill, with undulating stripes from grey to blue. It was soft, draped well and was so pretty. Our shawl won 1st place. We won a nice monetary prize for our guild and each received a pretty rosette to commemorate the occasion. It was so much fun!
