Elaine Horemans on Sheep to Shawl

Elaine Horemans on Sheep to Shawl

Sheep to Shawl Event

Elaine Horemans explains about the Sheep to Shawl event and her experience on it as both participant and organizer.

Jung-Ah Kim

Elaine Horemans

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It's a competition that is put on by the Guild, but it's in conjunction with the Sheepdog Trials that the City of Kingston runs every year. So it's outdoor, it's in the summer. So it's warm, they have a tent. And we set up our activities under this tent, I was first involved as a participant in one of the teams as a spinner. I really enjoyed it, I enjoy competition. So it had that hurry up and finish kind of excitement to it, which I really enjoyed. And watching what our team and the other teams did create in the way of a woven shawl was just magical. And, of course, the general public that comes to see is also quite interested in what we do and how we do it. The competition is on the Saturday. So we have the opportunity on the Sunday the following day, to have washed and dried the shawls, and we offer them for auction. So the general public can actually have an opportunity to buy one of these handmade pieces, which is fun as well. And I participated as a team member, a spinner for a couple of years. And then I had learned to weave by then and wanted to be the weaver. And that is usually the hardest role to fill. There's four spinners required, but only one weaver. And no one wants to be the weaver which I thought was silly, so I enjoy doing the weaving. And so I would design the shawl myself and prepare the loom myself at home. And then when we go to the competition, the spinners would spin the fleece that's provided, and I would weave with it into the pattern I had chosen. And then usually there were four teams, not all from the immediate area, we usually had one or two teams from Kingston, one from Belleville, sometimes one from Prince Edward County, which isn't too far away, and almost always one from Guelph, which does seem like a long, far away. But they often came for the practice and the experience. And they often won. They're extremely competent people. So it was good competition. And we really enjoyed ourselves. After my friend, Betsy, who ran it for many years, got to the point where she really wanted to participate. So she asked me if I would organize it so that she can participate. And that seemed only fair to me. So a couple of years ago, two, three years ago now, I took over from her and did some of the organizing, which I found interesting as well, because that involves sending out the information to the different teams to get them to register, it involved arranging prizes, organizing the day, and then running the event, keeping time for everything, getting a judge to come for that day, and then also organizing the auction the following day. So you know, it's an organizational aspect of it. But I miss participating as a spinner or a weaver. So I would really like to be able to hand this job off to the next person so that I can go back and participate more fully. We've had lots of different people participate over the years. And in the last several years, we have fielded two teams, one, which we call the competitive team, which is the people that are usually more experienced or more competitive in nature. And then we have a, we used to call it a non competitive team. But it's really, for people that want to be introduced to the Sheep to Shawl, they don't have to be wonderful spinners. And usually we have a weaver who is less experienced but able to handle whatever yarns are produced by these less experienced spinners in a way that will still make a shawl that's acceptable. So that's been kind of fun. And I've been the weaver for that group a couple of times. And it's very motivating to see the new people coming up and wanting to participate. Often they start being really afraid because they don't know if they can spin well enough. And they get into the event on the day and it's just a big party, we chat and talk with each other and joke around a little bit. I have a few photographs. Maybe I can share with you some of the events during the day, like the the actual competition itself, the shawl results, and I have a fun one that I really enjoy of me at the end of the day absolutely exhausted lying down on the fleece that was provided with my hat over my face. And I really hope that the guild can continue to participate in it because the city provides a stipend for us to participate over the weekend. And there's also prize money for the shawls, depending on the placement. And so often the guild comes back with a nice bonus after that event. So I think it's definitely well worthwhile for the guild to participate in that city event.