Maine club competes in all-day international wool challenge

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – Mainely Spinners, a club that creates wool fiber art, spent all day Saturday competing in the 28th annual International Back to Back Wool Challenge.

The team started in the challenge five years ago, getting introduced by Stacey Wilson who competed on the San Diego team.

“The International Back to Back Wool Challenge was originally created to bring together farms in Australia. It was just a fun event, competing against each other seeing who could make a sweater faster,” explains Wilson.

The 8-person team must shear a sheep, spin its wool, and knit a sweater all in one day, competing head-to-head with teams from around the globe. Teams hailing from Australia, Canada, Japan, Norway, and more have participated in the event.

In the U.S., there are teams in Maine, California, and New Hampshire.

Along with wanting the fastest time, the international challenge also offers the Brigadoon trophy for the team who has raised the most money for their chosen cancer foundation.

“Last year and the year before, we raised the most amount of funds,” says Wilson about the Mainely Spinners.

This year, Mainely Spinners chose Sarah’s House of Maine, the “home away from home” for cancer patients undergoing treatment.

Donations are raised through their sweater raffle, silent auction, and over 100 items for sale, available both online and in-person.

One-year-old Squirrelly Dan from Orono’s Shepherdess of Black Sheep farm got his fresh spring haircut, providing the fleece for the team to use.

While the team was hard at work, students from College of the Atlantic stopped by to see the spinners in action. The students are currently taking a “Sheep and Shawl” class, which teaches them the process of creating wool garments.

With mentorship from the club, sophomore JouJou and her classmates got to take spinning for a spin themselves!

When she first got on the spinner, JouJou says it was “scary”, but the guidance quickly eased any worries: “With Barbara, she really felt welcoming and helping. We can do this together. You can mess up, it’s fine.”

After the demo, she ended up liking it so much that she said she plans on getting her own wheel!

“A lot of people don’t realize how important the fiber arts are, or even just making your own clothes what’s involved,” explains Wilson on the event’s significance. “A lot of people feel like it’s a lost art, and it really isn’t. It is so important for the fiber community and the wool industry to know that we’re still here, and we’re a growing industry and a lot of people just don’t realize that, so it’s important to get that word out. And the younger generations involved right at the beginning all the way to the end.”

The team set a new personal record on Saturday with a time of 10 hours and 36 minutes.

To learn more about Mainely Spinners, view the items up for auction or participate in the raffle, and even view their livestream to spectate on their journey through the challenge, head to their Facebook page.

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