Serendipity Spinners: 2025 Sheep to Shawl Champions
Last year, a team from Serendipity Spinners Guild won the Sheep to Shawl competition for the second year in a row at Lambtown Festival. We had a chance to interview two of the team members about their experience and their thoughts about the value of this event for themselves and the community.
Interviewer: Angela Muonio
Interviewees: Ron F. and Rachel L.
Angela: How many years have you done the Sheep to Shawl competition at Lambtown Festival?
Ron: I’ve done it for two years now.
Rachel: I learned how to spin in order to do it last year. Oh, that’s adventurous!
Angela: What inspired you to do it?
Ron: Here in the guild people thought it would just be fun. I saw the Sheep to Shawl for the first time before I learned how to spin. It was about eight or ten years ago. I really enjoyed the judging and how they used it as an opportunity to judge the work of the contestants, but also to educate the public on what they were looking at, the qualities that you put into the work that you are doing. What were some good qualities? What were some things that people strove for that were maybe a little ambitious that either worked or were over ambitious? So I learned a lot about weaving in general. Perhaps I was a spinner at the time, but I wasn’t a weaver.
Angela: So you were new to weaving?
Ron: Never done any weaving at the time. I was, like, wow, that’s really interesting. I could never do that. And then two years ago the guild group formed and they’re like, Ron, you’re a fast spinner. You want to join us?
So I did that. And this past year I had another group of friends who were very into it, very motivated, and I joined up with them as well. Our goal was to just have fun and hang out and put something out there.
Rachel: I got into it because I thought Ron wasn’t doing enough math. I was backseat driving a little too much, and he said “I guess you’re learning how to do it now.”
I think that it’s really interesting to take a fleece and be able to go through the process. Every single action needs to be done to a plan and exactly optimized. As Ron said, there’s so many decisions that will make or break the success of the final item. So I was really into the process optimization.
Ron: Rachel is very much the organized one. I am not.
Angela: What was your process to prepare for Sheep to Shawl?
Ron: The first year we just sort of showed up and winged it.
Angela: How did that go for you?
Ron: We won. We had lots of really talented experience, people from the guild who were helping and it was due to all of their support.
This past year, we set up monthly meetings where we would practice and talk about what we were going to do for the competition and plan out our shawl, the yarn, and the fleece we’re going to be spinning. We had an entire practice fleece that we went through, and we did an entire practice Horizon.
Rachel: For me, especially as a newer spinner, I would take a batt and I would spin it up and bring it back and I get my yarn judged by the group. I was trying to develop my techniques to be fast and consistent and be able to match the other people, whereas I think everybody else in the group had a lot more experience than I did in spinning.
Angela: There is a consistent theme here, that the competition helps you to stretch and grow in your abilities. What do you think Sheep to Shawl offers the community?
Ron: For the participants, it’s an event where you can get together with a group of people and have a great time. Hopefully, you’ll be friends at the end! Last year, we also wanted to try and send out a message with what we did, so for our practice shawl, which we entered in the virtual division, we dyed it as a rainbow flag, and our in-person shawl was the transgender flag. We just wanted that to be very visible with everything we see in the world these days…
Rachel: …to make sure that everybody at the festival knew that they were valued and that they belonged in the fiber art space.
Ron: I think as a competition and as a spectator event, because we’re out there spinning in front of everybody at the fair, It’s a great teaching opportunity. There’s so many people who came up who’ve never seen spinning or weaving or carding, and they had so many great questions. They learn about it and perhaps we can light a spark that gets them interested in more types of fiber arts as well.
Angela: Do you have anything to say for people who might be thinking about doing it, but feel intimidated?
Ron: Last year, there was a team of high school students. Many of them had been spinning for a week or two. They were using ragtag equipment that they found in their teacher-advisor’s closet or attic or something. They did not produce a finished shawl, but they had a great time. Everyone was cheering them on. They got so much support and it looked like they were having a blast.
It’s a very supportive environment, so let’s see what you can do. You might surprise yourself, like we did. We ended up winning–we did not believe we could win, and each time it happened, we were completely shocked.
Angela: Well, I can’t wait to see what you do this year!
Editor’s Note: Registration is now open for the 2026 Lambtown Festival Sheep to Shawl Competition. Teams competing in the Virtual Division make their shawl ahead of the festival and need not be present on festival weekend; teams competing in the Fairgrounds Division make their shawl on Sunday of festival weekend.
Learn more and register here.
Lambtown 2025 Sheep to Shawl team members interviewed:
Ron F., Spinner
Rachel L., Spinner
Other team members: Carol Buchholz, Tara Grosbach, Tyler Macek, Emily Morris, Charlotte Nix, Kamala Norris, Polina Petriuk (cheer leader!)
Interviewer: Angela Muonio
Note: The above has been edited and condensed for clarity.
