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8/17/2009 1:45 PM

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Scott Beveridge

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Kathy Wells is handicapped at the starting gate in the race today to spin the longest string of wool at Washington County Fair.

That’s because she is using a hand-held drop spinner rather than the spinning wheels that are preferred by the three other contestants.

“Women carried them with them everywhere they went,” said Wells of Washington. “They’d stick them in their belt.”

Despite the challenges she faces, Wells ended up winning the champion skein award because of the effort she put into the contest, said Ed Oelschlager of Eighty Four, who judged the winners.

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“Everybody gets something,” Oelschlager said.

When southwestern Pennsylvania was being settled in the late 1700s, the spinning wheel was known as the first home appliance, Wells said.

A women’s hands rarely stopped turning wool into yarn while in a wagon going to church or taking a break from other household chores. Wool was the only source of material to make clothes at the time.

But with wool prices low today coupled with modern methods of spinning, “People don’t mess with it,” said Dale Crouse, supervisor of the contest, involving wool that is fresh off the sheep.

“Wool’s not a big thing anymore,” Crouse said.

It costs $5 a head to shear sheep, with one of the animals netting just 10 pounds of wool, he said. For that reason, many farmers now choose to raise hair sheep for their meat because those animals lack wool, he said.

Yet there are women such as Wells who spin wool for a hobby and at historical re-enactments. There also are several spinning groups, she said.

Wells’ niece, Anna Phelan, 14, of Washington, also is competing and will win best of show.

“I became fascinated by the wheel when I was 6 years old,” she said.

And there are those who prefer hand-spun wool because it naturally contains lanolin which is used to make hand cream, Oelschlager said.

The wool sold in stores is itchy because its lanolin has been washed out in the factory, he said.

“That’s why you still have people who want wool that is hand spun” Oelschlager said.

Irish fisherman are among the few customers left who want wool containing lanolin, Wells said.

“They prefer it because it’s waterproof,” she said. “Most people don’t like their clothes feeling greasy.”


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