We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Following several MIWW District contests held in October 2024, the Montana Make It With Wool state contest was held on December 6-7, 2024 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center in Billings, Montana, in conjunction with the 141st Annual Montana Woolgrowers Convention.
There were 6 sewists competing in three categories at this year's State contest - Junior, Senior, and Adult. The Junior category for those ages 13 to 16 as of January 1st of the contest year had one very worthy contestant in Ella Grainey of Polson. The Senior Division for those ages 17 to 24 show cased two contestants, namely Rose Baeten of Billings, and Kiara Sherman of Ronan. Our largest category this year with three contestants was the Adults for those 25 years of age and older – Claudia Andrade of Ronan, Briana Baeten of Billings, and Judy Smith of Ronan.
After several hours of modeling and construction judging, Joan Hansen of Big Timber, and Leslie McMillen and Sara McMillen both from Sidney, came away with the final placings. Winners and awards were announced during the Woolgrowers' banquet on Saturday night which featured the MIWW Style Show presented to the theme of "The Nutcracker". The style show featured ballet dancers from The School of Classical Ballet Company of Billings who danced several pieces from "The Nutcracker". It was a huge hit!
First place finishers at the Montana MIWW contest were Junior – Ella Grainey, Senior – Kiara Sherman, and Adult – Briana Baeten.
Montana MIWW also had 4 PreTeen contestants this year – lots of up and coming talent with Kayla Grainey, Caleb Wallace, and Naomi Wallace all of Polson, along with Esther Jensen of St. Ignatius.
Jasmine Powell of Havre crocheted another wool afghan this year for the Afghan contest. The afghan is crocheted with 100% pure wool yarn from Plymouth Galway. Her color choices were Bubblegum, Palest Pink, Medium Grey Heather, Bleach, Black, and Glacier Grey. Jasmine calls her afghan "Sheep Patchwork Adventure" and it features a variety of blocks – solid granny square, circular granny square, and the sheep granny square block. Some of the blocks are the same with color variations. Others are just a variety. And there are several sheep granny square blocks wandering sporadically around the patchwork and carefully placed looking in all directions so there is not necessarily a top or bottom to the piece. Jasmine taught herself how to crochet about 6 years ago from watching You tube videos. She does a lot of trial and error, but it looks like she is getting the hang of it with this year's beautiful afghan.
Montana's representatives had a memorable time in Scottsdale where they traveled in the warm weather to Old Town Scottsdale to listen to the Pendleton store manager while she gave a tour and shared some history on the Pendleton wear designs. Ella and Kiara enjoyed a treat at the Sugar Bowl Ice Cream Parlor, visited museums, and did some shopping. The National contestants also took in a couple of workshops where they learned several hand embroidery stitches along with an overview of machine embroidery skills.
Some interesting statistics collected from the 2024 MIWW year are that participation is on the rise with a total of 404 contestants across the nation and split by category with 74 Adult contestants, 48 Seniors, 94 Juniors, 154 PreTeens, and 23 Made for Other entrants. There was a total of 1,215 yards of wool fabric and 206 skeins of wool yarn used to construct the MIWW garment entries for the 2024 year. Montana dipped a bit in the participation ranking this year to 15th out of 27 participating states.
There are lot of new things coming up in 2025 for the MIWW program. There will be updated information for the sweater contest and other revisions to the contests coming out soon. To keep up to date on the changes and the contests themselves, please visit and like our Montana Make It With Wool facebook page, Montana Wool Growers Association facebook page or website at mtsheep.org, or email Montana MIWW Director Amanda Powell at aspowell11@hotmail.com.
