It was Amelia's first haircut.

The lamb, born mid-February last year, gave her wool Wednesday to Twisted & Warped for Ewe, a Lancaster County-based team competing in the annual sheep-to-shawl competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.

Amelia didn't bleat or kick — much — but she didn't look completely thrilled, either, as shearer Emily Chamelin of Westminster, Md., reduced the woolly American Jacob lamb to a smooth-skinned, very surprised-looking specimen.

"It went well," Chamelin said later. "Jacobs are a primitive breed — less domesticated than some breeds — so they're a little jumpy. She was wiggling around, but she was fine."

The shearer joined in as a carder, helping out the team on fairly short notice.

Lambs' wool, she noted, has a touch more curl than wool from an adult sheep. It's also softer, as wool tends to coarsen as a sheep ages.

Within seconds of shearing, the raw wool was being carded into fine fibers, then spun into thread, plied and wound onto wooden spools, known as bobbins.

"I think it's amazing to see the process from beginning to end," Chamelin said.

Luciano Abbarno, a student historian at Ephrata Cloister, manned the loom, weaving the new threads into a diamond pattern in a preset warp.

 VIDEO: Twisted & Warped for Ewe team competes at Farm Show

Abbarno also served as weaver for the 4-H Wooly Workers of Lebanon County, a youth team that placed fifth in the fleece-to-shawl contest earlier in the day.

Team leader Stephanie Daugherty of Leola said it's a miracle they were competing at all.

"We signed up to do this, but our registration was a little late … so we were on a waiting list," she said.

Then she got the call that another team was forced to withdraw.

"We had only eight days to pull this together," she said. "So I started making calls."

She gathered her team and got enough Jacobs wool together for the warp, or vertical threads, which must be completed in advance of the competition. Only the weft, or horizontal threads, are woven at the event.

"Just getting here was an accomplishment," Daugherty said. "Whether we place or not — well, anything else is a cherry on the cake."

Also participating in Twisted & Warped are Judy Leece of York and Pam Potts of Mount Joy.

"We're a sweetheart team," Daugherty said. "Since Amelia was born close to Valentine's Day, it seemed a natural."

The diamond pattern in their shawl is a gateway to romance, she confided.

"We hope someone will be inspired to propose to his sweetheart with this shawl," she said. "What girl doesn't want diamonds?"

Eight teams competed Wednesday and, when the judging was done, Twisted & Warped did not place among the top five teams.

Winning, however, didn't matter to Daugherty.

"I'm thrilled," she said. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But we got here. … And there's always next year."

First place went to Dream Weavers from Northumberland County. Treadlers Thru Time, from Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks counties, placed second.

The Treadlers finished in second last year, too, and the members were well pleased to match their 2010 performance.

"It feels really good. This was a very good day," said team carder Jeri Robinson-Lawrence.

The Treadlers Thru Time shawl, in an original pattern called "Pennsylvania Sky, Day & Night," sold for $850 during the auction of winners later Wednesday evening.

Besides placing second in the shawl competition, the Treadlers also won two special awards: Matt Geissinger, champion shearer, and Ellen Anderson, Kathy Kenworthy and Irina Lawrence, premium spinning group.

The Farm Show continues through Saturday. View a complete schedule of events online at www.farmshow.state.pa.us.

tknapp@lnpnews.com