In a conversation recently, the question was asked about how
much it costs to participate in a sheep-to-shawl competition. I thought it was
an interesting puzzle as I’d never really written anything down.
A team is usually 5 people—weaver, 3 spinners, and a
shearer/carder. Our team does not own sheep nor is anyone a shearer, so we have
to find a shepherd and pay their vet fees to certify that the animal is
disease-free. Shearers run in the neighborhood of $150 for the 10-15 minutes it
takes to denude a sheep PLUS the time they spend driving to/from the event, the
hour before the event and a few hours afterwards so that, if their team wins,
they are present for the photos and the auction of the shawl.
The entry fee for the competition $10-30. Most of the above
fees/costs are covered by our guild. The auction proceeds also go to the guild
to offset the vet/entry/shearer fees, and the auction price can range from $600-$3,000
depending on the event venue and design of the shawl. So our guild can
reasonably expect to receive at least $300. From that, they pay each team
member $35 to help defray our travel/hotel costs, leaving the guild with at
least $125 in profit. However, this does not take into account the costs
incurred by the individual team members. This year’s breakdown for the team in
which I was a member was roughly:
Days Inn, 4 rooms for 2 nights, $125 each (some family came
to assist
with hauling equipment) $
500
Gas for 4 vehicles to/from the event, $50 each 200
Costumes, 5 members (we purchased the shearer’s
costume
for her), $37 each 185
Practice fleeces (we went through 3 in 6 months), ~$60 each 240
Food at the event, 4 people for 3 meals, about $40/person 160
Display (required by the venues)--historic photos, graphics, yarn 120
Total spent by the team to participate $1,405
That comes to an average of $351 per person (weaver & 3
spinners)! So our guild receives a profit of at least $125 and each team member
spends roughly $350 out-of-pocket to participate in the competition. Wow! I never realized until I wrote it all out just now. And most of those costs are not negotiable. You must have lodging/food/gasoline and a display. A team could possibly cut down on the cost of practice fleeces if they know someone with appropriate fleece that they'd contribute free of charge, but that would only save the team $240.
I often wonder if people realize that, in addition to the work involved in designing a shawl around an appropriate theme and making the 2 shawls (a sample shawl is always required by the venue), there is SO MUCH MORE that team members do to make it a successful trip.
