I live in the colder region of Australia where agriculture and farming is the bread butter of the area. We have a large herding industry, as does much of Australia. Mainly running sheep and cattle. This means we have a whole load of quality fleece! and since it's so cold during winter we have the motivation to do something with it. During specific times of the year events involving quality of product, craftmanship and design pop up. There are often large (for a small town at least) quilting exhibitions with usually some kind of prize involved. Quality of wool competitions-as a kid I always enjoyed touching the fluffy bundles (hated the consequence of having greasy lanolin hands afterwards). Even "runway" events (Fleece to Fashion) where local talent get to hash it out to determine who has the most spectacular designs. Personally, I'm more of a hand sewer. Despite, I do enjoy knitting every now and again; though nothing quite competition worthy hahaha.
