CSC student knits her way to national competition

CSC student Aretta Brennemann, 19, freshman of Kurtis, attended the National Make It With Wool finals in San Diego after winning the finals in the senior division of the Nebraska state competition.

“Make It With Wool is a national contest that promotes the wool industry in cooperation with the American sheep industry,” Brennemann said. “So they are kinda sister things. It promotes the wool industry. There is a state level and contests, you make garments so you can crochet, sew, knit any medium you choose, garments out of wool. Then you model them, there is a construction judging then the top from there’s four age division and the top from each age division competes.”

Brennemann was taught how to sew by her mother when she was 8 years old to compete in the sewing competition for 4-H.

“I started sewing when I was 8 years old for 4-H,” Brennemann said. “My mom said, ‘I’ll teach you to cook but I won’t teach you to sew because I’m so busy unless you have a deadline.’ So then sewing for competition gave us that deadline to have to be done by so it forced us to learn how to sew. And I’m the same way, I’m super busy. I won’t do it unless I have a deadline, and it’s a skill I want to use, I loves doing it. So competing at Make It With Wool gives me a reason to keep doing it and keep that skill active and keep learning.”

Brennemann has been competing for four years, her mother has competed and her sister and cousin are currently competing, her grandmother also began competing. “It is very much a family thing for us,” Brennemann said.

She says she enjoys all aspects of the contest from meeting new people to getting inspiration to making your own garments. She plans to continue to compete in the coming years.

“It’s all fun, getting to meet those people and making those connections,” Brennemann said “I love that. And then the finished product just what you made and like I made this, it fits me perfectly because you get to tailor and construct to your body, your taste your design, your colors, so you can find an outfit that you think is cute in a store but there is always something you wish you could change about it, when you make your own garment, you get to change that, you get full control, I love it.”

The national competition was in San Diego. There were nine awards in the contest including Fashion Design Division, Adult Division, Senior Division, Junior Division, Handwork Award, Needlework Award, Outstanding Use of Mohair Award, Creative Machine Embroidery Award and Exemplary Construction Award

 “The people were great, getting the inspiration because seeing what everyone made you are blown away,” Brennemann said. “Like almost everything you see on someone is something that they made and most of the time you cannot tell the difference between something that was handmade and something that was factory made. It’s incredible. That level of competition and level of skill is mind blowing and meeting the people from all over the nation it was so fun.”