Gabrielle and Stephanie Augustine of Palmerton have stitched up another Pennsylvania "Make It With Wool" competition held in Somerset on Oct. 16.

Both young ladies won first place in their respective categories which qualifies them to enter the national competition to be held January 2011 in Reno, Nevada.Gabrielle, 18, won first place in the senior age division, 17-24. She is a junior at Cedar Crest College in the honors program, studying a self-designed major of anthropology with a focus in archaeology and a writing minor. She has previously won the PA competition three times and progressed on to Nationals, first in San Antonio, TX, then Las Vegas, NV, where she won first place at the junior level, and last year in Nashville, TN. Gabrielle did not place at Nationals in TN, but she did win the American Merino award.Because of winning that award, she is one of several contestants from across the nation that is featured in the current January 2011 issue of Threads magazine.All entries must be made of wool.For this year's winning entry, Gabrielle made a plaid trench coat with handstitched seams so the plaids matched."It was very time consuming," she says.She made leggings with zippers and a cowl neck brown shirt. She hand-knit a copper colored tunic.Being the ambitious gal that she is, she made a second outfit, which won second place. It consisted of a black motorcycle style jacket with gray stitching. The skirt is a work of art. She designed it with panels of gray plaid, with handmade braided seams and she knitted a seamless red turtleneck to wear with it.She used nine zippers between the two outfits."It's a lot of fun. Sometimes it got a little stressful. I work on projects in classes and everyone who saw the jacket and skirt told me they want me to make them outfits like it," says Gabrielle.Stephanie, 14, won first place in the 13-16 age division. She is a freshman at Cedar Crest College in the honors program, majoring in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology. She won in the Make It With Wool contest in Pennsylvania many times as a preteen, but last year was her first win in the junior category that moved her on to Nationals where she placed 10th last year.Stephanie made a lovely blue blouse with flared sleeves. She knitted a taupe colored vest and made dark brown boot cut slacks. She topped it off with a hounds tooth cape lined with alpaca wool fabric.Stephanie chose a cape with a hood and tassel because she was inspired by her interests in medieval and fantasy stories."I think the neatest thing about the contest is it challenges you personally," says Stephanie.Their mother, Kathy Augustine, has been competing in the contest since 1991 and showed her daughters how to sew and knit at a very early age."I didn't place this year, but I am very proud of my daughters," she says.She had made an outfit of slacks, blouse and jacket. The vest she knitted was a process that took her about four months from obtaining wool from Jacob sheep to carding to spinning 800 yards of yarn on her own spinning wheel to knitting it.All three gals are fans of the show, "Project Runway." The show often features a shop in New York City, Mood Fabrics. They had the opportunity to visit there this summer."We were in Fabric Heaven," says Gabrielle. She bought the material for her cowl neck blouse and gray plaid skirt there.You could say, wool is a passion for these gals. It is a hobby, an art, almost a calling to create something from nothing. All three receive great satisfaction when a project is completed.Winning a competition just adds a fashionable flourish to an already pièce de résistance.