. >> visiting philipsburg manor is like traveling back to the mid-1700s.ry year, the historic farm holds its sheep-to-shawl festival. it shows how colonists were able to make clothing and other cloth items out of a sheep's fleece. the first step is called shearing. >> this is a once-a-year activity -- what she's wearing is a one-year's growth, and that comes off around this time of the year. >> while the sheep clearly don't love being shorn, it's not as bad as it looks. >> it doesn't really hurt any more than having your hair cut hurts. it doesn't really have any feelings in it. >> the trick to shearing is to remove the fleece in a single section. >> and the reason it's taken off in one big piece is because the best part of it -- what they call "staple" -- grows very thick. and that's the part that would be best for spinning and making into thread. >> the next step is one that can get a little tedious. it involves getting all the pieces of grass out of the wool. >> and so we take our fingers and we pick and we pick, and this is what children would be doing