My friends mom attended this. She mentioned that the wool that was used in the later stages was dyed and clearly wasn’t the same wool they sheared at the beginning. Still a cool concept.
While a little disappointing at first, after thinking about it I suppose they have to use the dyed stuff instead. Otherwise they won't be able to get the impressive patterns and artwork that are part of the point of the competition.
From the video in the article, the warp and pattern are preset on the loom by each team and they use the shorn wool for the weft.