Last night at bowling a question ( that I searched here for the answer) came up that ended up turning into guffaws. Rachel: Why doesn’t wool on a sheep shrink when they are standing in the rain?
Me: (various semi-intelligent answers that everyone tosses around and contributes) Well, I suspect it has to do that rain is cool and in order to felt or shrink a sweater, for example, you put it in hot water and agitate it.
Rachel: So, if we put a sheep in a hot shower, it would shrink.
Kathy:: It needs to be agitated. Weren’t you listening?
Rachel: What if we gave the sheep hot shower and a vibrator?
I believe part of the answer involves lanolin, which is found on fleece and used as a moisturizer. It protects the wool while it is still on the sheep.
I’ve always had this mental image of sheep lining up at the farmhouse door when rain threatens: “hell-o? we’re wool!”
Unlike some other fibers, wool is a curly hair. It shrinks by coiling tighter, and it can be stretched out again. On the sheep, those hairs all run from the skin to the surface, so if they do draw up, it doesn’t show.