Wool & Sheep

[garyt27]

If wool shrinks when you wash it, why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

[onebdzee]

Originally Posted by garyt27

If wool shrinks when you wash it, why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Their mom's gave them the good sense to not stay out in the rain....so, they don't

I got one for you.............

Where does the white go when the snow melts?

[garyt27]

Originally Posted by onebdzee

Their mom's gave them the good sense to not stay out in the rain....so, they don't

I got one for you.............

Where does the white go when the snow melts?

It goes to rice

[onebdzee]

Originally Posted by garyt27

It goes to rice

but, it doesn't snow around rice fields

[garyt27]

Originally Posted by onebdzee

but, it doesn't snow around rice fields

but rice fields are all downhill from snowy mountaintops!

[onebdzee]

Originally Posted by garyt27

but rice fields are all downhill from snowy mountaintops!

Ok....If you're so smart.......answer this.....

If you choke a Smurf what color does it turn?

[Dupontster]

What do batteries run on?

Don't get me started...

[Dupontster]

What happens if you get scared half to death, ...twice?

[onebdzee]

If everyone lost 5 pounds would it throw the earth off its gravitational pull?

[SamSpade]

Originally Posted by garyt27

If wool shrinks when you wash it, why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

A couple reasons, and it's really quite fascinating.

On the sheep, the fibers grow straight out from the skin and the fibers themselves have these overlapping scales. On the sheep, they all grow the same direction - so they generally don't tangle. In addition, the sheep's body produces lanolin which also tends to keep this from happening. When wool has been removed from the sheep, the fibers are all pointing in different directions. Wool actually doesn't "shrink" but rather, it felts. The scales, when exposed to friction and water come closer together and tend to interlock. If it was just yarn, this would tend to shorten the yarn, but in a fabric, it happens in all directions, so it gets denser - it appears to shrink. If you could undo all these locking velcro like things, you could stretch the wool back out, but it's pretty much impossible once it's happened.

There's also a matter of fiber tension - when wool is sheared and readied for use, it gets stretched and straightened out, unlike on the sheep, where it tends to curl. In warm water, this tendency reverses - which helps the felting process.

Wool manufacturers have been developing better and better "washable" wool which strips the scales off the wool chemically before it's used, to various degrees of success.