![]() So, the shrinking of wool clothing that so many people are familiar with is actually the result of a process called felting, hm, very interesting. Wow I never knew that wool sweaters would actually shrink, even if I saw it on T.V, I thought it would be fake. When you're finished, upload a picture of your finished project to Facebook to share with all your Wonder Friends. You may need to go to the store for a few supplies, so be sure to check the instructions first. ![]() Grab a friend or family member and try one or more of the fun craft activities below. Now that you know a little more about wool and where it comes from, why don't you try your hand at a weaving craft or two? Don't worry! You won't need any wool. We didn't mean to pull the wool over your eyes! Ha! Sorry, we just couldn't help ourselves. If you're feeling a bit sheepish about today's Wonder of the Day, don't worry.Check out Shrinking Eggs! for detailed instructions for how to perform a science experiment to learn more about the scientific process called osmosis. All you need are a couple of eggs and a few common household items. Want to do a little experimentation with shrinking? No, you don't need any sheep.Which ones do you like the best? Would you want a sheep as a pet? Why or why not? Do you like sheep? Have you ever seen one up close on a farm or at a zoo? Perhaps you've even fed one by hand at a petting zoo? Check out this cool online Sheep Photo Gallery to see beautiful pictures of a variety of sheep. ![]() Wouldn't it be funny if sheep shrunk when it rained? Shepherds would have a much harder job, wouldn't they? Keep thinking about these things as you check out one or more of the following activities with a friend or family member: This is good for sheep, since it prevents their wool from getting soaked and waterlogged, which would be very uncomfortable since they have so much wool! Lanolin also repels water, which makes sheep somewhat waterproof when they're out in the rain. Lanolin covers the wool fibers of their coats, acting as a natural lubricant that prevents fibers from locking together. Sheep also produce a natural oily substance called lanolin. No felting takes place on sheep in the rain, so they don't shrink! When they get wet, they can slide back into position without getting caught or locked into place. This is because their wool fibers have scales that are all pointing in the same direction. When hundreds and hundreds of wool fibers do this, it's called felting and results in a smaller garment that appears to have shrunk.Īs any shepherd will tell you, sheep do just fine in the rain and don't shrink like a wool sweater. The scale edges on the fibers often touch and interlock, holding the fibers in position and not allowing the fibers to slide back to their original, stretched-out positions. When wool clothing is washed and moved about like is normal in a washing machine, the wool fibers rub against each other. The orientation of the scales gets mixed up and they can be pointing in any random direction. When these wool fibers get processed and made into clothing, however, the fibers are stretched out. Wool fibers on a sheep have flat, overlapping scales that always point away from the sheep's body. ![]() Other examples of keratinized proteins are fingernails and hair. ![]() As wool grows on a sheep, it gets keratinized, which simply means it hardens. The fiber we know as wool that comes from sheep is made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. To understand felting, you need to know a bit more about wool as a fiber. The shrinking of wool clothing that so many people are familiar with is actually the result of a process called felting. So do sheep shrink when they get wet? If you're a shepherd with a flock in the rain, will you be left with a group of much smaller sheep? So where does wool come from? It comes from sheep, of course. Do you have a favorite sweater you love to wear when it's cold outside? If it's a wool sweater, you probably already know that you have to be very careful with it when you clean it. ![]()
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