Wool, wet. And dry.

Since I seemingly promised you wool pictures and Heather reminded me of that, here they are. All were taking during the test runs for a washing wool procedure (and the test run was, by the way, quite successful).

This is Rhönschaf-wool before washing, laid out on a cloth.

All the wool was pretty clean, as wool worn by sheep hanging out outside goes. And I discovered during washing that a lot of the darker colour is due to dust and fine earth particles hanging in the fleece.

 

And this is wooly magic happening right there. This is the wool soaking in rainwater, and it's basically cleaning itself. You see the little bubbles about in the middle of the picture? That is the result of a reaction between sheep urine, lanolin, sheep sweat and soft water. It's... soap bubbles. Which will remove a bit of the lanolin and all the urine and sweat, leaving the wool...

... nice and clean after rinsing. It's spread out for drying on my beating frame here. And yes, I have managed to wash a whole fleece's worth of wool at once, thanks to well-timed rainfall hereabouts.