In wet conditions, wool absorbs up to 30 percent of its own weight without feeling damp. It is also flame-retardant. It's not only in the movies, but fire departments actually recommend wool blankets for smothering flames. Its flexibility makes it ideal for coats, jackets, shirts, socks, sportswear sweaters and outerwear. A woolen fabric is made from yarn that is as tightly twisted and has more loft than worsted yarn, so the fabric has a softer, fuzzier surface texture.
Good examples are flannel, melton and tweed.
Worsteds are highly twisted and finer, producing a smooth fabric with a clear, crisp surface such as gabardine. It used to be that around May or so that wool suits would be taken to the cleaners and put away until next fall. You run your thumb up a piece of woolen fabric, then down. The warp and the weft of the weaving process of the fabric are equal in both directions. That very same lightweight woolen suit can be worn all summer long because it breathes to allow air movement and hardly wrinkles because it's so strong and tightly woven.