The double shearing

One thing that had been confusing me was the double shearing per year, as I described here.
The fleece, to be sheared and used for wool need to be at a minimum lenght, so I didn’t understand how they could shear the "meirinha" sheep twice a year.
Well, they weren’t. The double shearing was only made when they had mostly wild sheep, whose fleece grows long enough to be cut once in May and again in by the end of August.
Shearing the sheep twice was not only useful because it allowed the women to spin the weft and the warp for the blankets in two separate occasions, but also because it was softer because it hadn’t been exposed to the elements for so long - obtaining softer wool was importante because the wild sheep have a harsher wool than the domesticated sheep.
Another reason to cut the wool by the end of the summer was to avoid the long fleece to be constantly wet during autumn and winter. This would make the fleece rot or provoke other diseases. Short fleece, dry fleece.
Nowadays, the “meirinha” sheep, that are more domesticated, are sheared only once a year in May and the fleece is kept during the year to be transformed.