WoolWeenies Club

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Originally Posted by elk

Wool. I'm wearing my Rivendell merino crew under a flannel shirt right now...I'm findin it easier on the skin than I did. But....what and how do you layer that wool? Is it right next to your skin? What do you wear for wind and wet over it? If you wear a waterproof shell, does the wool still breathe? HOw many layers ?

How to dress, is the question, for riding in this wet 35-50 degree climate of the NW in winter?? give me some specific stuff to shop for...
please.
oh! and I find Ibex runs a little small...anything good that runs more true to size?

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Buy one size up in Ibex if it runs small for you.

Buy Icebreaker if you can't afford Ibex, but buy Ibex any time you can get it on sale. (check the Ibex Outlet and BackCountry.com and Sierra Trading Post and REI-Outlet)

Wear a bra under the wool. Ibex is coming out with wool bras this winter, but until then wear a regular bra.

Treat your wool t-shirt like you would any other t-shirt for layering. Put your favorite warm goodies on over it. It'll be just fine.

Wool just keeps on breathing, but how much vapor gets out your waterproof shell is entirely up to the SHELL. (not the wool)

When it's wet and in the cooler temps here in Seattle I like to ride in wool Ibex capris, wool socks, bra, wool longsleeve t-shirt, and wool sweater. I might put a shell on over the sweater if it's *really* raining, but tend not to. I generally wear just my PI visiblity vest cuz I sweat so much.

I have a wool helmet liner and wool gloves for those really cold days.

I like to wear the thin Ibex longsleeve crew "Woolie" shirts as a base layer underneath (over a bra), then a thicker wool shirt over that, like the Ibex Shak or the Ibex Zephyr. Then I'll either wear a wool vest or a screaming yellow windbreaker jacket or vest. On the bottom if it's really cold I'll wear my regular chamois tights and then my wool Ibex tights over them....or vice versa.

Sometimes i wear an Ibex woolie longsleeve to sleep with my ibex wool tights....yummy! :p
I find the new soft merinos are too soft to be itchy, but they have a nice subtle springy texture that feels like i'm getting a skin massage. Cotton doesn't have that effect somehow.

Always check Ibex's "Outlet" section too, for discounted items, and make sure it's showing "all" outlet items, not just the tops. The link to the outlet alway sseems to start with showing just the tops on sale.

My El Fito knickers arrived today! Yay! I'm in between sizes right now and I like my shorts on the snug side, so I ordered down a size. I'm really glad I did becuase they fit great! (Weeeeell, the waist is a bit snug, but it's not squishing internal organs or anything.) Like all Ibex the fit and finish is great. I can't wait to try out these puppies tomorrow. Maybe I'll just wear them around the apartment for a while....:rolleyes: :D :p

Yeah just wear them around the apt, wear them on non-biking days too with a cute short skirt! :p
I wear most of my wool biking clothes half the time whether I'm biking or not- they are just too damned comfy and make me feel so good. I wear my Ibex wool tights to bed now too. (and DH can't resist squeezing merino) :D


Hey, does anyone have the Ibex "Skyline" top?:
http://www.ibexwear.com/shop/Product...l-Zip-Wool-Top
I just ordered one to try it before I decide about the shaks, and wondered if anyone had any experience with them....they look nice. Are they thick?

What about the cheaper wools? Terramar Thermawool products?

The last time I looked at Terramar wool, it was mostly man-made fiber with a little wool thrown in. That was a couple years ago, though. Do you have any links to 100% wool Terramar? I've had their poly-whatever long underwear in the past and liked their stuff. If they're doing 100% wool I'd like to find it!

Sorry, I don't know how to attach a link for the specific page. They're at Campmor, Terramar Thermawool Pant(Mens) Item No. 79607 ($29.99) - its described as '100% merino wool'.

Do you mean these? For 30 buckaroos, they may be worth trying.

OOOOH! And check out the price for the zip mock neck! Trek420 is sitting here egging me on to get the charcoal one... (not that I need much egging on:p )

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/st...berId=12500226

Thanks for the head's up SurgTech!

I just ordered the pants and the zip top. I hadn't seen the zip just the crew neck.

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Originally Posted by surgtech1956

What about the cheaper wools? Terramar Thermawool products?

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You know, to be honest, I just don't trust that this wool is what it claims to be.
For that kind of price, and they come from China, made supposedly from imported Australian merino wool....well I just don't believe it for a second.

Look here, these $30 women's Terramar long johns claim to be "100% merino", made in China:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/,...ms_-_For_Women

Then, on another page:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/2...or-Women-.html
they claim to be not only "merino wool", but also they say they are "Fabric is 80% polyester, 20% wool"....and right below that they state they are "100% polyester"....:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Then they are labeled as "seconds" from China. Just inspires confidence, doesn't it? :rolleyes:
LIARS!!!!!

OK....so they are 80% polyester/100%polyester/merinowool seconds from China. Maybe they are made from lead?

Um, i think I'll pass.

whoa nelly - you are looking at 2 different products and it looks like someone from Sierra Trading post actually made the big goof on the second one (note that it is not actually available for purchase). If you look on another site selling the same long johns, they don't actually contain any wool (they are cotton poly) and they are not that expensive in the first place $14.99 on sale (from $20) at a ski web store.

Not that I'm going to defend products from China - we take advantage of them to get cheap stuff and they take advantage of us by selling us crap..... (and the workers are the ones that suffer the most) but this one looks like a data entry error.

I better get well soon...and away from this mecca of bicycle accessories!!! I just went shopping at ibex, STP AND Backcountry buying wool...the only thing I got not on sale though was the Shak full zip (in brown) which I have been eyeing since I got my switchback...which I STILL haven't taken off...!!!

When you're sick, the idea of soft wool head to toe is kinda hard to resist!!!

So with this all this wool...am I a weenie? I'll be a wool weenie, but I don't want to be a world weenie....

Yes, you are now a weenie.

Hey you are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE that full zip shak! I am wearing mine like every day- so warm, so cozy....I know I will be wearing it for years to come.

Eden- well that's some whopper typos they have going there. :eek: But even if that's a mistake I still find it all rather suspicious. Those poison toy beads they just analyzed... turns out the list of ingredients didn't match what was actually in there at all. Same with the toothpastes....etc. Too many products coming from China with completely false ingredient statements and strange added toxins for me to believe their claims at this point. If the wool items from China feel good and cost way less, hey more power to you all, really...
...but I personally will never be convinced that their "Thermawool" fabric is 100% Australian merino wool. I'll stick to my Ibex and Smartwool that I feel I can trust. :cool:

The second item you linked is a dual-layer: one layer is 100% man-made, the other layer is a mix of wool and man-made. They are warm and cozy (I had some) similar to Duofold in that sense, but I prefer 100% wool.

Terramar is not a "wool only" company, in fact this is the first time I've seen 100% wool from them.

I've never been disappointed in any of my Terramar, other than it wasn't 100% wool.

I have some Duo-Fold long underwear from years ago, and so does my DH. He used to swear by it. But now we have both discovered 100% merino and there's just no going back- for us, the Duo-Fold just doesn't measure up to merino. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Lisa S.H.

But now we have both discovered 100% merino and there's just no going back- for us, the Duo-Fold just doesn't measure up to merino. :rolleyes:

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Ditto! Love my Ibex long undies!

Ugh...just thinking back to a year or two ago- does anyone else besides me remember the news story about the "faux fur" coats sold in high fashion department stores in NYC? It was in the news for a week or so.

I remember it was a big deal in NYC, and people were outraged at the time.
Seems there were lots of designer brands of coats getting sold in all the fancy NY stores like Bloomingdales, Macy's, Lord&Taylor's, etc, --"faux fur" coats that were quite convincing copies of fur. They were all labeled faux fur. They were being sold under various designer brands, in many different styles and lines. Apparently someone from Peta became suspicious and Peta bought several in different places and had them tested. Turns out they were all REAL fur, from China, and what's more they were all DOG fur coats. The Chinese manufacturers had the coats all labeled as "synthetic faux fur", and apparently the NY designers had no idea what they really were. :mad: :mad: :mad: They were pulled from the stores, needless to say.
Anyone else remember this?

oh Lisa, that's disgusting. I hadn't heard that one. My DH bought me a coat with a faux fur on the lining. the first thing I did was pull a few hairs out and burn them (they melted! ) because if it was real hair I wasn't going to want to wear it (Because it looked like dog)
so hair burns and stinks badly,
polyesters kind of melt and burn and have a very different smell.

I do that with yarn too. What's confusing is mixes of wool and acrylic. burns, stinks, melts? :confused:

Oh, I did find one article about it:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2862608

Unbelievably, in China, it's common to "harvest" fur by quickly skinning the animal alive.

Lisa, there are groups berating the use of wool because wool ranchers are cruel to their sheep. :eek: who knew?
I still love wool and i eat lamb too.

Yes I know what you mean. I eat meat (except for beef) and wear leather and wool, etc. I try to not buy meat from large commercial meat producers. (see http://themeatrix.com/ )
But at least here in the US we have laws about animal cruelty that can be enforced- no such laws even exist in China, where inhumane and cruel treatment of animals is a casually accepted part of daily life.

I just bought a new pair of smartwool stripped socks! I love all my smartwool socks. They hard to resist. Got three brand new pairs off of ebay a couple weeks ago for about $25.00. they were a close out color. Orange my favorite!

oh, wow, smartwool on EBAY! ORANGE???!?!?!?
(my favorite too)

I think I need to admit to being a wool weenie. :o

I've always touted the benefits of wool, but until recently, I would wear wool sweaters (my favorite all winter) with cotton underneath.

My conversion started last winter when the only jerseys I liked wearing in the winter (while biking) were my wool ones. They just worked SO much better than all my synthetic ones! A month ago, we went for a mountain bike ride and I threw on an Ibex crew (lightweight) that I had. It was perfect for the ride. Then, for whatever reason, I kept it on for the rest of the day running errands and such. One day and I'm a convert.

I've since bought a few more lightweight wool tops (and dug out a couple of ones I bought last year) and that's all I wear on the weekends, biking or not! I just told my husband that I need more wool tops to wear and lo and behold, there was an icebreaker style on SAC this morning (I bought 2).

OMG, I'm addicted! They are particularly suitable here in the south in the winter where the temps change all day (30's in the am, 60's at noon, 40's at night) and where the sun is hot but the breeze is not.

Now I need to know, does anyone make wool bras? :D

GLC,
Don't you feel better after confessing your weeniedom? :p ;)
Now that you are wearing your wool around all day for whatever....the next step is to wear it to sleep in. MMMmmmmmm......wool tights or knickers, wool top baselayer....snuggleeee under the covers....... :cool: There's something wicked and yummy about wearing merino wool without any underwear or bra at all...I love to sleep that way! (not sure I'll be doing it in the summer though)

I don't know about other brands of wool bras, but I hear Ibex will be coming out with a new line if wool undies, camisoles, and bras this winter sometime. :p Maybe others will know of some more brands with wool bras.

Also, Ibex is having a sale on some of its "Ribbies" lightweight base layer tops:
http://www.ibexwear.com/shop/Product...LW-Ribbed-Crew
Not all sizes available in all colors.

A question about Smartwool socks (and I'm sorry if this has been answered, this thread is too long for me to keep up): all of the Smartwool socks I bought last year are wearing out in the toes, and since I do not darn socks I'm going to have to throw them away. I've never had socks wear out so quickly so I am sort of irritated. Is there something I should have done to make them last longer? Hand washed them? Used a special detergent? I don't dry them in the dryer but I'm not sure that would have made a difference anyway. They aren't too small, but they are nearly see-through at the toes after just one season of wear.

These are my last Smartwool socks, I think, I just would like to know if I could have avoided this somehow.

I have not had that particular problem with my smartwool sox. (I have had that problem with a leading chain of socks and no longer buy my sox there)
the socks I am wearing today are on their 3rd season now and i wear them all year round. (taking off shoe to examine sock)
the bottom of the toe and heel areas are noticeably thinner but all stitches are completely intact.
maybe it's your shoes (I have no idea)
my biggest problem is some kinds of "smart" wool are not so smart; and they shrink. These however, did not
http://images.ems.com/media/images/p...COLATE_200.jpg

Oh wow, Mimi, I am wearing those exact socks RIGHT NOW! except mine are with brown base color, not black.

Polyester and nylon socks do last longer than wool socks in terms of going "bald" at pressure points. Wool does lose some of its fuzz in places like toes and heels because of friction. I had some merino blend socks 2 years ago (not smartwool but another good brand) that went bald at the toes much too quickly for my liking. But so far I have had good luck with SW socks.

Xeney, part of the problem might be that you live in CA. :eek: No kidding!- it never gets so cold there that you need more than one pair of socks at a time usually, right? Much of the winter here I wear 2 pairs of wool socks every day, one of them usually fairly thick, too. And in Fall and Spring I might typically wear 2 pairs of thinner wool socks. I like to layer the colors sometimes and turn the outer cuff down. I think that keeps things cushier and keeps my toes and heels from grinding too hard at the socks.

One thing I have found that is funny is the different people wear through socks differently. A few years ago, a girlfriend and I bought the very same socks and wore them all the time. We also wore mostly the same clogs. Her socks went bald and wore holes in the toes quickly yet mine were still perfectly fine. Go figure!

Lisa, I have the Skyline top. It was advertised as a warm mid-layer but I personally find it to be more of a light mid-layer or even a heavy base-layer. Otherwise, the color contrast is very snazzy and it's a great piece. And the long sleeve/thumbhole thingies are kinda cool, too. :)

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Originally Posted by Lisa S.H.

One thing I have found that is funny is the different people wear through socks differently. A few years ago, a girlfriend and I bought the very same socks and wore them all the time. We also wore mostly the same clogs. Her socks went bald and wore holes in the toes quickly yet mine were still perfectly fine. Go figure!

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Yep, I always wear bald spots through my socks at certain places due to the large wide shape of my feet. Doesn't matter if it's cheap socks or expensive socks, it's all the same.

maybe it has something to do with
a. how long you keep yr toenails
b. how your shoes fit...is yr toe right up against the leather or not...

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Originally Posted by elk

How to dress, is the question, for riding in this wet 35-50 degree climate of the NW in winter?? give me some specific stuff to shop for... please.

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Here's what's been working for me this winter:

Morning or late night commute (sub 40 degrees)
I usually wear about three woolly layers, varying them for the temps.
1 light wool layer next to skin (Smartwool or Ibex underwear layer)
1 light wool shirt layer (not much thicker than the baselayer) (e.g. Smartwool Zip-T, Ibex Pico)
1 warm wool layer (either a sweater like the Ibex Long Trail or a jacket like the Ibex Pingo. I don't actually have the Pingo, I have something from a few years back that's a lot like it.)
Outer shell varies by weather - for wet the Showers Pass rain jacket in Mango color, or for dry the PI Whisper jacket or vest for high visibility and wind-blocking.

Bottom (I'm sadly wool-deficient in these areas):
Bike shorts or knickers (PI, Sugoi, etc. For wool I just got the Ibex Calais shorts and love them. The El Fito's just don't fit my legs at all for some reason.)
Fleece tights or pants (PI Amfib, Craft storm pants, etc)
Alternately, I may just combine my PI Sugar knickers with knee-high Smartwool ski socks. Classy! :rolleyes:
If rainy, Craft Rain Pants over shorts + baselayer

Extremities:
Thick wool socks (Smartwool snowflake, adrenaline, or ski socks)
Balaclava (Smartwool, or some off-brand wool-blend thingy I bought from Sierra Trading Post)
Gore Vulcano Windstopper gloves
Gore-tex overshoes
(Helmet has rain cover)

Midday commute (~50):
Stash one or more warm wool layers and the balaclava in my panniers to prevent overheating.

I find it much easier to dress for cold 30's rain than warm 50-60's rain. For warm rain, often just a thin longsleeve wool underwear top under the rain jacket (with pitzips wide open) is enough.

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Originally Posted by xeney

A question about Smartwool socks (and I'm sorry if this has been answered, this thread is too long for me to keep up): all of the Smartwool socks I bought last year are wearing out in the toes

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All of my light hiker Smartwool socks have gotten holes at the right big toe. The medium and heavy hikers haven't had this problem. Since I usually don't punch holes in my left socks, I just wear the holey ones on my left foot so my big toe doesn't stick out. I figure it must be my right big toe nail that's shaped funny. I do keep my nails trimmed.

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Originally Posted by elk

maybe it has something to do with
a. how long you keep yr toenails
b. how your shoes fit...is yr toe right up against the leather or not...

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+1 :D

Hmm. I keep my toenails short and my shoes mostly have plenty of room, although my feet did get huge in late pregnancy ... but I wasn't wearing socks then anyway, just my huband's ratty flipflops. And these are wearing pretty thin on the heels, too.

Oh, well. I bought them for the cute factor -- I like the stripes -- but I mostly wear much thicker wool socks in the winter.

Icebreaker midweight something on SAC

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Originally Posted by Lisa S.H.

I don't know about other brands of wool bras, but I hear Ibex will be coming out with a new line if wool undies, camisoles, and bras this winter sometime. :p Maybe others will know of some more brands with wool bras.

Also, Ibex is having a sale on some of its "Ribbies" lightweight base layer tops:
http://www.ibexwear.com/shop/Product...LW-Ribbed-Crew
Not all sizes available in all colors.

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Go Ibex! Can't wait for wool underwear!!

Ok, I love that top in the link but I've put off buying it because I can't decide on color. Unfortunately (or fortunately), every color appears to be available in my size - so that's no help. I LOVE the plum, but my other shirt is that color so that's the only one I can immediately rule out. Now what? My coloring is similar to the model...which color looks best on her (besides plum)???

Lisa, there is no way I could sleep in wool unless Ibex does camisoles really soon. I get too hot sleeping in anything but a thin tank top because my husband is a furnace. :p

Anyone have any suggetions for wool work wear? Dressier ribbed t-necks or sweater sets perhaps? Business-y looking long sleeve tops?

"Hi, my name is Catherine and I am a wool addict"

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

"Hi, my name is Catherine and I am a wool addict"

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Hi Catherine! :)

I'm in Wool'anon, that's for family and friends of Wool Addicts. :rolleyes:

No offense meant to any 12 step members on and/or reading this thread. These are important programs that work but I just could not pass up the joke. :D

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

Lisa, there are groups berating the use of wool because wool ranchers are cruel to their sheep. :eek: who knew?
I still love wool and i eat lamb too.

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In case anyone is interested- the Ibex company participates in this New Zealand program: http://zque.co.nz/ which manages production of NZ wool using methods that are socially and environmentally responsible, with a big emphasis on humane treatment of animals. :)

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

Lisa, there is no way I could sleep in wool unless Ibex does camisoles really soon. I get too hot sleeping in anything but a thin tank top because my husband is a furnace. :p

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Yes my husband is a furnace too. :cool:
I can "sort of" understand you not wanting to sleep in wool if you live in NC. ;)

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"Hi, my name is Catherine and I am a wool addict"

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In moments of weakness, review post #4 of this thread.