WoolWeenies Club

[Triskeliongirl]

Crankin- my kids flights aren't scheduled to leave until 10pm on sat., so hopefully they'll be OK. Thanks for interpreting the weather forecast for me!

You asked why our house is only ~50 degrees inside. The problem is we live in a historic neighborhhood (for real, its on the national historic registry) in a home that was built 100 years ago. Charming, yes, always practical, no! It does not have central heat and air, and whenever we have tried to get an estimate for it to be installed the contractors never even complete making the estimate (it will not be easy in other words). Each room has an individual air conditioner and a gas radiator. The good news is you only heat or cool the rooms you are using, when you are using them, so energy costs and consumption are low. Most of the time, we have mild winters, and if its 50 outside we can get the inside temp as high as we'd want. But when it drops to the 40s and even 30s, which does happen just not every day, they are just not strong enough to get us much above 50. So, I wear my woolies, alpstar pant, an ibex midweight base, shak and fleece, and sit under a blanket when indoors. Last night it was so cold I just climbed under my down comforter in my bed after dinner and went to sleep (it was one of those *very unusual* days in the 30s).

Work is another matter. Why they insist on running the air conditioning on 30 degree days I simply do not understand, so I need the same layers indoors, minus the fleece. I have ibex short sleeve polos and even tank tops to wear under blouses in summer, cuz it is so freakingly over-air conditioned. And I have an ibex ecru boucle sweater I keep in my office to wear in summer even when it might be 105 deg outside!

So, now you see why I am so confused when I travel. Here there is often not that big a diff between our indoor and outdoor temps, so all I will add when I go outside is a goretex shell to block the wind, and a hat and gloves, even when its really cold out (although yesterday I tested my down sweater and hmmmmm, what a good purchase).

Portugal will be worse, the only source of heat in my in-laws home is a wood stove. Again, it works cuz its usually mild, but still winters run in the 40-50s with no central heating.......... So we will be sleeping in bedrooms with no heat at all.

[Crankin]

Well, I guess that's the down side of having an historic home. We looked at a few of those, too, before we bought this house 3 years ago. In the end, we decided that there was too much work involved with renovations, etc. Little did we know how much we would spend on this house! But, the heating/AC have had minimal problems. At times, though, I wish we were living in the historic district, because it is FLAT... my driveway is already iced over, from a little 2 inches of snow and some drizzle. It's not enough for the plow guy to come. Oh well.
Have a good time in Portugal. I taught in a system that had mostly Portuguese students (or Brazilian) and it looks so pretty from the pictures. My friends did a cycling trip there a couple of years ago. The hills looked challenging!

[Triskeliongirl]

Thanks Crankin! Well we planned on selling our house when we became empty nesters, and getting something smaller and more modern, but as you well know its just not a good time to sell a house right now.

We have 2 weeks of vacation in Portugal w DH's family, and then 2 weeks of travelling including professional visits to Seville, Madrid, Barcelona and Lausanne. Kids stay with us almost to Lausanne, and then we send them off on their own with 2 week eurail passes. Not the season to bring bikes unfortunatey, although someday we'd love to do a european family bike tour.

Thanks to the wool weenies both DD and I are well prepared!

Its funny when I had 35 lb more fat on me, I didn't even need to know about wool! Boy can fat be insulating!!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I bet also that Triskelion's house, being in Texas, is not well insulated like our NE houses are. So when it's unseasonably cold and windy, I bet it's hard to keep the temps up inside with just some dinky radiators.

[Triskeliongirl]

Yeh, in fact we have walls of mostly glass (i.e. windows), which functioned in the pre-AC days to give lots of cross ventilation, with ceiling fans everywhere. I was sitting in my study the other night, trying to work but feeling a horrible draft coming off the window next to my desk.

The radiators are small, and you fill them with water and then light the gas pilot,which heats the water and generates a wimpy amount of heat.

I bet also that Triskelion's house, being in Texas, is not well insulated like our NE houses are. So when it's unseasonably cold and windy, I bet it's hard to keep the temps up inside with just some dinky radiators.

[Crankin]

My Jones Wears pants came today! Really quick. I ordered them on Tuesday?
They fit perfectly. They are just plain merino wool stretch pull ups with 5% lycra. They are pretty thick, but lay flat. I will definitely be wearing these for all types of activities. With long underwear, they will be very toasty.
You guys should really look at this company.

[Natasha]

Hey WoolWeenies,
REI has some Ibex stuff on sale, including Women's Full Zip Shaks ($89.13 after the 15% discount.
How many Shaks are too many for one person?

[Cataboo]

I was pretty tempted by those. I had an ibex green polo shirt arrive today & some ibex knee warmers, so that might be today's wool fix.

I was cleaning and hanging things up earlier and noticed that I have 2 ibex carries, 2 ibex vertigos, 2 ibex mollie's, 1 ibex switchback full zip, 3 ibex switchback pullovers, 2 icebreaker ravens, 2 icebreaker allstars, 1 ibex cinch, 1 icebreaker jetter, 1 smartwool route, at least 4 icelandic design wools..... 3 ibex shak zip necks, 1 hooded shak.

And erm. an ibex neve, ibex cirque jacket, and.... I'm not getting into any of the rest of the sweaters.

And there's only 1 of me.

I have serious shopping issues.

[Biciclista]

yes, Catriona, I would agree with you. I would love to have what you have but I just can't seem to spend the money.
I guess I'm too cheap. The few pieces I have, I love.

[Cataboo]

Oh - I didn't pay anywhere near full price for any of it. Which is how I end up with multiples. However, if something's 70% off - then I buy a couple since I'm unlikely to find it again. And it becomes very easy to rationalize why I need two of them.

[Biciclista]

you've got to let me/us know when any of this stuff is 70% off.

[Cataboo]

Will do.

[Crankin]

Thanks, Catriona. I just bought my black full zip Shak! My husband works near an REI, so he will pick it up there.

OK, no more wool for me, except for the micro weight long underwear I need.

[Cataboo]

Icebreaker body fit 260 crew is on sac right now for $32 (60% off)

[OakLeaf]

okay.... step away from the keyboard... it's 70 degrees outside and I've bought two SmartWool tops and two Ibex tops in the past month... I do not need more wool...