WoolWeenies Club

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

What about the cheaper wools? Terramar Thermawool products?

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"....
Then they are labeled as "seconds" from China. Just inspires confidence, doesn't it?
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.

[Eden]

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.

[elk]

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....

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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. 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.

[KnottedYet]

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.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[KnottedYet]

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.

Ditto! Love my Ibex long undies!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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. They were pulled from the stores, needless to say.
Anyone else remember this?

[mimitabby]

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?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[mimitabby]

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

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[Brandi]

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!

[mimitabby]

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

[GLC1968]

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

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?