WoolWeenies Club

[blackhillsbiker]

I'm not sure of the quality (but I'm about to find out), but Cabela's has wool base-layer bottoms and tops in the Bargain Cave for $19.95. Only one color choice.

Deb

[Cataboo]

I also have the BD guide gloves. I find their liner is overkill for skiing, so I tend to use other glove liners & just use the shell. I have a pair of insulate ibex gloves that I like.

Mostly for skiing I just tend to use a goretex outer gloves and have various liner gloves that I use inside. I do like to use a softshell glove as a liner, so that if I take off the bulky goretex glove, the glove I have underneath is still waterproof.

I have a lot of icebreaker, and none of it has ever shrunk on me.

I went to TJmaxx yesterday, and they had a ton of smartwool, icebreaker, and various other brands of merino wool socks (keen included)... the ski socks ran about $10, and the hiking socks a bit less.

They also had a lot of merino wool sweaters, etc.

They also had marmot and cloudveil jackets... There were some really nice cloudveil ski gloves for about $50, and they had some of the cloudveil run don't walk baselayers for about $50 (Okay, not merino - but I love the run don't walks)

I did manage to avoid buying the socks, because I have more merino wool socks than 10 people need - but did get a couple merino wool turtle neck casual sweaters.

[Crankin]

Wow, I have never seen any Smart Wool or Icebreaker or anything good at the TJ Maxx by me. They have some Nike stuff, but that's it. And none of it is in my size. Maybe I should go look tomorrow.

[Cataboo]

I was surprised, because while I've seen smartwool at tjmaxx and marshall's before, I've never seen icebreaker - even if it's just socks.

iI'm going to try going back in a couple of months and seeing if there's any remaining on clearance. I'm hoping not enough people really know what icebreaker is and it won't sell well.

[mariposa]

Thank you for all the replies!

I ended up getting some gore-tex mitts at a used-gear store.

I figure I can wear my thin-ish wool gloves underneath as liners. They just breathe so well. I hope they still breathe through the gore-tex outer layer.

Sad, though, that the wool-glove manufacturers don't appear to offer any truly waterproof gloves or mittens. I would sure love that.

[Cataboo]

I was just packing for my ski trip and realized... I have waterproof wool gloves.

They're the smartwool competition gloves, waterproof leather outside, wool inside. I got 'em 3 or 4 years ago at sierra trading post and I've been using them for skiing ever since.

Here's what they look like, and I don't know if you can still get them. I have the women's version, and the red/black's kinda dumb... but they're very warm wool gloves.
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/2...s-For-Men.html

While I'm bragging about favorite wool pieces... I also have a smartwool blanket that I absolutely love and it's much softer than those throws that ibex sells:
http://trail-running.sierratradingpo...n-Blanket.html

[Cataboo]

And I further remembered what I do when it's really cold while skiing 'cause a friend who used to own an outdoor store in New England highly recommended it and 'cause the bf used to use 'em when he used to mountaineer & ice climb.

Dachstein boiled wool mittens. Kinda old school, but they keep your hands warm.

I have some goretex shell mittens from outdoor research (another sierra trading post) that I put over them, but the wool is supposed to resist getting wet & remains insulating if wet and a nice/icy shell is supposed to form around them that is insulating:

copied from elsewhere:
Ragg wool is the most natural of all spun wools. The natural lanolin remains in the fibre to repell water and remain warm even when wet. Boiled wool products are made by knitting them and then "boiling" them to tighten the weave and shrink them down to size this results in a very dense fabric. The boiled wool process results in a better insulated product.

http://www.joe-brown.com/outdoor-equ...lnmitts-2.html

some reviews here:
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/review/...3/v/1/sp/#6382