WoolWeenies Club

[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

[Cataboo]

and in case anyone ever wanted a merino wool sleeping bag, I use these in the summer or for a liner when travelling:

http://www.amazon.com/Slumberjack-Me.../dp/B0009J1F4W

[kmehrzad]

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.

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

Do you know if these Dachstein mittens be purchased anywhere in the US? I've tried looking myself but am coming up 'empty handed.'

[Cataboo]

Almost all the websites I'm pulling up selling them are in the UK. I bought mine from campmor a few years back. From the forums of people looking for them, at somepoint, ortovox bought dachsteins and you could buy them under the ortovox name:
http://mountaineer.com/store/merchan...egory_Code=020

That place has 'em for $50, which seems to be a lot for wool mittens.

I'll ask my friend up in New England, 'cause from what I could tell they were pretty big with the vermont/new englander crowd.

From reading this thread, if you get a really really big pair of ragg wool mittens, you can boil them yourself till they shrink down:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/arch...hp/t-2379.html

The person saying how to do that is DebW, I wonder if it's the same DebW on here.

[Jolt]

Do you know if these Dachstein mittens be purchased anywhere in the US? I've tried looking myself but am coming up 'empty handed.'

I was wondering the same thing! How ridiculous would shipping be from the UK?