WoolWeenies Club

[bambu101]

OK, all you WoolWeenies. Am I doomed forever, or destined to follow you all down the righteous path of wooliness? I have sensitive skin, have to buy unscented detergent, etc. and have always itched at the feel of wool or cashmere on my tender skin. Is there hope for my pathetic, wool-free existence? Is this Smartwool stuff really as itch-free as it is claimed to be?

[songlady]

I never had a wool problem til I started coming to this board. You are all the biggest bunch of enablers!!!!

But seriously, Sierratradingpost.com has a beautiful IBEX vest on sale in L/XL for $28, I just had to add it to my collection of Smartwools (thanks steepandcheap ).

[KnottedYet]

Bambu - Duofold (cotton inside, wool outside) or some Woolrichs (poly-fleece-something inside, wool outside) might be just the ticket for you.

In the realm of no-itch, yes; Smartwool, Ibex, and Icebreaker are good stuff. I'd say Ibex is the least itchy. I'm wearing one of their Agate T's right now. Very fine thread, very tiny knit, and very smooth. But I have no wool itch problems. Ibex is a pretty sweet and small company in Vermont. i would bet you could ask them to send you a little patch of one of their finer-gauge fabrics so you could check your sensitivity to it.

www.ibexwear.com

[KnottedYet]

Here's a link to that Ibex Kilometer vest at Sierra:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/pro...Vest-For-Women

Go forth and shop, my sisters!

[Grog]

OK, all you WoolWeenies. Am I doomed forever, or destined to follow you all down the righteous path of wooliness? I have sensitive skin, have to buy unscented detergent, etc. and have always itched at the feel of wool or cashmere on my tender skin. Is there hope for my pathetic, wool-free existence? Is this Smartwool stuff really as itch-free as it is claimed to be?

I am very sorry to say that a friend of mine who has a wool problem - not like me: her skin turns red and she itches no matter what - can't wear Smartwool, Bleu Forêt wool-silk socks, or others... Haven't tried Ibex, but I won't waste it on her, it's very unlikely to work.

[mimitabby]

My name is mimi and I am a woolieweenie

My husband has the itch problem too. He wears polyprop wicking teeshirts under his wool.

My love affair with wool happened in the late 70's (in the early 70's anything that i owned that couldn't survive being stuffed into a landromat washing machine once a year went to good will)
I find wool at garage sales, goodwill stores, lands end catalogs, why, wool is everywhere! my favorite "undershirt" is a cashmere sweater i bought for 25 dollars. It is too nubby to be attractive as an outside garment, but it is the perfect thing for a cold windy bike ride.

All of my socks are not smartwool because my older son has given me all of his nice cotton ones (he ONLY wears wool socks, he's the one with expensive tastes that lives in the basement)

However, I have a lot of smartwool and I LOVE IT. I was going to buy smartwool sox for most of my cousins in italy until i found out that they are charged for packages from overseas now!!!!

[KnottedYet]

washing machines:

I wash my Ibex stuff probably once a week in the washing machine with cold water.

Icebreaker zip-t neck maybe once every 2 weeks. It developed a hole, which I sewed, so I try to be gentle with it.

Duofold long-johns develop holes every frickin' time I wash them. My next longjohns will be Ibex.

I have a wool turtleneck from Target that looks fragile, but is about 5 years old now. I wash that by hand.

Smartwool socks: washer and dryer no problems

Woolrich jacket goes out in the rain, etc, but has never been washed.

Ibex jacket gets washed in the machine with Dr. Bronner's soap, because I worry the switchback weave will pill.

LL Bean boiled wool jacket has never been washed.

Swanni - never been washed.

Woolrich vest has never been washed, but it goes out in the rain.

Various wool sweaters get washed in the machine, and some even go into the dryer.

[East Hill]

My real confession is that I do not wear wool.

I wear cashmere...at least for the upper body stuff!

East Hill

[mimitabby]

all of my smartwool goes into the washer and dryer (unless i am feeling particularly guilty) but my normal wool sweaters get washed by hand, including
the italian flag italian jersey my DH bought me a few years ago.
It's just not a big deal anymore.
Ibex goes into washingmachine but not dryer.

[KnottedYet]

Ibex's Weekly Special

http://www.ibexwear.com/F06/View_Pro...&CategoryLine=

[margo49]

Try being a wool weenie in a place where the summer lasts 8 months and the temps are 40 deg C plus (104 deg F plus) and winter gets "down" to about 10 deg C (50 deg F)... Am I discouraged? No, 1000X no. Wool is an Article of Faith. Wool will never let me down; even if it is wet (and we get 411 mm rain = 16 inches of rain a year!)

I have :
2 wooly winglets (= undershirts without sleeves; one merino and one black with silk round the neck- and arm-holes made in *Italy* therefore very sexy)
3 pure lambswool wool berets (one red of course and one military a la SAS)
2 cashmere/wool scarves (one in "my" tartan and one from Harrods)
2 bush shirts
1 handspun and knitted hat in natural black and white
2 merino-possum hats
1 merino-possum shawl in a glorious shade (blue-green)
1 pair merino-possum finger-ed gloves matching shade to the shawl and one of the hats (above)
1 pair merino-possum socks to match the other hat (above)
1 pair sheepskin mittens ( going strong since 1982)
several pairs of "Norse" socks, most darned beautifully
1 pair Perendale hand-knitted hiking socks
some rugby socks (had 15 pairs at one time in my misspent youth as they were cheap and colourful
2 pairs really pretty and feminine smart-wool socks from my Oct SS (who I am still figuring out)

I am so glad to have found this support group.
I thought I was the only one.
I live in a tiny place and there is noone like me here.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ibex's Weekly Special

http://www.ibexwear.com/F06/View_Pro...&CategoryLine=

Oh hey you guys be careful about ordering that Neve Ibex jacket on special.

My girlfriend ordered it and I went over to her house to check it out. She got the small size in green. She is very cute and petite with a slim figure. It looked AWFUL on her! It was big and stiff and stuck out in strange ways.
So I said here let me try it on....I'm a size medium. Well it wasn't too big on me, but it still looked awful. Stuck out in weird unattractive ways- like the chest, shoulders, and stomach parts kept sticking out. I just had to say something because it was a really unflattering jacket when we each put it on.
She sent it back. (She does have the Cirque jacket in small in black, and it looks great on her.)
Ibex had the Neve jacket on their weekly special last month for a long time. Then there was no special for a couple weeks, now the Neve is back again. Watch out for that one, I think maybe EVERYONE is sending them back, that's why they keep putting them on weekly special. Happily, you can send it back if you don't like it, but you'll still pay shipping both ways anyway.

[SouthernBelle]

Aside from socks, I don't have any wool, but my Samrtwool hoodie (the orange one) should be arriving soon.

The only 'problem' is that if it arrives this weekend, it's going to be too warm to wear it. We're having gorgeous, unseasonable weather for Thanksgiving!!!

A complaint we should all have.

[Grog]

Has anyone seen the Carrie hoodie for real? It looks nice (from yesterday's mailing) and very tempting...

[jobob]

http://www.fuzzygalore.biz/articles/wash_sweater.shtml

Needles to say, I'm entirely too lazy to do all that.