canklecat

I used merino wool for years and it's relatively high maintenance stuff compared with contemporary poly wicking fabrics. I had to carefully arrange my jersey on a drying rack to retain its shape. The socks and shorts wore out quicker. And the real chamois leather pads of the early wool shorts were more demanding to clean and preserve the pad so it didn't dry and crack.

And with the handwashing and air drying, even with a fan, my cycling clothes were still damp the next morning. I remember riding to work wearing damp cycling shorts and jerseys many mornings in Southern California when I worked there. Fortunately the weather was rarely cold. Nowadays my poly wicking fabric cycling shorts and jerseys are dry overnight hanging over the tub with a fan blowing.

And if someone tries to "help" with laundry and washes and dries merino wool in machines on high or even warm heat, good luck getting it back to shape. Sometimes it can be done with some careful stretching and shaping. But I've had to give away wool sweaters and shirts that someone else dumped into the machines with cotton clothing. The waist length could never be recovered.

For me the last straw was living in a rural area where it was very difficult to keep out fabric-eating critters -- larvae of moths and carpet beetles. We had a traditional cedar chest and added mothballs, etc., but eventually nothing kept the critters out and they nibbled holes in every bit of natural fabric other than cotton -- wool, linen, silk, etc. We kept a few items in Tupperware and even had one particular type of weevil eat through the plastic to get to the stuff stored inside!

Before 2015 the last time I tried poly fabrics was during the 1980s and it was pretty bad. But the newer poly wicking fabrics are much better.

I think the only wool clothing I've kept is my Navy pea coat from 1976. Occasionally I get an itch to buy a long sleeve wool jersey just for nostalgia's sake.