Like most old folks, the cold becomes more of an enemy the older you get. And like most things, there's a fix. The past few years we, the better half and myself, have gone back to old fashioned sweaters. Real bulky knit stuff, like fishermns sweaters and real wool. I don't like itchy stuff, so I' e been using theheck out of a Cabella's sportsmen sweater of lambs wool. No itch factor from it.
In real cold, below freezing temps, the old school sweaters seem to be way warmer than the synthetic material fleece stuff that they sell nowadays. We tried the fleece stuff, and made sure it was the real Malden Mills poly fleece. It all ended up down a the Salvation army store where we dropped it off. After two winters with it, we went back to the knit sweaters. Very noticeably warmer. Today, we'rehaving temps in the upper 20's, light snow flurries, and with a nice thick sweater, I didn't really need much of a warm or heavy coat. A cable knit lambs wool sweater under a Cabella's three season jacket, was warm enough to take my time while walking the corgi and enjoy a slow pipe of nice tobacco. Since 80% of our heat loss is through the head, I had on a nice thick Alpaca wool balaclava hat rolled down over my ears and neck. After about halfway through the walk I had to roll up the balaclava to uncover some of my ears and neck.
Now least you all think of this as a inditement of synthetic, last night I did the same thing with a fisherman sweater made out of acrylic knit. Same result, very warm. Lots high winds, dark, but with the seater layered under the Cabella's jacket. The same jacket last winter with a Malden mills poly fleece 300 jacket under it was not warm enough.
I can only conclude from this, that the material matters a little, but that bulky knit sweaters like fishrmans or cable knit, trap much more air than this new fleece stuff that there is a notable difference in cold weather performance. YMMV, but to me it seems like the old school sweater under a fairly light wind proof jacket works better than the new fleece material. Senior citizens don't like being cold, and our bones tell us what works best.
In real cold, below freezing temps, the old school sweaters seem to be way warmer than the synthetic material fleece stuff that they sell nowadays. We tried the fleece stuff, and made sure it was the real Malden Mills poly fleece. It all ended up down a the Salvation army store where we dropped it off. After two winters with it, we went back to the knit sweaters. Very noticeably warmer. Today, we'rehaving temps in the upper 20's, light snow flurries, and with a nice thick sweater, I didn't really need much of a warm or heavy coat. A cable knit lambs wool sweater under a Cabella's three season jacket, was warm enough to take my time while walking the corgi and enjoy a slow pipe of nice tobacco. Since 80% of our heat loss is through the head, I had on a nice thick Alpaca wool balaclava hat rolled down over my ears and neck. After about halfway through the walk I had to roll up the balaclava to uncover some of my ears and neck.
Now least you all think of this as a inditement of synthetic, last night I did the same thing with a fisherman sweater made out of acrylic knit. Same result, very warm. Lots high winds, dark, but with the seater layered under the Cabella's jacket. The same jacket last winter with a Malden mills poly fleece 300 jacket under it was not warm enough.
I can only conclude from this, that the material matters a little, but that bulky knit sweaters like fishrmans or cable knit, trap much more air than this new fleece stuff that there is a notable difference in cold weather performance. YMMV, but to me it seems like the old school sweater under a fairly light wind proof jacket works better than the new fleece material. Senior citizens don't like being cold, and our bones tell us what works best.
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Anyway it is a really nice sweater but it's so thick you really can't wear much over it...