Wool - and other fabrics on the do not buy list

I was given a few gift certificates for The Gap for my birthday this year.

I dutifully went and vowed to spend the moola on me and not the kids (honestly a difficult challenge as I am always scouring the racks for great deals on clothes for the monkeys).

I couldn't really find anything that was a great find (style & dollar wise) so I settled on a creamy cardigan with a loose knit texture and big creamy buttons. It was much more expensive than I usually spend on a sweater from the Gap - but it was being financed by someone other than me (mother & brother & sister). So I splurged and bought the sweater.

Day in and day out I dodge toxic chemicals and bio hazard wastes. From permanent markers (for the love of all things alive who puts these markers with kids colouring books!! Flayed alive I tell you when I find the person putting these packages together!) to poop to throw up - it is all a part of my daily life. Understandably I have not bought anything wool or silk for years. Everything
I own needs to be absorbent (who knows when you are going to have to catch a boogie nose at the playground), durable and above all else washable.

Of course the creamy sweater stays pristine for about 1 week (miracle) but it is ambushed by a green felt marker in the end. Before putting it in the wash I clipped off that annoying square patch on the inside and read the washing instructions. It said hand wash in cold water. I usually take that to mean 'delicate' cycle on the washing machine. No harm no foul with the rule so far. In the sweater goes with the rest of the whites.

And out it comes - Eloise size!! Imagine my horror. My beautiful large loopy sweater now all tightly bound into size 6x.

Turns out said sweater was made of 100% wool. I should have been a bit more curious about the hand wash direction. But it was made in China (don't get my started - I know that I broke one of my own rules) and I figured that the best it could be would be a wool / cotton / rayon hybrid. But no. They went all out and made something nice in 100% wool!

HWSNBN thought that I should take it back to the Gap. But even I could se through my anger (self directed) that this was not the fault of the chipper staff at the Gap.

But I do have some advice for the Gap as it seems that they are starting to market to my demographic again (super moms looking for something stylish but not skanky). If we are in fact their new market & they want to respect the toxic to clothes atmosphere we work in - then maybe they should consider housing the fantastically shrinkable clothes in the back of the store. Similar to the porn huts at your local Blockbuster. That way we would know by visual cue that we were about to venture into fantasyland......