I like Smallwood and Patagonia because you can machine wash and dry their merino products. The Ibex and icebreaker stuff we have purchased all has to be either hand washed or dried or both. PITA.
Don't agree with that. All can be machine washed and dried, with the expected degradation of fibers. Machine drying is particularly destructive. If you do machine wash and dry, be sure to zip up all zippers. Zipper teeth on fabrics is oike a file wearing against them.
In all the brands that you mention, at the point of fiber prep they are Super Washed, which is an acidic bath ( I should clearify that I am not sure what Ibex is doing for sourcing and QA now, so that may have very well changed). If you look at almost any wool fiber under a microscope, you will see that it is covered with what looks like a layer of scales. Those scales are the entities responsible for the shortening of the fiber. Super Washing removes the scales, and makes the fiber length more stable. If a garment insists on hand washing, they likely have not sourced Super Washed fibers, in an effort of reduce their retail price, net more margin, or both. Costco comes to mind.
Just because it is called Merino" means nothing. How the garment performs will depend on the QA process in the drafty shed where workers are conbing and sorting the fiber - but that is a topic for another thread. Merino sheep throw very fine, and course fibers. A lot is depended on rainfall that year, and overall diet. The coursest fibers go to industrial application, then hats. Then socks. Finally, the finest micron diameter fibers go into baselayers. Is your baselayer itchy? It is likely because that brand cut corners, and used a courser micron diameter. Again, a cost saving measure.
In my case I always machine wash Merino wool garments, and then hang to dry. I hang to dry for two reasons: 1. We live in high desert. I see little need to run an inefficient appliance to dry a garment when it can dry in the air. 2. As I mentioned, driers are really destructive to garments. That lint in the lint trap? That is your clothing abrading away.
I'm all about Point6. Brought to you by the couple that popularized merino wool, and founded Smartwool. They know more about merino, and are super anal in their attention to detail. Dale of Norway is second. They do an amazing job. Icebreaker is a third for me. When Smartwool ditched compact spinning in the production cycle they lost my favor.