I personally stay away from pockets now. I too loved them at first but the washing required to keep the stinkies and repelling away was just too much. I would even say that honestly fitteds should require only 1-2 cycles every two days. All you really need is a pre-rinse (just one rinse, not an entire cycle) and then a hot wash with an extra rinse at the end.

Oh, and by the way, it's not really necessary to wash pocket shells and inserts seperatly. Never even heard of that till about a year or two ago and I've been doing pockets for about 7 years. Maybe my fleece pilled a little more, it's possible, but washing seperatly is totally unnecessary and just not worth the trouble in my opinion.

As for the wool cover, it depends on the style, fit and size of the cover if it will fit over a Sandy's. Aristocrats and Sugar-Peas fit well, so will shorties and longies.

The Airflow is PUL so doesn't breath really but the design does allow quite a bit of air inside the cover (through the side, the gap between the snaps allows a reasonable amount of air inside). It's nothing like a wool cover of course but it's better than some other PUL covers.

Karen.