Comfort properties of superfine wool and wool/cashmere blend yarns and fabrics

The comfort properties of yarns and single jersey knitted fabrics composed of pure superfine wools and wool/cashmere blends were investigated. A notched template enabled the rapid testing of yarns to predict the comfort properties' of fabric made from these yarns using the Wool ComfortMeter (WCM). Reducing yarn winding frequency on the template from 50 to 12 reduced the ability of the WCM to detect interactions between fibre types and to predict fabric WCM values. The results indicate both the cashmere blend ratio and fibre curvature/crimp of wool affected measured comfort properties of yarns. The fibre attributes which significantly affected the WCM of the yarns were mean fibre diameter and the number of medullated fibres even though these parameters were closely controlled. No measurement of yarn hairiness was significant. It is concluded that predicting the comfort properties' of fabric by assessing yarns offers designers a way of manipulating the comfort properties of wool knitwear.