The Dimensional Properties of Knitted Wool Fabrics

Abstract

Experimental evidence confirms the existence of a fixed knit-cell configuration of completely-relaxed weft-knitted wool fabrics. In this fabric condition, achieved after considerable mechanical agitation in the presence of water, the k or u parameters are constant and independent of the tightness factor. Fabric dimensions, therefore, are governed largely by loop length, as predicted by Munden, but a small effect of fiber quality (fineness) on the completely-relaxed mean values of the k or u is found. Theoretical models of the knitted loop configuration, designed basically for idealized yarns, predict only approximately the observed dimensional behavior of weft-knitted wool fabrics.