Felting Shrinkage and Dimensional Properties of Hand-Knitted Wool Fabrics

Abstract

Hand-knitted fabrics were made on three sizes of needles using shrink resist-treated and untreated wool yams of three counts. The dimensional constants and felting shrinkage behavior of the fabrics were determined. In general, the properties were similar to those of machine-knitted fabrics, although in all states of relaxation, the course-spacing was less for the hand knits, and the dependence of shrinkage rate on cover factor was also somewhat lower than for machine knits.