Assignment 5 - Own choice - Hat

For our assignment "own choice", we have decided to investigate a winter hat.

We have thought about all the important qualities, we would like to see in a perfect winter hat and furthermore, tested a selected hat to check out how much of these qualities are fulfilled.

We think that a good hat will be able to keep warmth, to be soft and gentle to the skin, to be stretchy, therefore comfortable. Lastly we would like the hat to be made of antistatic materials.

Style

Composition

70% Acrylic, 30% Wool

Acrylic

Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer. Production of acrylic fibers is centered in the Far East, Turkey, India, Mexico, and South America and a little bit in Europe. 

Acrylic is mostly used for sweaters, hats, hand-knitting yarns, socks and rugs. It has a very good wool feel (not as warm as wool) but depending on the spinning process it can also be made to imitate cotton. It can also sometimes be used as a less expensive alternative to cashmere because of the fuzziness of the look.

Acrylic is easily washable and has a very high colour fastness. It is also hypoallergenic.

It is resistant to many chemicals, and is very resistant to distortion from sunlight exposure. Pilling can however be a problem in certain fabrications.

Wool

Wool is made from sheep and some other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats and angora from rabbits. It is elastic, and it grows in staples (clusters). 

It has very good insulation properties. Because of the crimp, wool fabrics have a greater bulk than other textiles, and retain air, which causes the product to retain heat. The fineness of the wool is determinded by crimp corresponds - a fine wool has more crimps than a more course wool.

Wool fibers are hydrophilic meaning that they can easily absorb moisture (almost one-third of the own weight). 

Wool can handle higher temperatures than cotton and some other synthetic fibers. It has low heat release and low heat combustion and does not melt. 

Garments made out of wool is less likely to cling to the body because wool is resistant to static electricity.

Blend

This Acrylic / Wool blend is a very common and used blend. As we just stated Acrylic has the ability to imitate wool very well. This is why it is often chosen as a blend to make the garment less expensive. 

Dye

Acrylic takes color well. In most cases the woollen yarns are fibre dyed.

Some Acrylic is extruded in colored or pigmented form; other is extruded in "ecru", otherwise known as "natural," "raw white," or "undyed." Pigmented fiber has highest light-fastness. Its fibers are very resilient compared to both other synthetics and natural fibres.

Structure

This is a weft knitted fabric made using Tunisian Purl stitch. This means that loops are formed in sequence across the width of the fabric. A weft knitted fabric can unravel and may ladder. This is also the case with our fabric. 

A purl fabric has high extensibility when you stretch it in the length. It is also the case when we pull in the length of our hat.

Purl produces a row of little bumps, but it also retains the characteristic vertical bars. The Tunisian purl knit is often used with other stitches as a contrast and to create something different visually in the fabric.

The fabric has a rather heavy weight - 1210 g/m2.

Tests

1. We have tested the durability of the fabric with the bursting test (ISO 13938-2 1999 test method).

The result of the test was great - the maximum pressure of 575.0 kPa was reached without breaking the fabric.

2. We have tested the colour fastness to washing in accordance to ISO 105-C06.

Even though the washing instruction states only hand wash, we have tested the colour fastness to 60 degrees.

As it can be seen a lot of the colour went off to all the different fibres especially to the nylon, therefore we gave a grade - 2. The conclusion is that the care instructions regarding washing should be followed and the garment should be hand washed separately from other pieces.

3. We have tested the fabric propensity to pilling in accordance to ISO 12945.

The results are good, grade 4 - there is no visual pilling, just a bit of very light fusing. But as the hat has been used before, we believe that the fusing is due to the usage and not due to the test itself.

Care instructions & tips

The care instruction label states hand wash cold, no bleaching, dry flat and no ironing. As the washing test showed, the washing instruction should be followed strictly. 

Furthermore, we have decided to add a little hint notes for the removal of static electricity in order to remove the unpleasant hair electrification.

1. Keep the item in a space with some humidity or expose the item to some light humidity before use. 

2. Use fabric softeners while washing in order to prevent and remove static cling.