Shrink behaviors of wool knitted fabrics

From the point of felting shrinkage behavior of the raw and the chemically modified plain-knitted wool fabrics, the relationship between the density and the area of each shrunk sample after washing test was investigated. The relation for the raw sample shrunk by different levels of washing action resulted in U-shape curve. The result indicated that there were two significant shrinkage stages in the raw plain-knitted fabric. On the first stage that the fabric density decreased, the felting was caused entirely by fibers protruding from the surface. The main knit structure was quite unfelted, but the loops became largely narrow through being pulled in by the felting surface. On the second stage, which the density increased through the minimum density, the loops were completely deformed and the main structure was almost felted. The relation between the density of each shrunk chemically modified sample and the fabric area showed that the curve drawn by jointing together every top of those bar charts was similar in shape to that for the raw sample. This means that the felting shrinkage of shrinkproofing treated fabrics was subjected to the mechanisms of felting in the raw fabric.