Predicting comfort properties of knitted fabrics by assessing yarns with the Wool ComfortMeter Maryam Naebe a , V. Lutz b , B.A. McGregor a , D. Tester c and X. Wang a,d a Australian Future Fibres Research & Innovation Centre, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia b Institut für Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen, Germany c CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation Ltd., CJ Hawkins Homestead, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia. d School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China Corresponding author email: xwang@deakin.edu.au ABSTRACT This study examined the feasibility of assessing yarns with the Wool ComfortMeter to predict the comfort properties of the corresponding single jersey knitted fabrics. The optimum yarn arrangement to predict the comfort value of a corresponding control fabric was determined using nine wool and wool /nylon blend yarns (mean fibre diameter range 16.5 - 24.9 μm) knitted into 34 different fabrics. Using a notched template, yarn winding frequencies of 1, 3, 6, 12, 25 and 50 parallel yarns were tested on the Wool ComfortMeter. The best predictor of fabric Wool ComfortMeter values was using 25 parallel yarns. Inclusion of knitting gauge and cover factor slightly improved predictions. This indicates that evaluation at the yarn stage would be a reliable predictor of knitted fabric comfort and thus yarn testing would avoid the time and expense of fabric construction. Keywords: comfort properties, yarn testing, cover factor, next-to-skin, knitting gauge, fabric thickness, knitting structure 1