Instrumental evaluation of orthogonal tactile sensory dimensions for fine lightweight knitted fabrics

Abstract

Lightweight fabrics knitted from fine and ultrafine merino wool fibres are emerging as a niche market for next-to-skin wear. The tactile sensory properties of these fabrics are investigated in this study. Seven pairs of bi-polar descriptors were defined from a survey as the most important tactile attributes for this target market. Furthermore, the existence of collinearity between the descriptive attributes was removed and three orthogonal tactile sensory dimensions were established by using principal component analysis. These three orthogonal tactile sensory dimensions explain 92.6% of the total variance of the seven tactile attributes. Partial least squares regression analyses showed that the Wool Handle Meter was capable of predicting the three tactile sensory dimensions.