New variant of Alpha Direct coming

[Velvet Pants]

Stumbled across this link on a search. New goods from Polartec.

Among them, a new version of Alpha Direct. Now married to wool somehow. Appropriately, it’s called Alpha Direct with Wool (style #4048).

Seems really intriguing. Traditional Alpha Direct is not a wicking fabric so isn’t well-suited for next-to-skin use. But this new stuff with wool would appear to facilitate use as a base layer. At 153 gsm, it’d be a reasonably not-heavy base layer.

My reading of its construction (63% polyester, 33% wool, 4% nylon) is that that the wool is reasonably thin & is reinforced by the nylon?

 

 

[Bill in Roswell]

Sign me up! Polartec does their homework so I don’t mind being an early adopter.

 

[Jeff McWilliams]

Sounds good!  I still have 3 yards of Polartec Power Wool – which is like their Power Grid/Power Dry but with a similar mix of wool to polyester.  I’m getting ready to sew it into a typical 1/4 zip pullover.

I’m intrigued by this new “Alpha” variant.

 

 

[Stumphges]

I really liked the heavyweight power wool that Jeff describes. I’m surprised it didn’t become more popular. Jeff, you might want to air dry your new MYOG piece; I think the dryer pulls the wool out. However, even though I almost always machine died my piece, it’s acually held up  ok despite being used frequently for four winters. Does it perform as well with moisture as polyester power dry? No. But it smells way better!

[Author]

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