I made a test hammock lined with Malden Mills Polartec 300 fleece. I ordered 4 yards. I came home and my wife had made a blanket from it already:( What should I do, get rid of the wife:D Anyways she left me about a 50" x 62" piece. I sewed the 62" long side to the middle part on each side of the test hammock and left each end open for a pad if needed. I finished it about 11 p.m. and it was 26 degrees outside. Do I go get in bed with the wife who stole my fleece or go "test" the hammock?
I took a 3/4 pad, 20 degree bag for quilt, and the fleece hammock out for the test. I started out with just the fleece and bag for quilt. I expected to instantly feel the cold in the butt and shoulder area but was suprised because it took about 15 minutes and it still was not bad. Without the fleece it would have been instantly cold at that temp. I put the pad under the fleece and the oven came on. Staying on the pad was not as critical as normal and elbows knees etc did not get cold when pushed in the sides of the hammock. It was toasty with this setup and I slept about 2hrs. When I woke up I was too hot for me. I decided to test wearing my REI MTS fleece shirt and long johns, REI primaloft Gossamer jacket, and Marmot 40 degree pounder bag as a quilt. This was very comfortable and slept about another hour . This normally would not work at 26 degrees so the fleece in the hammock was adding a lot to the setup.
The test hammock weighs about 2.5lbs. I made it to use on the back porch of my cabin so I think it is going to work out great.
