While poking around at a local Ace Hardware I found some small fleece blankets in camo for $2.50 each! Had to buy them and figure out what to do with them later. After seeing the UQ designs around here, I thought I'd give it a go with these blankets.
Without a thread injector of my own, a neighbor offered to do the stitching for me. I had her double up the blankets, stitch three of the four edges with channels to run cord. The fourth edge I had her do the same except asked her to leave an unstitched opening about 10" wide. With this opening, I could try stuffing the UQ with different insulation types or add a vapor/wind barrier etc.
In each corner of the now doubled blanket, I added a grommet. After some trial and error with shock cord, I found that it was unnecessary to put it in the channels down the length of the blanket but worked well for the width. Fleece is naturally somewhat "stretchy" so in each corner I attached a length of shock cord to the grommets with a simple plastic hook on each. The hooks attach to the suspension where it meets the end of the hammock. In the shorter widthwise channels I added shock cord with cord locks on the ends to cinch it to various widths until it fit right.
When hanging on the unoccupied hammock, the fabric comes up high on the sides. Once occupied the material stretches to make a nice fit. My concern of course was that once the material was stretched a bit it would lose what little insulation value fleece has to begin with but if figured it would still make a decent cool weather UQ and with some added insulation, it might work to lower temps.
Last night while testing my new Night Owl, I ditched the pad and tested my UQ. It was 43 degrees with winds at 10-15 mph with gusts to 25, clear with no precipitation. The sleeping bag I used was a North Face Big Horn 20* synthetic. I wore mid weight hiking socks, sweat pants a fleece pull over and a fleece cap. Now you should know that I am a warm sleeper but figured with the weather as such, I would probably still get chilly.
To my surprise, I was very comfortable and warm and used the hood of my bag as a pillow instead of over my head for warmth. Except for one call of nature, I slept the night through, no CBS, and woke rested and still nice and warm.
Now YMMV but it might be worth a look at fleece as an UQ option. It conforms to the hammock without gaps, is reasonably light weight, maintains its insulative value when wet similar to wool, comes in a bunch of colors, is cheap and could be easily outfitted with synthetic insulation and possibly even down. I will try it at much colder temps with various insulation and vapor barriers like tyvek. But for now, it is good for me into the low 40s and windy and cost me about $9 including the shock cord and such.
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Originally Posted by hang10
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