DIY UQ out of fleece and/or wool

[Rosaleen]

When I can get a non-rainy day and hubby's help, will do. I rarely mess with cameras, so have no pictures.

[Rosaleen]

Friar Tuck-

I think that you will find the wool blanket pad needs some sort of stabilization, or it will collapse in use. Think of what is going on here: Slippery hammock, curved surface-like a canoe or elongated bowl, and some natural movement of the user. Those are some reasons that a 1/8" GG Thinlight pad and my fleece poncho don't work inside the hammock. Now, if you sew or otherwise attach your wool pad to a nice, stiff piece of Reflectix or truck windshield reflector, that may work quite well inside your hammock.

[friartuck]

Well, I did it. It's kind of a test run so it's ugly hence no pictures. I took a thin fleece blnaket and folded it in half, stitched in runners for the hanging apparatus, sewed in some pleats for the head and foot ends then added a thinker, more plushy fleece to the outside. A couple lines of stitching to hole the two together and voila, a DIY fleece UQ.

I just got finished with about an hour long nap outside int he hammock, hung up in the garage. Inside the hammock was a reflective windshield screen but I'm thinking that it moved on me. The DIY UQ underneath adn I was in my 30* sleeping bag. I can't imagine the temp in the garage was much lower than 35-40 with the outside temp about 30. I felt the prickly cold on my butt at first but that was the worst of it. I think I warmed up the layers and stabilized the temp so that I was comfy. Felt the cool on my face the most so I just pulled the sleeping bag up tight so that I had the small slit to breath through. Wifey was moving around and said I was snoring so it must have been sleep.

That's a successful first hang if you ask me.

Tweaks that need to be done; gotta add shock cord to pull the head end tight because there was definitely a gap, a wind layer wasn't needed because I was in my garage but I'm going to add one.

I will definitely be taking what I learned on this ugly set up and making a new, prettier one but I'm thinking that this should be just fine for my needs. Weight isn't really all that bad either and is should compress down smaller than a couple Nalgene bottles together.

[Rosaleen]

Your plan may not work for everyone, but if it works for you, that is what counts!

Enjoy!

[friartuck]

Your plan may not work for everyone, but if it works for you, that is what counts!

Enjoy!

I'm sure it will only barely work for me but the first one is always rough and the project gets better with each incarnation. We'll call this Fleece UQ Mark I.