Loosely Blanketed

THE HOME

This year's favorite blanket is full of holes, and meant to be: it is the thermal blanket, a machine-made creation of loose-weave stitches that looks like the afghan Grandma used to crochet.

Topped with another covering in winter, the air holes are supposed to trap the body's heat. In summer, without the extra wrap, the loose knit allows free circulation of air.

But American women took to thermals for other reasons. "I love that oldfashioned, hand-knit look," said one New York housewife. "I'm so tired of everything being made slick and plastic and impersonal." Housewives also value its practicality: while wool blankets tend to emerge from the washing machine feeling like congealed cardboard, cotton thermals neither stiffen nor shrink, and they do not carry the static electricity that is the plague of lightweight synthetic brands.

The vast bulk of blanket sales is still in the cheap (under $5) rayon blends, which tend to shrink and wear badly. But in the quality field, thermals are the up-and-coming item. This year 7,500,000 thermals will be sold, as compared with 400,000 wools, 5,500,000 electrics and 5,000,000 acrylics. Most blanket-makers now produce thermals ranging in price from $3.99 to $20. They would much rather not. But three years ago a bedspread manufacturer, Morgan-Jones, put the first cotton thermal into U.S. stores. With little advertising except by word of mouth, the response was such that within a year, most companies were forced to compete.

"We find the popularity of the thermal a bit of a mystery," says Chatham blanket company Executive Director G. Martin Coffyn. "Every warmth test we give it by itself registers zero. The labels say that in winter you need a light covering. That can mean anything from a sheet to a Hudson's Bay blanket." So covered, the blanket admittedly holds more warmth than a sheet or a Hudson's Bay alone would--but not much more, say its critics. There has been no great public outcry from chilled users, and the blankets continue to go like hot cakes. With most American homes centrally heated, housewives seem to care more about the thermal's soft and pliable nature than its warmth.

This season the industry's ugly duckling is getting the full beauty treatment by manufacturers intent on covering the whole market. The thermal now comes in wool, rayon, Dacron, Creslan and Acrilan, as well as the popular cotton, and in shades like curry, persimmon, melon, hollyhock, sand and avocado. It may be bound in velvet or nylon suede, patterned in flowers and leaves, checks and tweeds, stripes and plaids.

Who knows? Soon Linus may order a thermal to use as his security blanket.

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