Many people have shown an interest in blankets of late, many of them being interested in good old fashioned heavy woollen blankets. With the advent of the sleeping bag though, many people do not know how to sleep with a blanket outdoors, and hopefully with the coming summer and the current interest in sleeping in a blanket or two, I can go some way to redressing the situation.
The following pictures have been taken indoors mainly due to the fact that it is a rainy and haily day outside and we are struggling to find things indoors to keep us occupied! Hopefully, when the weather peps up a bit, I will be able to update this photo tutorial with pictures taken where I would have have liked to have taken them, in the woods by a fire.
Sleeping in blankets in this way is very warm, the use of a poncho as a rain cover isn't quite as traditional but a lightweight canvas tarp could be used instead, or the shelter created above you and a fire lit a good adult sized stride and a half away from your bed. This shows the basic method of encasing yourself in wool, although it isn't as easy as it looks when you are wrapping yourself up so try it before you need to rely on it! I find it easiest to wrap my legs and then lay down and sort my upper body out.
Anyway, your swag will be packed something like this:
And once you roll it out, you lay your blankets like this:
First one has been placed so that when it is folded in half it will all be in one half of the ground sheet/poncho. The second blanket will overlap so that when it is folded in half it will sit in half of the first blanket and exactly where the bottom half of the poncho will be! Army blankets are good for this as they have the stripe running down the very centre of the blankets. Sounds confusing, but read on and all will become clear!
What you then do is lay down on top of the lot. Make sure you have your boots off if you don't want to wear them, that you are wearing the clothes you wish to sleep in and that you have everything sorted before you start as once you are in, it is a pain to get back out and in and out and in....etc! The blankets have been folded over at the top because my lovely assistant, Jo'anne, is a shorty! You can put spare clothing and the like under the blankets to form a pillow if you like, the old tramps used to put their shoes under there as well!
You take the top most blanket and wrap it over yourself and tuck it in. Then, you flip the excess blanket at the foot end on top of your feet.
This is what the foot end should look like:
Then you do the same with the other blanket:
As you can see, the blanket has been tucked in and now all sits on the left side of the poncho. This now gives a portion of the poncho to wrap over the top and keep the wind and rain out (or the wind in if you had cowboy food for dinner!) Note that this time, the spare blanket at the foot end is tucked under your feet.
You also do the same with the poncho, tucking under your feet and this will keep any rain out. If you have a bergan with you, place it down your side to act as a wind break (another cowboy joke moment!) or you could use a log. This will stop you rolling away from the fire if you use one, but you should also use something to stop you rolling into it. A few large stones placed in a row would be useful.
Try not to create too big a shadow between you and the fire or you will be losing the heat. Saying that, this is on a stone flagged floor and Jo'anne said she was warm when I know that that floor is icy cold most of the time.
the spare poncho at the top can be used to create a sort of hood or you can throw the lot over your head and probably prop it up with a stick if you really wanted to!
Hope that will inspire a few people to sleep with a blanket this summer, by the fire or in a hammock, blankets are great. When used this way, you get a very warm traditional sleeping system that doesn't suffer as badly as down bags when it is wet! They are a bit heavy though.
The following pictures have been taken indoors mainly due to the fact that it is a rainy and haily day outside and we are struggling to find things indoors to keep us occupied! Hopefully, when the weather peps up a bit, I will be able to update this photo tutorial with pictures taken where I would have have liked to have taken them, in the woods by a fire.
Sleeping in blankets in this way is very warm, the use of a poncho as a rain cover isn't quite as traditional but a lightweight canvas tarp could be used instead, or the shelter created above you and a fire lit a good adult sized stride and a half away from your bed. This shows the basic method of encasing yourself in wool, although it isn't as easy as it looks when you are wrapping yourself up so try it before you need to rely on it! I find it easiest to wrap my legs and then lay down and sort my upper body out.
Anyway, your swag will be packed something like this:
And once you roll it out, you lay your blankets like this:
First one has been placed so that when it is folded in half it will all be in one half of the ground sheet/poncho. The second blanket will overlap so that when it is folded in half it will sit in half of the first blanket and exactly where the bottom half of the poncho will be! Army blankets are good for this as they have the stripe running down the very centre of the blankets. Sounds confusing, but read on and all will become clear!
What you then do is lay down on top of the lot. Make sure you have your boots off if you don't want to wear them, that you are wearing the clothes you wish to sleep in and that you have everything sorted before you start as once you are in, it is a pain to get back out and in and out and in....etc! The blankets have been folded over at the top because my lovely assistant, Jo'anne, is a shorty! You can put spare clothing and the like under the blankets to form a pillow if you like, the old tramps used to put their shoes under there as well!
You take the top most blanket and wrap it over yourself and tuck it in. Then, you flip the excess blanket at the foot end on top of your feet.
This is what the foot end should look like:
Then you do the same with the other blanket:
As you can see, the blanket has been tucked in and now all sits on the left side of the poncho. This now gives a portion of the poncho to wrap over the top and keep the wind and rain out (or the wind in if you had cowboy food for dinner!) Note that this time, the spare blanket at the foot end is tucked under your feet.
You also do the same with the poncho, tucking under your feet and this will keep any rain out. If you have a bergan with you, place it down your side to act as a wind break (another cowboy joke moment!) or you could use a log. This will stop you rolling away from the fire if you use one, but you should also use something to stop you rolling into it. A few large stones placed in a row would be useful.
Try not to create too big a shadow between you and the fire or you will be losing the heat. Saying that, this is on a stone flagged floor and Jo'anne said she was warm when I know that that floor is icy cold most of the time.
the spare poncho at the top can be used to create a sort of hood or you can throw the lot over your head and probably prop it up with a stick if you really wanted to!
Hope that will inspire a few people to sleep with a blanket this summer, by the fire or in a hammock, blankets are great. When used this way, you get a very warm traditional sleeping system that doesn't suffer as badly as down bags when it is wet! They are a bit heavy though.
, looks like a real beauty!
