Super Lamb, made from Superwash treated Merino Lambswool, offers the best of both worlds. The special qualities of worsted spun*** wool are combined with the convenience of being able to machine wash and dry without fading or shrinking. Garments made from our solid and heather shades of Super Lamb 2/24 retain their softness, resilience and durability after countless machine washings and dryings. (taken from the Jaggerspun website)
When it comes to yarn, there is much confusion about how to tell what size it is.
This seems to have gotten even worse since so many people have come into the craft of weaving from knitting, where they don't generally use numbers at all but word descriptions. It becomes even more confusing when weavers and spinners start using terms like 'worsted' and 'woolen' which mean something quite different to knitters and crocheters.
Add to that the fact that not everyone who weaves spins, and they may not understand 'worsted' and 'woolen' in terms of how fibre is spun into yarn either.
(Although I have it on good authority that those terms don't necessarily mean what most people think they mean anyway, but let's go with a simplistic explanation, ok?)
So getting fibre twisted up into yarn is a spectrum. At each end of said spectrum are worsted and woolen. Roughly speaking, worsted generally refers to having the fibres all lined up nice and parallel while woolen the fibres are every which way. And then of course all the degrees along the spectrum, but let's go with the above.
How the fibres are prepared and spun will affect the yarn, as will how many twists per inch, both in the singles and in the ply. The direction the fibre is spun and then plied can also affect the yarn.
So here we have two yarns that are rated to having the same number of yards per pound. Are they the same? No, obviously not. They are both natural white in spite of the fact the one on the bottom looks grey in comparison to the one on the top. (I am using a black and white photo which enhances the difference between the two.)
When I began weaving, the one on the top was identified as 2/8 cotton. The yarn was - and still is - readily available in Canada. It is ring spun from fibre that has been prepared so that the fibres are as parallel as possible. It is smooth, strong and works very well for warp. It is not, however, quite as absorbent as the one below which is readily available in the US as 8/2 cotton. It has been open end spun, the fibres are disorganized, the yarn is weaker, loftier, and more absorbent than the yarn on the top.
The 2/8 cotton would be roughly equivalent to worsted spun yarn while the 8/2 would be more equivalent to woolen spun yarn if we follow that simplistic explanation I used above.
Do the numbers tell us anything about the characteristics of the yarn? Well, possibly, if the numbers are being applied in the way spinning mills apply them.
When I purchased directly from a spinning mill in Ontario, which I did for quite a few years, I was asked how many twists per inch I wanted. I had no idea so I sent them a sample. They told me I wanted 2/8 cotton with x numbers of twist per inch. I don't now recall how many that number was, but it was the quality I wanted so that was what I ordered. And then just put in repeat orders about once a year - because their minimum order was something like five cases.
According to some spinners, when the ply comes first, then the count, (2/8) that generally means a worsted type of preparation. If the count comes first then the ply (8/2) that generally means a woolen type preparation.
Which brings me to the Jagger Spun website. They widely advertise their yarn as worsted - as in the spinning definition. Their counts are all expressed with the ply first, then the count. See my *** in the opening quote.
So what do those numbers mean, anyway?
2/8 cotton means that a pound of yarn has been spun into (roughly - these numbers are only ever approximates) 6720 yards per pound, then two were plied together to create a yarn with approximately 3360 yards per pound.
The value for '1' for cotton is 840. In other words, a pound of cotton fibre was spun to have 840 yards. Finer yarns will have the value for 1 (840 yards) multiplied by their count - be that 4, 8, 10, 16 or whatever - then plied, usually with 2 plys, sometimes 3 or 4 or 8, depending on the quality of the yarn the mill is making. Whatever the count is, divide by the number of plys to get yards per pound for that yarn.
Other fibres have other values for '1'.
Wool(en) is 300
Worsted 560
Silk is 840
Linen is 300
These are all imperial but more and more metric sizing is becoming common.
Ulla Cyrus-Zetterstrom's book Manual of Swedish Handweaving has the most succinct description of metric sizes that I have found. She gives the formulas for converting Denier and Tex to metric as well, which is very useful, especially of you have purchased yarn from an estate sale.
I highly recommend finding this book just for the few pages of this information. It should be readily available through second hand shops or in guild libraries.
For those new to the craft, learn and understand how the various numbering systems work. Understand that how many epi you use yarns at can - and will - vary, depending on the quality of cloth you desire as your finished result.
This very important lesson is addressed in level one of the Olds College Master Weaver program and really unlocks the secret to choosing an appropriate number of epi/ppi for your cloth when you begin to design your own.
Other things you might consider - a McMorran balance (or equivalent) and learning about burn tests. Both important for identifying yarns purchased at an estate sale - because usually labels have faded or fallen off. And never ever trust the label in the base of the cone. Cones get used and reused, sometimes multiple times.
Did you figure out how many yards per pound in that 2/24 Jaggerspun? It's worsted spun so the value for '1' is 560. 24 x 560 = 13,440 divided by 2 = 6720. Approximately.
When it comes to yarn, there is much confusion about how to tell what size it is.
This seems to have gotten even worse since so many people have come into the craft of weaving from knitting, where they don't generally use numbers at all but word descriptions. It becomes even more confusing when weavers and spinners start using terms like 'worsted' and 'woolen' which mean something quite different to knitters and crocheters.
Add to that the fact that not everyone who weaves spins, and they may not understand 'worsted' and 'woolen' in terms of how fibre is spun into yarn either.
(Although I have it on good authority that those terms don't necessarily mean what most people think they mean anyway, but let's go with a simplistic explanation, ok?)
So getting fibre twisted up into yarn is a spectrum. At each end of said spectrum are worsted and woolen. Roughly speaking, worsted generally refers to having the fibres all lined up nice and parallel while woolen the fibres are every which way. And then of course all the degrees along the spectrum, but let's go with the above.
How the fibres are prepared and spun will affect the yarn, as will how many twists per inch, both in the singles and in the ply. The direction the fibre is spun and then plied can also affect the yarn.
So here we have two yarns that are rated to having the same number of yards per pound. Are they the same? No, obviously not. They are both natural white in spite of the fact the one on the bottom looks grey in comparison to the one on the top. (I am using a black and white photo which enhances the difference between the two.)
When I began weaving, the one on the top was identified as 2/8 cotton. The yarn was - and still is - readily available in Canada. It is ring spun from fibre that has been prepared so that the fibres are as parallel as possible. It is smooth, strong and works very well for warp. It is not, however, quite as absorbent as the one below which is readily available in the US as 8/2 cotton. It has been open end spun, the fibres are disorganized, the yarn is weaker, loftier, and more absorbent than the yarn on the top.
The 2/8 cotton would be roughly equivalent to worsted spun yarn while the 8/2 would be more equivalent to woolen spun yarn if we follow that simplistic explanation I used above.
Do the numbers tell us anything about the characteristics of the yarn? Well, possibly, if the numbers are being applied in the way spinning mills apply them.
When I purchased directly from a spinning mill in Ontario, which I did for quite a few years, I was asked how many twists per inch I wanted. I had no idea so I sent them a sample. They told me I wanted 2/8 cotton with x numbers of twist per inch. I don't now recall how many that number was, but it was the quality I wanted so that was what I ordered. And then just put in repeat orders about once a year - because their minimum order was something like five cases.
According to some spinners, when the ply comes first, then the count, (2/8) that generally means a worsted type of preparation. If the count comes first then the ply (8/2) that generally means a woolen type preparation.
Which brings me to the Jagger Spun website. They widely advertise their yarn as worsted - as in the spinning definition. Their counts are all expressed with the ply first, then the count. See my *** in the opening quote.
So what do those numbers mean, anyway?
2/8 cotton means that a pound of yarn has been spun into (roughly - these numbers are only ever approximates) 6720 yards per pound, then two were plied together to create a yarn with approximately 3360 yards per pound.
The value for '1' for cotton is 840. In other words, a pound of cotton fibre was spun to have 840 yards. Finer yarns will have the value for 1 (840 yards) multiplied by their count - be that 4, 8, 10, 16 or whatever - then plied, usually with 2 plys, sometimes 3 or 4 or 8, depending on the quality of the yarn the mill is making. Whatever the count is, divide by the number of plys to get yards per pound for that yarn.
Other fibres have other values for '1'.
Wool(en) is 300
Worsted 560
Silk is 840
Linen is 300
These are all imperial but more and more metric sizing is becoming common.
Ulla Cyrus-Zetterstrom's book Manual of Swedish Handweaving has the most succinct description of metric sizes that I have found. She gives the formulas for converting Denier and Tex to metric as well, which is very useful, especially of you have purchased yarn from an estate sale.
I highly recommend finding this book just for the few pages of this information. It should be readily available through second hand shops or in guild libraries.
For those new to the craft, learn and understand how the various numbering systems work. Understand that how many epi you use yarns at can - and will - vary, depending on the quality of cloth you desire as your finished result.
This very important lesson is addressed in level one of the Olds College Master Weaver program and really unlocks the secret to choosing an appropriate number of epi/ppi for your cloth when you begin to design your own.
Other things you might consider - a McMorran balance (or equivalent) and learning about burn tests. Both important for identifying yarns purchased at an estate sale - because usually labels have faded or fallen off. And never ever trust the label in the base of the cone. Cones get used and reused, sometimes multiple times.
Did you figure out how many yards per pound in that 2/24 Jaggerspun? It's worsted spun so the value for '1' is 560. 24 x 560 = 13,440 divided by 2 = 6720. Approximately.
2 comments:
For me, it started with my first purchase - 110/2 merino - which I understand is a uniquely NZ measurement. I learned and relearned the proper expression, but putting the smaller number first still looks strange. 110/2 <> 2/17. I think I'll forever stay confused and confuse others. :-D
Wonderful, thank you for the clarification . cheers D
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