Stash Mysteries

 

blue - Brassard 2/8 cotton, white - US 8/2 cotton

In preparation for doing some experiments I dug through my cotton stash looking for appropriate yarns.

I was pretty sure I had yarn that was designated 8/2, even though I routinely work with the Brassard yarn which used to be designated 2/8 on their colour cards and then, sometime in the 1980s they switched the numbers to 8/2 without changing the quality of the yarn.  If you peek at the French side of their website, their yarns are still noted as being 2/8.

When I first met Americans, some of them would recoil in horror when I said I worked a lot with 2/8 cotton.  It wasn't until I met some US 8/2 cotton that I began to understand their aversion to weaving with it - as warp, at least.

Because the two yarns shown above are very obviously NOT the same 'quality'.  

I have tried - for decades - to explain the difference to people but the prevailing attitude is that the numbers infer quality, when all they refer to is the number of yards per pound.  They are not interchangeable for reasons that may be apparent once you see them up close and personal.

So, here I am - again - pointing out the obvious - 2/8 and 8/2 cotton is not the same quality.

When I was researching the concept of why these yarns are not the same, I pestered various suppliers until I finally got the answers:

The blue cotton is combed and ring spun - which would be roughly equivalent to 'worsted' in hand spinning, while the white cotton is carded and open end spun - which would be roughly equivalent to 'woolen' spinning.

Yes, yes, I know that whole worsted-woolen thing is a spectrum and there are all sorts of variations, but I'm just trying to explain how the above yarns are far from the 'same'.  And it is all to do with how they have been spun.

The blue yarn is denser, smoother, and thinner than the white yarn, which is loftier with trapped air in it, has more fibres poking out, and slightly thicker than the blue yarn.

Which of these is the bad yarn?  Neither.  Each has been spun with a purpose in mind.

The blue will be less absorbent (slightly), stronger, and withstand abrasion better than the white yarn with its trapped air to make it more absorbent, but it is weaker and will not withstand abrasion as well as the blue yarn.

If one is looking for the purpose of these yarns, one could simplify it by saying to use the blue yarn for warp and the white yarn for weft and derive the benefit from each in terms of a stronger warp, but a more absorbent cloth, if absorbency is something you are looking to achieve.

Bottom line is that the count numbers only tell you the number of yards per pound - not how many twists per inch (apparent that the white yarn has higher twists in the singles, fewer in the ply, than the blue), the grist (thickness) and why how many epi 'depends', how well it will perform in terms of absorbency or abrasion.

Want to know more?  I discuss fibre characteristics in The Intentional Weaver...