Wool & Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving and ropemaking. Yarn is any fiber used to construct a fabric. Thread is any fiber used to sew two pieces of fabric together. more...
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Materials
Yarn can be made from any number of natural or synthetic fibers.
The most common natural fibre is cotton, which is typically spun into fine yarn for mechanical weaving or knitting into cloth. The most commonly used animal fibre is wool harvested from sheep. For hand knitting and hobby knitting, thick wool yarns are the most common kind used.
Other animal fibers used include alpaca, angora, and cashmere. More rarely, yarn may be spun from camel, yak, possum, cat, dog, wolf, rabbit, or buffalo hair, and even turkey or ostrich feathers.
Other natural fibers that can be used for yarn include silk, linen, and cotton. These tend to be much less elastic, and retain less warmth than the animal-hair yarns, though they can be stronger in some cases. The finished product will also look rather different from the woolen yarns. Other plant fibers which can be spun include bamboo, hemp, and soy fiber.
A number of synthetic materials are also commonly made into yarn, chiefly acrylic. All-acrylic yarns are available, as are wool-acrylic blends in various proportions. Some other synthetics are available as well; yarn designed for use in socks frequently contains a small percentage of nylon, and numerous specialty yarns exist.
Construction
Yarns are made up of any number of plies, each ply being a single spun yarn. These single plys of yarn are twisted in the opposite direction (plied) together to make a thicker yarn.
In some cases, thread may be monofilament, in which case it is a single fiber. The only natural fiber that is counted as monofilament is silk.
A relatively recent trend is the novelty yarn. Typically these involve at least one or two strands of regular yarn twisted together with something else to make an interesting texture. Novelty yarns are frequently made from nylon.
One variety of novelty yarn is called boucle, textured or flammé. Yarns of this type involve at least one or two strands of regular yarn twisted together with something else to make an interesting texture. To make boucle, the tension on one strand, as it is being spun, must be different from the other. The extra element can be a metallic thread, or a much-thicker or much-narrower strand of yarn, or yarn that varies between thick and thin. Some companies have come to put twin yarns on the market to show off combinations of one regular yarn and a novelty yarns in assorted colours or even two different types of novelty yarns.
Another type of novelty yarn is eyelash yarn. In general, eyelash yarns will be hairy and have the general aspect of faux fur once knitted up in a garment. The texture and composition of such yarns have been explored by many companies, and there are innumerable types of eyelash yarns. The most prominent types would probably be 100% polyester with a straight and relatively short hair. The hair can be curly. The core and hair of the thread can be metallic, and the hairs can sometimes be two different lengths. Some of the drawbacks of eyelash yarns is that they tend to have poor stitch definition, and that they are not flattering to curvy figures as they add bulk to a garment, so they are mostly used for accessories such as scarves.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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