Tag Yarn

Yarn Terminology and Types

Octojelly Crochet Studio,LLC 1 Comment

Greetings and apologies for the long delay. Life, Covid-19, and general chaos have been keeping me busy.

Before I get into the types and definitions of the more common types of yarns, I want to go over some of the more common terms used when describing yarns. You may be familiar with these terms already, but for those who aren’t, I’m going to list them anyways.

Absorbency: How well a fiber holds water. A fiber’s absorbency is used to determine it’s sweat absorption and it’s suitability for warm weather wear.

Breath-ability: How well air passes through a fiber.

Dye-ability: How well a fiber accepts and then holds dye.

Hand/Handle: This refers to any tactile descriptions, i.e. softness, resiliency

Loft: This refers to the amount of air in between the fibers.

Elasticity (aka Resiliency): How well, and how quickly, it resumes it’s natural shape after being stretched.

Thickness: The diameter of the fiber, measured in micrometers.

Now that that’s been taken care of, onto the Yarn types.

I’m going to start with the plant-based yarns.

Plant Based Yarns:

Cotton: Usually dull in sheen, has almost no elasticity unless blended with another fiber type. Pure cotton is good for utilitarian type items, such as purses, tote bags, wash clothes, dish clothes and place mats. Egyptian Cotton has the longest fibers among the cotton types, it is also the smoothest and the softest. Pima Cotton is a cross between Egyptian and American Cottons. American Cotton has medium-long fibers and readily takes dyes. American cotton is also available is the largest array of colors.

Linen is a good, strong fiber. It is also good for warm weather items.

Bamboo Bast which should never be confused with Bamboo Rayon, has an elegant sheen. It is also not as common as the bamboo rayon.

Animal Based Yarn:

Wool: A special note about wool. It is not recommended for children under the age of 3 as due to the sensitivity of their skin it can cause an allergic reaction. I’m only going to cover the 2 most common types of wool yarn here. Merino Wool is softer than cotton, but it does tend to pill. Icelandic Wool: is a strong wool, but it is scratchy feeling to most people.

Mohair is lofty and luxurious, though it is best used as an outer layer as it may feel scratchy to some.

Cashmere is very soft, very luxurious and it tends to be one of the most expensive yarns on the market when it’s pure cashmere.

Alpaca is a very warm yarn and is best suited for accessories such as scarves and hats.

Angora yarn is very soft. It also tends to shed. It is bested used as an accent or blended with other fibers if you plan on using it in a larger project.

Silk is exceptionally strong. It is also lustrous and shiny. It is good for summer wear as it tends to be light weight.

Synthetic Yarns

Note: synthetic yarn is, generally, any yarn that is made through, primarily, artificial means.

Acrylic yarn washes very well, is inexpensive, and is good for beginners. It is also good for anything for babies and pets. I would however like to point out that acrylic yarn, and items made from acrylic yarns, should not be kept near anything that gives off large amounts of heat, as speaking from experience, this causes the yarn to change color.

Nylon yarn is strong, very elastic, and washes well. However, it is not ideal for garments unless it is blended with other fibers.

Rayon yarns are made when processed cellulose (i.e. wood pulp, bamboo, seaweed) is extruded into threads. It is, most of the time, inexpensive. It is also highly absorbent and has a natural sheen.

What I have listed is a general list of yarn types and, on some recommended uses. I do not use most of these for a number of reasons. Feel free to experiment with them to see what kinds you prefer and which ones you don’t.

My next 2 posts will be on hooks, because I feel there is enough info out there to devote an entire blog to crochet hooks, and novelty yarns. The novelty yarns may take longer, just because I don’t really use them personally, as I don’t have the patience for them.

Everyone stay safe out there.

Yarn, a General Overview

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Yarn, at it’s simplest form, a long and continuous length of interlocked fibers.

Though, in reality, yarn is so much more complicated than that.

To start with, yarn is usually measured and sold by the weight, rather than the length. This is because of the differences in the yarn thickness. An example of this is 50g of a lightweight lace yarn would be a few hundred meters in length, where are a 50g bulky weight yarn is only about 60 meters in length.

Any yarn can be classified into one of two fiber classes, natural and synthetic.  Synthetic fiber is an acrylic or polyester material. Natural fiber is either a plant-based or a protein-based fiber.

The most common plant-based fibers are cotton and linen. Other plant fibers include bamboo, hemp, maize, nettles and soy. All of these fibers tend to be less elastic and retain less warmth than protein fibers, though this is not always the case. These types of yarns are usually want is recommended for babies and hospitals as they are least likely to cause an allergic reaction.

Wool is the most common protein-based fiber. Other common protein fibers are alpaca, angora, mohair, llama, cashmere, and silk. Others, less commonly used in the main stream, are camel, yak, possum, musk ox, vicuna, car, dog, wolf, rabbit bison and chinchilla. Protein yarns are basically any yarn that is made from an animal (is hair, feathers, sill, etc.). These yarns have the advantage of being slightly elastic and very breathable, while at the same time, trapping a lot of air, making these among the warmest yarns available. There are more than a few protein based yarns that can cause an allergic reaction.

There is a type of yarn that can fall into either main category. It is call T-shirt yarn. The make-up of t-shirt yarn depends solely on the materials used to make the shirt.

Generally speaking, when it comes to crochet, knitting and weaving, acrylic and wool yarns are the most common. Here in the US, the biggest 4 suppliers of acrylic yarn are Red Heart Yarns, Lion Brand, Caron Yarn and Bernat, these can be found in any big box craft store and a few home good stores. Wool is usually found at the local yarn store, more commonly call LYS, or the can be found on-line. These tend to be done is small batches and usually dyed by hand. A brand called Lily Sugar ‘n Cream, a mainstream cotton brand, can by found is any Joann’s Fabric or Michaels craft store.

Yarns may be used either dyed or undyed. Dyed yarns are colored with either an artificial dyes or natural dyes. Outside of solid colored yarn, variegated yarns can fall under one of five categories:

  • Heathered/Tweed                                     
  • Ombre                                                         
  • Multicolored
  • Self-stripping
  • Marled

I’ll get more into this when I discuss novelty yarns in a later blog post.

Earlier, I discussed yarn types as a thickness. There are 9 official thicknesses that are generally the same between manufacturers. Here is a handy cart from http://www.lionbrand.com/yarn-by-weight that can explain it better than I can.

That’s it for now. My next post I’ll get more into the types of fibers, their descriptions as well as their most common uses.

Have a good day and stay safe everyone!

Liz