Welcome to Yvonne's one stop resource
for all your miniature-knitting needs
YARN COUNT
THE FIXED WEIGHT SYSTEM
The fixed weight
or indirect system is divided into 2 sub-systems
yarn count and metric yarn count.
yarn count
- Is most often applied to traditional natural fibres
- Is based on the number of hanks of yarn that weigh one pound
- Each fibre has a different given length of yarn in a hank
- Cotton count (Ne c) is based on the number of 840 yard hanks in one pound of yarn,
so a cotton count of '2' would mean 1680 yards of yarn weigh 1 pound
- Worsted count(Ne w) is based on the number of 560 yard hanks in one pound of yarn
- Woollen count (N y) is based on the number of 256 yard hanks in one pound of yarn
metric count (Nm)
- Is based on the number of metres of yarn that weigh one kilo
- It is the count usually used for synthetic yarns
- All yarn exported to Europe is expected to carry a label stating the metric count (Nm)
For all fixed weight systems
the lower the number the thicker the yarn.
But what do the numbers mean?
The indirect count numbers are written as two numbers separated by a forward slash, for example 2/30's
For most counts the first number states the number of single ends that have been plyed together,
so in the case of the example 2/30's count, we are looking at a 2ply yarn.
The second number is the number of hanks of single ends that weigh one pound,
our 2/30's yarn would mean that 2 single ends of 30's yarn plyed together weigh one pound,
to a produce a final yarn of 15's (remember lower number, thicker yarn).
A 4/60's yarn would be 4 ends of 60's plyed together, which would also produce
a final yarn of 15's.
Therefore 4/60's and 2/30's yarn are the same thickness
Why did you say most counts?
Because for some odd reason in the cotton count system and the metric (Nm)
system,
the numbers are written the other way round.
The same number in cotton count would be written as 30/2(Ne C) and in metric count
would be 30/2(Nm).
click on 'next page'
to read about fixed length systems
