Talk:Yarn

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The detail level in the text is very uneven. See the rest of the talk page for many comments on possible improvements. /blahedo (t) 03:08, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Specialty yarn

I changed the specialty yarn list to a bulleted list. I recomend that it be kept to categories of yarn. If everyone starts to list their favorite brand of specialty yarn it will become chaotic. Jerdwyer 16:35, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] tanslanizing

Is "taslanizing" really what air texturing is called? The only references I find in google are to this entry. Boojum 14:12, 14 May 2004 (UTC)

There are many hits for taslan on google Knerq 14:59, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Fiber or Fibre?

Both are in this article. For consistency we should switch to all of one. Which one would be appropriate for this article? Brian Sisco 01:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I personally choose "fibre", as it is already prevalent in the Knitting article.Gloriana232 14:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Decitex

Paradoxically, dtex or decitex is the weight in grams of 10 kilometers of yarn.

This certainly isn't "paradoxical," but how is it even odd? If something masses, say, 10 g/km, it will mass 100 g/10 km; or, massing 10 tex, it will mass 100 dtex, just as expected. - Montréalais 06:05, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Novelty yarn

Is it appropriate that Knitting actually has a more comprehensive section on novelty yarns than Yarn itself? I propose it be moved here, and a See-also link added to Knitting's section under Materials. Gloriana232 14:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links

Also, there's a link listing itself as the "world's best yarn store." I'm unsure if that's actually a licensed slogan or just pride, but I don't see why it should warrant a listing over any other yarn store. Gloriana232 14:38, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article too biased to home knitting

This article is currently too biased toward home knitting, which gives a wrong impression about what yarn is used for. Yard is the starting point for all fabrics, including commercial woven cloth. hajhouse 16:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Too biased is right!

Most of the above comments are simply examples of "straining out gnats and swallowing camels". The entry on "yarn" is completely slanted to "retail lingo" for yarn crafts such as hand knitting and crochet. There is little or nothing of substance relating to historical or modern yarn production, usage or terminology. Example: "heathered or tweed: yarn with flecks of different colored fiber" - this is inaccurate. "Heathered" yarns are usually composed of several different colored "tops" blended together before spinning. A simple heather effect can be achieved with cross-dyeing a spun yarn with two different fibers. Among other things, "Tweed" refers to types of cloth woven from a woolen spun yarns (as opposed to worsted spun). "Donegal Tweed" refers to a tweed yarn spun with knops or flecks of brightly colored fiber added in the spinning process in the manner of tweeds spun in Donegal. There are many regional "Tweeds" woven throughout the north of England, Scotland and Ireland - none necessarily have colored flecks. This article should be labled "Craft Yarns for Knitters" and then someone take a look at Fairchild's Dictonary of Textiles or Fabric Science and make a proper entry. The person writing this article does not appear to have worked in the Textile or Yarn Industries. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Billbrandt (talk • contribs) 22:44, 12 February 2007 (UTC).

Perhaps this article seems slanted towards hobbyists, but I imagine those who are experts on other aspects of yarn in the textile industry are welcome to add to it, and I think some of the items you mention here should be added to the article. I personally can only contribute from the crafter/retail POV, so until we have more contributions from the industry side, unfortunately it will seem to remain favored in that direction. LovelyLillith 02:41, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Not terribly accurate either.

I think the introduction starts off on the wrong foot, as yarn is also used to sew two pieces of fabric together...ie, two pieces of fabric formed from yarn. yarn doesn't become thread just because its purpose changes. it's related to weight, no? Yarn.wench 21:07, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Images

The images in this article are severely lacking. Many of the there are irrelevant and are only appropriate insofar as they deal with yarn, but don't contribute to the article very well. I think the article could benefit from images of the different kinds of yarn discussed in the article, such as different materials, the novelty yarns, and different measures of yarn. I don't have any such images, so if anyone out there does, or can take some, the article could be much improved if they were uploaded and added to the article. – DroEsperanto 03:49, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I have made an image to illustrate Z-twist and S-twist in yarn. -

PKM 20:08, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I've started adding a broader perspective to this article, but the focus on handcrafts is deeply engrained and will take a while to balance out while making each edit result in a coherent article. Any available help is appreciated. - PKM 20:56, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Things to do:

  • Restructure fibers: discuss bast fibers, recency of cotton compared to bast fibers like linen, hemp, and nettle
  • Make types or categories section to include crepe yarn, worsted, woolen, embroidery floss, tapestry yarn, perle cotton, etc., or at least link out to articles on those items
  • Rewrite measurements to include commercial measurements, embroidery yarn sizes
  • Add history section
  • Probably break out "novelty yarns" into its own article (compare knitting article, see what makes sense)
About the novelty yarns stuff: I think what might be good is to make one article for "List of novelty yarns", with a brief introduction of what they are, etc. Then, have individual articles for each of the yarns. It'll be easy to start them off as stubs, since there's already a paragraph or so for each one. If this makes sense, then I can go ahead and do that now. – DroEsperanto(talk|contribs) 17:23, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
Sounds solid. --Eyrian 17:27, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
Done. – DroEsperanto(talk|contribs) 22:44, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Also need to mention thread sizes, buttonhole twist, button and carpet thread, cotton-wrapped polyester. - PKM 03:24, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I have just come across this project within the bigger textile project. I agree very much with the comment above but would like to suggest some further restructuring categories: most significantly there is no historical perspective on the use of yarn. Another suggestion I would make is that instead of drilling down to such a level of detail on applications of yarn (i.e. button hole twist) might it be better to take the pespective on yarn up to a higher level and just refer broadly to application in clothing, furnishing etc and link to other articles for the detail? --Matty smith 07:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced Statement(s)

I removed from Structure "A lesser known fact about yarn is the death rate. Last year over 600 people died of yarn ingestion." No source cited, no year cited, sounds pretty ridiculous to me. Deculpep (talk) 10:05, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Yarn Conversions and Uses

Is there someone out there who's more capable than me who'd incorporate a 'conversion' table? There's a note, for instance, that US yarn is sold by the ounce, whereas Euro yarn (and in many other western countries) its sold by the gram, but it doesn't describe how some refer to yarn by its content and ply, rather than a name like 'worsted'. I found something a while back that describes determining the weight of a yarn by wrapping and counting the wraps per inch for US terms, but nothing as yet that aligns this terms with Euro/UK/Aust terms (Ply is determined by who many treads make up part of the yarn, i.e., 4ply can be broken into 4 threads, I think). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.164.193.248 (talk) 08:54, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Picture of cat with yarn

Yes, the cat is cute, but considering how many pictures we have for this page, and how they are pretty crowded, is it really needed? Loggie (talk) 12:42, 1 May 2008 (UTC)