http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/ is a marketing organization to sell yarn.
They set standards that help their members sell yarn craft products, and ensure the maximum profit on those products. They are good at marketing. They know how to tell you myths you believe. They teach you myths that are impervious to facts. I do weatherproof knitting, but many knitters prefer factproof knitting.
Twist in yarn is very expensive to insert. Energy to insert twist is the largest single cost of a yarn mill. Low twist yarns are therefore cheaper to produce, and more profitable.
Low twist yarns are less durable, so objects knit from low twist yarns do not last as long, and must be replaced. Thus, selling low twist yarns can help the mills sell more yarn. Since the yarns are less durable, the mills add nylon to sock yarns. Nylon is cheaper than wool, so the mills save productions cost. However, the nylon appears to improve the durability of yarn, so the mill can charge a premium for adding nylon. In truth, the nylon fibers are slippery and allow the wool to slip out of the yarn under abrasion, leaving the nylon and making it appear that nylon improves durability. It is brilliant marketing.
When I spin hoisery singles from long wool (22,400 ypp, 17 tpi), and ply them up into a 9-ply sock yarn, the resulting yarn is held together by some 170 tpi, and is very durable. The 6-ply, 1, 640 ypp sock yarn that I make is held together by almost 90 tpi and is more durable than the commercial sock yarn, but does not endure like a true hoisery yarn.The 3-ply 1,640 ypp commercial sock yarns (that are 25% nylon) held together by something less than 36 tpi, and tend to go thread bare.
However, hoisery yarn requires 170 total twists per inch. A pair of socks for me takes ~1,000 yd (~ 200 gm) of yarn. That will take the most of 4 days of spinning. Ouch! I can spin 5-ply for a sweater in less than half that time. This is an all wool yarn that knits up into socks that endure. In a LYS, such yarn would present sticker shock, and not sell -- because we have become accustomed to cheap socks that wear out quickly. As long as we buy into their "wear out quickly" concept of socks, the mills can sell a lot of high-profit yarn.
Still, even the large effort to make good sock yarn is much less than the effort to knit another pair of socks. That is the incremental effort to re-knit socks is much more than the additional cost of more durable yarn. Or, over a period of years, it is less effort to just knit good socks or sweaters or . . . .. And, this is the reason for worsted spun 5-ply. Knit it once, and you are done for a long time.
Note that the YCC members do not make/sell the kind of multi-ply yarns commonly used to knit durable fabrics. Their goal is to sell you more yarn, not to sell you excellent yarn.
And, fabrics that are firmly knit tend to be more durable.
To promote the myth that all yarns wear out quickly, the Yarn Craft Council suggested yarn band content does not include information that helps estimate durability. Durability indicators would include how much twist is in the singles or the fineness of the wool. Instead YCC suggests (in other materials) that fine wool (often Merino) is the best for all skin contact fabrics, including socks. I know that is a myth that most of my readers have accepted, will retain, no matter how many facts I lob at them. However, look at how many fine lace objects were knit from Shetland lace yarns for ladies and even infants. These objects were silken to the touch.
The truth is that well graded, well combed, worsted spun yarns are smooth and comfortable against the skin. Suffolk is perhaps my favorite fleece for hoisery singles. And, finer knitting can make the fabric much smoother, more silken. I would describe some very finely knit fabrics as "slick".
These days, I knit 840 ypp 6-ply boot sock yarn on 2 mm needles. I knit 1,640 ypp, 6-ply sock yarn on 1.5 mm needles. I am swatching the current generation of hand spun hoisery yarns on needles in the range of 1 to 1.3 mm looking for the fabric I like; something slick!
They set standards that help their members sell yarn craft products, and ensure the maximum profit on those products. They are good at marketing. They know how to tell you myths you believe. They teach you myths that are impervious to facts. I do weatherproof knitting, but many knitters prefer factproof knitting.
Twist in yarn is very expensive to insert. Energy to insert twist is the largest single cost of a yarn mill. Low twist yarns are therefore cheaper to produce, and more profitable.
Low twist yarns are less durable, so objects knit from low twist yarns do not last as long, and must be replaced. Thus, selling low twist yarns can help the mills sell more yarn. Since the yarns are less durable, the mills add nylon to sock yarns. Nylon is cheaper than wool, so the mills save productions cost. However, the nylon appears to improve the durability of yarn, so the mill can charge a premium for adding nylon. In truth, the nylon fibers are slippery and allow the wool to slip out of the yarn under abrasion, leaving the nylon and making it appear that nylon improves durability. It is brilliant marketing.
When I spin hoisery singles from long wool (22,400 ypp, 17 tpi), and ply them up into a 9-ply sock yarn, the resulting yarn is held together by some 170 tpi, and is very durable. The 6-ply, 1, 640 ypp sock yarn that I make is held together by almost 90 tpi and is more durable than the commercial sock yarn, but does not endure like a true hoisery yarn.The 3-ply 1,640 ypp commercial sock yarns (that are 25% nylon) held together by something less than 36 tpi, and tend to go thread bare.
However, hoisery yarn requires 170 total twists per inch. A pair of socks for me takes ~1,000 yd (~ 200 gm) of yarn. That will take the most of 4 days of spinning. Ouch! I can spin 5-ply for a sweater in less than half that time. This is an all wool yarn that knits up into socks that endure. In a LYS, such yarn would present sticker shock, and not sell -- because we have become accustomed to cheap socks that wear out quickly. As long as we buy into their "wear out quickly" concept of socks, the mills can sell a lot of high-profit yarn.
Still, even the large effort to make good sock yarn is much less than the effort to knit another pair of socks. That is the incremental effort to re-knit socks is much more than the additional cost of more durable yarn. Or, over a period of years, it is less effort to just knit good socks or sweaters or . . . .. And, this is the reason for worsted spun 5-ply. Knit it once, and you are done for a long time.
Note that the YCC members do not make/sell the kind of multi-ply yarns commonly used to knit durable fabrics. Their goal is to sell you more yarn, not to sell you excellent yarn.
And, fabrics that are firmly knit tend to be more durable.
To promote the myth that all yarns wear out quickly, the Yarn Craft Council suggested yarn band content does not include information that helps estimate durability. Durability indicators would include how much twist is in the singles or the fineness of the wool. Instead YCC suggests (in other materials) that fine wool (often Merino) is the best for all skin contact fabrics, including socks. I know that is a myth that most of my readers have accepted, will retain, no matter how many facts I lob at them. However, look at how many fine lace objects were knit from Shetland lace yarns for ladies and even infants. These objects were silken to the touch.
The truth is that well graded, well combed, worsted spun yarns are smooth and comfortable against the skin. Suffolk is perhaps my favorite fleece for hoisery singles. And, finer knitting can make the fabric much smoother, more silken. I would describe some very finely knit fabrics as "slick".
These days, I knit 840 ypp 6-ply boot sock yarn on 2 mm needles. I knit 1,640 ypp, 6-ply sock yarn on 1.5 mm needles. I am swatching the current generation of hand spun hoisery yarns on needles in the range of 1 to 1.3 mm looking for the fabric I like; something slick!
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