I hope I'm not butting in to your forum, but I'm a knitter and not a weaver. On a online yarn site I saw this cone of yarn for sale that stated this: "The Valley Yarns line of mercerized perle cottons in 3/2, 5/2, and 10/2 is put up on standard one pound cones for weavers and machine knitters. The Valley Cotton line features 50+ sumptuous colors dyed for color fastness, but of course, be sure to test your sample the way you want to finish your fabric. Spun, and dyed exclusively for WEBS in Brazil." Now this looked like quite a bargin to me as you can get around 1 lb and around 1200 yards of 3/2 mercerized cotton yarn for about $18.00 dollars whereby if I buy regular knitting yarn I would get maybe 3 oz and 200 yards. So, my questions are: can a hand knitter use these cones are do you have to have a knitting machine, and what size yarn would be equivalent to the 3/2 mercerized cotton? Would greatly appreciate any information you could give me.

Comments

Sun, 04/28/2013 - 22:02

sally orgren

Knitters think in gauge, (which gives kind of a rough idea of yarn size) and weavers want to know precise yards per pound, which gives us a ball-park sett for setting up the loom, which we do by estimating the number of warp ends per inch.

I think the 3/2 would be a type of lace weight in knitting terms. I think it might also be about the size of that Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton at Walmart, maybe a smidge thicker.

Keep in mind, weaving yarns are spun differently than knitting yarns, because the looms put the yarns under tension when weaving. So after knitting something up with a weaving yarn, it may not have the desired finished feel.

WEBS is the vendor that sells Valley yarns. Maybe ask them for a small sample you could try knitting up? Also, many companies that sell by the cone charge you for the actual weight of the coned yarn, so it may vary to slightly less than a pound to 1.25 pounds.

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 00:25

TinaHilton (not verified)

One way to translate weaving yarns to knitting yarns is wraps per inch (wpi).  That is usually 1/2 the suggested sett for plain weave.  3/2 has a recommended sett of 10 to 12 epi, which would be a wpi of 20 to 24.  You can do a wrap test with your knitting yarn to see how that compares.  I also found that Halcyon web site says the 3/2 cotton is sport weight.

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 00:26

TinaHilton (not verified)

Double post deleted.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 15:17

sequel (not verified)

Wraps per inch divided by two will give you a firm stitches per inch, since it takes two strands to make one stitch.   3/2 perle cotton is the same as #3 perle that you buy in the tiny skeins in craft stores. 

You will need to do a twist test on any new coned or spooled yarn to determine if it is a balanced twist which won't skew in the knitting.  Set the cone or spool down and lift about 4 feet of yarn straight up.  Then take the "bottom" end and fold it up to the end you are holding above the cone.  If the loop created twists back on itself more than once, you may have a problem using the yarn for knitting.  If you're doing this with a spool, try the same maneuver from the other end.  If this end twists less, then mark the cardboard tube in the center as the "right side" of the spool.  Either spools or cones can be mounted sideways ad unrolled so that no twist is either inserted or removed then the yarn is unwound.

Fri, 05/03/2013 - 03:32

mrdubyah (not verified)

A 3/2 cotton yarn is 3 hanks plied twice.  One hank of cotton is 840 yards so a 3/2 cotton will have 3 x 840 or 2,520 yards per pound but that has to be divided by 2 because it's a two ply.  2,520 divided by 2 = 1,260 yards per pound.  That's how weavers measure yarn. In knitting, that would be a DK weight, which typically ranges from 1,000 - 1,400 yards per pound.  It's a little heavy for sport weight, which typically ranges from 1,300 - 1,800 yards per pound.  See more conversions at http://www.spinderellas.com/Yarn%20Weights%20and%20Measures.pdf