Yarn

Description

A generic term for a continuous strand or thread spun from natural or synthetic fibers and used for knitting or weaving. Yarn is prepared by spinning or twisting loose rovings or filaments of fibers such as cotton, flax, or wool, into a single strand. It can also be made from narrow strips or single strands of glass, metal, plastic, or paper. Heavy yarn can be prepared by twisting multiple single plies together, i.e. a two-ply yarn is made from two singles.

Synonyms and Related Terms

fil (Fr.); Garn (Deut.); garen (Ned.); tråd (Sven.)

Additional Images

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  Spinning jenny

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  Basket of yarn skeins

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 931

• Hoechst Celanese Corporation, Dictionary of Fiber & Textile Technology (older version called Man-made Fiber and Textile Dictionary, 1965), Hoechst Celanese Corporation, Charlotte NC, 1990

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn (Accessed Nov. 29, 2005)

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000