Difference Between Yarn and Thread

Yarn vs Thread
 

You have heard about both yearn and thread, and you feel what each term means. You have seen how your mother used a spool of thread to stitch a button on your school shirt and knit your sports sweater full of warmth. But wait for a second to think about it and you would find that despite being similar, there are subtle differences between yarn and thread that are visible in not just appearance but also their uses. This article attempts to highlight the differences between thread and yarn.

Yarn

Yarn is continuous interlocked thread like structure made of several fibers. It can be used to make fabrics, knit sweaters, crochet, weave etc. It can even be used to make ropes and to mend fences. For different uses, different yarns are used. Thus to make apparels for warmth, yarn made of wool is used while to make ropes where strength is required, yarn made of cotton or bamboo is used. For making yarn, several plies are interlinked together in a twisting pattern to make them thick and create a strong yarn. A yarn is obviously much strong and thicker than a single thread. Sometimes yarn can be soft, as when wool is used to make it for knitting pullovers.

A yarn is classified depending upon the direction of the final twist. Thus, we have s-twist yarn while there is also z-twist yarn. However, when there is a single thread in a yarn, obviously the final twist is same as the original twist.

Thread

A thread is a long fiber made of different materials mostly used in sewing. It could be cotton, nylon, silk, polyester, rayon, or wool. Thickness of a thread is an important criterion and weight of one kilometer length of the thread tells one about the thinness of the thread (or its thickness). The longer the length to weigh 1 kg, the thinner is the thread. Thread is a type of yarn which is twisted ply.