My 1973 edition of the 1954 book âThe Modern Textile & Apparel Dictionary by Professor George E Linton published in USA (He was a textiles teacher and Dean of the textile department of Fashion Institute in New York) at describes a skein as âan appreciable length of yarn or thread that has been wound onto a reel or swift⦠the circumference of a skein varies, usually from 44 inches to 54 inchesâ¦..
That is describing a skein as being in the same format a s a hank. He does not mention the centre pull rolls, balls, cakes etc, but it does now seem to be common parlance in USA to describe centre pull balls as skeins. In UK the work skein is used more often for the small coils of embroidery cottons which if you are very careful with itâs possible to pull a length without taking the label off. Thatâs how language evolves. Or ask my husband, he would say itâs a group of flying geese! Brenda > On 7 Nov 2015, at 04:44, <robinl...@socal.rr.com> <robinl...@socal.rr.com> wrote: > > As we started getting more varieties of yarns, we got more varieties of shapes of skeins. We have balls (some but not all allowing center-pull), hanks (the English skein, I guess), cones (those used to be for weavers), 'cakes' (short cylinders, diameter greater than length) and what-not. My experience is that 'skein' refers to the fact that there is a specific quantity of yarn gathered together in an orderly shape, and the other terms refer to the shape of the skein. Even hand-spun and other non-commercial or boutique yarns can be in 'skeins' usually in the shape of hanks or cakes. This would be because ball-winders make cakes and swifts make hanks, and those are the most commonly-available machines for winding skeins. Brenda in Allhallows paternos...@appleshack.com www.brendapaternoster.co.uk - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
