What does ply mean?

When you are looking to choose the right yarn for your knitting or crochet project, it's all about finding a yarn that fits the specific knitting tension. In addition to the thickness of the yarn, in most cases, it is also a question of how many threads - or ply - the yarn is spun with.

Generally, the yarn becomes thicker as the number of threads increases. This means that a yarn with many threads/ply is thick, and a 1-ply yarn is thin. You can find yarns made from up to 12 threads, namely, a 12-ply skein.

The fibres that yarns are spun from differ greatly. You can therefore also find thick yarn that is spun from a single thread if, for example, you choose a bulky wool yarn for a sweater or a chunky rug. However, other yarns, such as cotton yarn, will always be spun from several thin threads because the cotton fibres are not long enough to be spun as loosely as a chunky 1-ply yarn requires.

10 Threads/Ply

12 Threads/Ply

14 Threads/Ply

2 Threads/Ply

4 Threads/Ply

5 Threads/Ply

8 Threads/Ply