Loch's Maple Fiber Mill, Inc.
143 Cokely Road
Springville, Pa 18844

Phone - 570-965-2679
 

www.lochsmaple.com

Yarn Sizes

When we started in this business we soon discovered that there are no reliable industry standards for specifying yarn sizes!

We did a lot of research on this and found a simple standard that works well for us. This measurement is very repeatable and you can easily duplicate it. Basically we verify the number of yarn widths that fit into an inch of space.

This process simply involves wrapping the yarn around a rule or other calibrated stick and counting the number of turns we get per inch. The measurement is called "Wraps Per Inch" or WPI.

The thicker the yarn, the fewer turns we will get in each inch. For example, the the yarn sample in the photo below gave us 7 Wraps Per Inch (the yellow lines were added to the photo to make it easier to see the individual wraps).

You can use this standard to specify the thickness of the yarn you would like us to produces from your fiber.

We keep a calibrated length of dowel in the mill that makes it easier for us to check your yarn, but a ruler will work just as well.

We have found WPI to be a much more consistent measurement than other common measures such as Yards per Pound. The following table shows how WPI relates to other standards you may be familiar with.