How can you tell what type of yarn is if its missing its label?

Question

I have some that is missing labels and don't know what they are. I don't think they are wool. And its several years old.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Clip a few pieces for testing.



Test 1: Burn test. Follow the precautions at this site: http://www.fiber-images.com/Free_Things/Reference_Charts/free_reference_charts_fiber_content_guide.html. Natural fibers such as silk and wool will smell like burning hair and will burn. Cellulose fibers (rayon, cotton) will smell like burning paper and will burn. Synthetics will melt into a ball.



Test 2: Bleach Test. Put the piece in an ounce of chlorine bleach overnight. If it dissolves, it's wool. If it doesn't, it's acrylic or cotton--but one should be able to tell the difference between acrylic and cotton yarns without this test.

Answer 2

Use the burn test, it won't tell you much about blends, but it will tell you if it's animal, vegetable, or mineral (wools/silk--silk also usually has a distinctive odor, plant fibers like cotton or linen, or petroleum based--acrylics). Without a label you can still figure out the needle size to start with, too. Fold a length of the yarn in half and poke the fold through the holes of a needle gauge. The hole it fits in and fills up completely gives you a starting point for needle size. Knit a gauge square and attach it to your yarns with a 3x5 card of what you determine the fiber to be.

Answer 3

I can usually tell by touching the yarn. I am pretty accurate, but can't tell the difference between 25% or 30% nylon in a yarn, but can tell if it is wool, or cotton, or alpaca, or ackrlic, or something else. After a while, you will get experience with the different fibres.



A friend of mine can smell silk just by walking down the isle in a store. I'm not that good, but can know silk by touching it.



You can do the burn test -- google it (yahoo is being stupid tonight) to tell if it is protein or plant or synthetic material.



Bleach will dissolve wool very fast, and it should dissolve silk too, as well as most protein (animal) fibres. It will remove colour from cotton, but won't do anything to synthetics.

Answer 4

There's really no way of telling. What you might could do is cut off a small strand of it and take it to the store to compare against the yarn they have. But it is probably a different dye lot and they might not carry the same thing anymore. I hope this helped

Answer 5

I'd also look around on eBay and see if you can identify any pictures there as what you have. You could also take photos of them and post links here to see if anyone knows what they are.



Is it in skeins or rolls or what? That can also help identify certain types of yarn. If Aunt Mary already made them all into regular handwound yarn balls, however, this test is pointless.

Answer 6

you could check the next time you are at the store(s) you probably bought it from and see if you see the matching yarn. then just read the label to see what kind it is.

Answer 7

By its strands by how many strings there is and texture