Silk Yarns

Silk yarns are composed of a number of silk filaments twisted together, usually 8 to 12 to form a thread. The filaments have a natural coating of gum which gives strength and elasticity, but reduces lustre. The gum must be boiled off if lustre is wanted, which may be done either in the yarn state or when woven in cloth. Silk yarns are divided into two classes, " thrown silk" and " spun silk," the first being yarns that are made by the processes of reeling and throwing, and the second consisting of yarns spun from waste silk. Thrown Silk, or Net Silk comprises organzine and tram yarns, organzine being made from the most perfect cocoons and used for warps. Tram is made from the inferior cocoons and used as weft. All silk contains a proportion of natural gum, and the amount of gum removed give rise to the following terms: - Boiled-off Silk - Yarn which has had all the gum removed, and has the highest sheen (see Boiled-off). Hard Silk - Yarn that has not undergone any boiling-off process. Ecru Silk - Yarn boiled to remove about 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the gum by light washing in lukewarm water. Souple Silk - Yarn boiled to remove about one-sixth of the gum. Bengal Silk - See Bengal Silk. Berlin Silk - A silk yarn made for fancy hand work. It is produced by doubling from 4 to 8 twisted singles grege by a right-hand twist; then again doubling three of these with a left-hand twist. The thread is very round, smooth, and hard, also known as cordon-net. Blond Silk - A special silk yarn made by doubling three grege threads left-hand twist, then doubling three of these together with right-hand twist. Brights - Silk which has been entirely de-gummed in the skein and then dyed. Bourette, Bourrette Yarn - A low grade of silk yarn made from the waste produced by schappe spinning. Canton Silk - See Canton Silk. Chiffon Twist - Single raw silk threads, 50 or more turns per inch. Used for chiffons, crepe-de-chines, etc. Crepe-de-Chine - Hard twist tram silk, about 40 to 70 turns per inch. Made from 3 to 5 raw silk ends. Usually woven as weft. Crepe Georgette - Hard twist raw silk usually made from two threads 13/15 deniers, 50 or more turns, both right and left twist, used for crepe georgettes as warp and weft. Crepe Twist - This is tram silk hard twisted, having from 30 to 100 turns per inch. Used for making fabrics of a crepe character both all silk and mixtures. Cordonnet Silk - See Berlin Silk; also under Cordonnet. Eri Silk - A raw silk obtained from the wild silkworm " Attacus ricini." Flock Silk - A general term used to indicate silk yarns made from the outer uneven parts of the cocoon. Floss Silk - Used principally for embroidery purposes. It is a thrown silk and made by doubling two thick raw singles with right-hand twist together with a left-hand twist. Galette Silk - A coarse silk yarn made from waste. Grenadine Silk - Organzine silk with a large number of turns per inch. Jaspe Silk - Silk warps printed in the hank. Ombre Silk - Skein dyed yarn in a gradation of shades, which run in sequence of depth of colour, varying from five up to forty shades. Schappe Silk - A spun silk yarn which is made from silk degummed by the maceration process used on the Continent (see Schappe Silk). Soie Ondee - See Soie Ondee. Silk Yarns - In addition to the foregoing yarns see under the following terms for further silk yarns: - Cable, Cevennes, Chappe, Chine, Clochepeid, Crocheting, Crue (see Ecru), Cuite Cusier, Cusirino, Degummed, Docken, Doup-pion. Ecru, Embroidery, Etschingo, Filature, Filature a 1'Europeune, Filet, Florette, Fringe, Goffered, Grege, Gum Hainin, Hard, Kahing, Knitting, Lousy, Marabout, Maybasch, Melange, Mele, Mi-cuit, Minchcw, Nett, Noil, Organzine, Ouvrees, Oval, Pearlina, Pel, Pelo, Poie, Pure dye Silk, Raw (see Grege), Re-reels, Retorse, Senegal, Sewing, Simonita, Soft Singles, Soie Ondee, Souple, Spun, Steeped, Strafilato, Stumba, Thrown, Tors San File, Tram, Tramette, Tsatlees, Tussah, Twist, Washed, Zaguri.

These are composed of two or more untwisted singles, doubled together with just sufficient twist required to bind the filaments so as to prevent them from forming loops in the thread. The yarn is very soft.

Plain weave silk fabric dyed in all colours. Spun silk yarns are used and two-fold in the warp, single weft. Used for underwear and dresses.

Silk noils may be divided into two major divisions, i.e., Schappe noils, produced on the Continent, and English noils. The broad difference is that whereas the former are not free from the natural gum of the silkworm, the latter have the gum fully discharged. Owing to the difference of the processes of which they are the outcome, the English noil is whiter and longer than the schappe noil. The English noil in its turn is of two kinds "long" and "exhaust." The long noil is the simple by-product of the flat-dressing frame, and the exhaust (or short) noil has been recombed and is more " neppy " than the material from which it came. All silk noils, long or short, schappe or English, may be divided into " white " and " tussah " according as they are the produce of one kind of silk or the other. The white has many sub-divisions (" China " and " Italian," " Steam," etc.) and the tussah may be light or dark brown according as its origin is Chinese or Indian waste silk. These noils, after spinning, appear as noil yarns, which are useful among other purposes as striping yarn for cheap tweeds. They are also useful substitutes for " spun " silk at three to four times the price. Noils are used in the production of fancy effects by Continental spinners of the so-called " imitation " yarns. And in Yorkshire silk noils are periodically required by costume and dress tweed makers for procuring " knop " or snowflake effects in cheap woollens. For this purpose the " short " or " exhaust " noil is preferable to the " long " and in some circumstances the short or re-combed noil fetches a higher price than the intrinsically better noil containing the long fibre.

See Denier. Spun silk counts are based on the 840 yards hank, as in cotton, but in folded yarns the finished count is used, not the single count, with the number of component threads placed after the actual count resulting from the doubling. Thus 40/2 has 40 hanks of 840 yards in i-lb. and is composed of two threads of 80's single. Dram System - The weight of 1,000 yards in drams gives the counts, thus if 1,000 yards weighs 6 drams it is known as " 6-dram silk." This is known as the Manchester method of thrown silk counting. Another system is the number of yards per ounce, thus 25,000 organzine or tram yarn means 25,000 yards per ounce, and is that used in Yorkshire. The expression 12/14 as applied to silk yarn counts means that the yarn is not lighter than 12 denier, nor heavier than 14 denier, the average being 13

A very narrow woven fancy silk braid having a pearl edge and made of dyed yarns, in all colours. Sold in skeins for embroidery work.

These are silk yarns mainly used for warps. Care is taken not to give too much twist, since the twisting reduces the lustre. Organzine is produced by slightly twisting together several filaments, and then twisting two or more such singles together to form the required yarn. The first is Z twist, the doubling is S twist. The turns vary from 9 up to 30 per inch according to the fabrics the yarn is to be used for. Satins require a fairly soft twist of 10 to 11 turns, yarn for velvet about 15 to 20, and grenadines, voiles, etc., up to 30. Organzine was first produced in Italy and not till 1718 did English silk spinners make a silk strong enough for warp (see silk yarns)

Silk yarns produced by taking the single threads from the cocoons and throwing several of them into the required count of yarn. The term is a general one to distinguish thrown silk yarns from those that are spun.

The French term for raw silk yarns run together without twist. It is reeled from cocoons and used either as it is or when converted into tram or organzine by throwing. ———————— A term applied to the filaments produced by silkworms in the form of cocoons. The term also applies to the threads produced by reeling the filaments from a number of cocoons together. Each filament (bave) consists of two fibres (brins) joined together by gum and the length varies from about 500 to over 1,200 yards. Various counts ranging from 8/10 denier to 20/22 denier are reeled, 13/15 denier is the most usual and this is produced by reeling from five cocoons. It has no twist. There are nine different qualities of Bombyx Mori silk in commerce, whether from Japan, China, Italy or India. They are: - Bons Cocoons, Cocoons Pointus, Cocoons Foibles, Cocoons Doubles, Cocoons Satines Goufflons. Cocoons Ouverts. Cocoons Chiques, Cocoons Taches, Dragles.

(See Silk Yarns). Silk yarn made from the outer parts of the cocoons.

The French term for raw silk yarns run together without twist. It is reeled from cocoons and used either as it is or when converted into tram or organzine by throwing.

A defect in either silk yarns or silk fabrics, and applies to the light-coloured specks on the surface caused by the fibres splitting and curling up.

A very soft, thin and pure silk fabric, native-made in India and dyed in all colours. Woven 37-in. wide of cultivated silk yarns in many qualities.

A beautiful brocaded silk fabric, woven at Bijapur, Bombay, on hand looms from native silk yarns. The design shows the flowers of the Calatropis Gigantea. The fabric is chiefly used at wedding ceremonies.

A silk dress fabric in which furrows are formed across the piece. Fine silk yarns are used and very fine set. The furrow cords are formed by using four or five picks together of thick cotton yarn. A good example is woven from a printed warp, 200 ends and 60 picks per inch, with 12 cords per inch in the weft, 26 denier warp, 52 denier weft, cords 5 threads 24's cotton.

A silk dress cloth made in Bombay Presidency from cultivated silk yarns in satin weave.

See Silk Yarns.

See Silk Yarns.

Raw silk yarns imported from North China, of superior quality, white colour, very uniform in size. Derived from Bombyx Mori. Also applied to plain weave silks of China.

See silk yarns.