Heddle Sizes

To determine what size heddle to use with your warp yarn, wrap the yarn around a ruler for 1/2" and count the number of times it wraps. That's the same number  DPI heddle you would want to use for that yarn.

Here's a fabulous video by my favorite weaver, PattyAnne, showing just how to do it. She shows wrapping for 1 inch and then dividing by 2 for the heddle size, but you can wrap for 1/2 inch which is basically the same thing but without the math.

Yarn Sizes

8/4 Cotton: What does that mean?

These numbers tell you the weight, yardage, and number of strands in the yarn.  The industry standard is based on a single strand of cotton that has 840 yards in a pound. A 1/1 yarn would have a single strand of cotton and in one pound of it, would measure 840 yards.

In 8/4 yarn, the top number tells us the size of the threads. In 8/4 the thread used is 8 times thinner than the industry standard so you end up with 6720 YPP (840 * 8). The higher this number, the thinner the thread and more yards per pound. The bottom number, the 4,  tells us the ply or how many of these threads are used to make up the yarn. An 8/4 yarn would be 4 very thin strands of yarn, which works out to 1680 YPP (6720 / 4).  8/4 yarn is in the "sport weight" category.

Here's a chart to show you the different sized yarns, the weight category and the recommended heddle size.

For more detailed information about setts and if you're trying to determine the size of yarn to use for a heddle that exceeds 10 dpi, give this chart a try:

http://www.fiber2yarn.com/info/sett_chart.htm