Sock Yarn

When I first started reading knitting blogs I was amazed by the amount of passion many knitters feel for their sock yarn of choice.

As I've had the opportunity (and funds) to try many of the sock yarns, I've developed my favorites as well.

  
However, having had the opportunity recently to try some new yarns, I got to wondering why I like some better than others.

The first thing I did was look at the weight of the yarns I had on hand right now.
(This was done quickly and for my benefit... I was not going to archival quality measurements here.)

Fleece Artist Merino                      20 wpi
Koigu KPPPM                                20 wpi
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock         22 wpi
Fleece Artist Seawool                   18 wpi
Sundara's superwash merino          22 wpi
Trekking XXL                                21 wpi

I was actually a bit surprised because Lorna's has always seemed so thin to me.

So I looked a lot more closely at how they are constructed and how tight the spin is:

I think the tighter spin of Trekking and Lorna's explains why it's less cushy.

Anybody have any long term data on how it affect the wear of the yarn?

Comments

[June]

The degree of twist increases the strength of the yarn. Koigu often has lousy wear characteristics because it isn't spun tightly and has no strong fiber (100% wool). The best sock yarn has reinforcing fiber spun into it (nylon or silk, up to 30%) and is spun fine, tight, with multiple plies. The tradeoff, as you suspect, is less air caught between fibers and thus less "cushy."