Back in the day I thought that yarn was yarn. All you had to do was choose your favorite color of Red Heart, right? Well, the world of yarn has opened up for me and I am now an official 'yarn snob'.
So today I am thinking about twist. Z twist and S twist specifically.
Most yarn you find is a S twist yarn. That means that the singles are spun clockwise and then plyed counter-clockwise. See how the slant of the yarn is in the same direction as the S. This is the yarn preferred by most American style knitters. But for crocheters and European style knitters, it is less than ideal.
If you crochet or knit European and notice that your singles tend to seperate and untwist, that is because the yarn you are using is made for western knitting.
Now that you know the problem, what can you do about it.
Many crocheters that I know solved the problem by learning to spin their own yarn and making it with a Z twist. For a Z twist yarn, spin the singles counter-clockwise and ply clockwise.
