Short fibres containing crushed pupa left behind after making higher quality spun silk are made into noil yarn. The shortness of fibre length results in a lack of lustre and body. This is lower quality spun yarn using the same metric count system as the above spun silk. Noil has the strongest silk odour due to impurities in the yarn. The majority of the smell dissipates after washing, but can return again when wet.
Higher quality noil yarns are easy to use. It is a good practice to tug on a noil yarn to be sure of its practicality as a warp. The majority of plied noils can be used for warp but most single-ply noil yarns are too easily broken to withstand warping, though work well as weft.
Twist and ply
Within each type of yarn there are variations of twist and ply which give them different characteristics suitable for different purposes. Sheen is affected by twisting and plying. A yarn surface with the least interruptions will reflect the light for optimum sheen. The more twists and plies in the yarn, the more the surface is broken so there is less sheen.
Pilling
Plies and twists have a lot to do with how readily a silk yarn will pill or pull.
Pilling occurs with many good yarns that contain short fibres: cashmere, merino, qiviut and spun silk. Through use, the shortest fibres work their way to the surface, break off and form a little sticky pill. Plied yarns pill less than singles and yarns with more twist pill less than loosely twisted yarns. Gassing is the process of running the finished yarn through a flame at very high speed to burn off the fuzz which helps prevent pilling. All of our yarns have been gassed.
Pilling is not an issue with reeled silk as only long fibres are used. However, these yarns are not without their own troubles. The heavier reeled yarns available to handweavers are made of numerous fine filaments. The rough edge of a table or jewellery clasp can easily catch just a few of the filaments. Yarns with a tighter twist will help avoid that problem.
Both spun and reel yarns can be twisted into a cord, which is a plied yarn with a firmer twist. These yarns have less chance of pilling or pulling, but make a slightly stiffer cloth.