Textile Structure
how cloth is put together
Field

Setting and geometry

Yarn diameter, crimp and cover. How close threads can be set, why thread count is not what it is taken for, and which model produced any number.
100 ends and 100 picks per inch in bothfine yarncover 78%coarser yarncover 97%cover from diameter and spacing, circular sections

Thread count is not quality

It counts threads. It says nothing about how much of the cloth they cover, it can be inflated by counting plies, and it ranks fabrics in nearly the wrong order. The quantity it is mistaken for is cover factor, and that one is computable.

 as wovenwarp crimp 8.0% · weft 4.0%pulled 3% along the warpwarp crimp 4.9% · weft 7.1%warp thread 108.0 and weft 104.0 — unchanged in bothboth thread lengths checked, not assumed3% pull

Crimp, and why cloth narrows when it is pulled

A thread in cloth is longer than the cloth it crosses. Pull the fabric one way and that extra length is taken out of one direction and put into the other, so the cloth gets narrower without a single fibre stretching.

 weaveinterlacingsdensest settingplain1.0020 per inch2/2 basket0.5027 per inch2/1 twill0.6724 per inch2/2 twill0.5027 per inch3/1 twill0.5027 per inch5-end satin0.4029 per inch8-end satin0.2532 per incha geometric jamming model, circular sections, yarn diameter 1/40 inch

How close can threads be set

There is a maximum. Push more threads into a cloth than the geometry allows and they simply will not go, and the limit depends on the weave as much as on the yarn.

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