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Monday, May 16, 2011

Pearl Cotton vs Crochet Thread Sizing

When designing crochet jewelry, I am partial to thin yarn/thread because the finer the thread, the more delicate the finished piece of jewelry. I used crochet thread for years, but one day tried embroidery thread (also called embroidery floss) and was instantly hooked.

If you live in the US, embroidery thread is found in craft stores in the sewing/embroidery section. It comes in a mind-boggling array of beautiful colors. Often time the store will have row upon row of this stuff. And .. it is extremely inexpensive.

For those who may be confused on embroidery thread vs. crochet thread for knitting or crochet, the important thing to remember is that crochet thread and embroidery thread run on different sizing systems. Both are mostly 100% cotton. Here are the nearest equivalents:

* #5 pearl/perle cotton is a little thicker than #10 crochet thread, but is suitable for most #10 cotton patterns.
* #8 pearl/perle cotton is about the same as #20 crochet thread.
* #12 pearl/perle cotton is about the same as #40 crochet thread.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this! I just bought some size 12 pearl cotton, thinking it was a bit lighter than size 10 crochet thread...well! It's ALOT lighter...I wanted size 20 crochet thread in black, but they only had white & ecru in size 20, so I thought this would be a good compromise...WRONG! It's hard enough trying to do tatting with size 20 or 30, but 40 would likely be impossible for these aged eyes!

Rebecca said...

Thanks for clearing that up! I was confused about the sizing in reference to using per2521le cotton with Irish crochet..

magicmau5 said...

I just bought some size 5 Perle cotton thread so I was wondering what crochet thread size it was equivalent to...thank you very much for listing that information for us! I really appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

I’m looking to get into bobbin lacing, and I saw somewhere size 30 crochet thread was recommended, and somewhere else size 30 or Pearl cotton size 12 was recommended. Are they close enough?