Worsted Count Units of Measure for Textile fibers

Worsted count (or spinning count) is an indirect measure of the fineness of the fiber in a worsted wool yarn expressed as the number of 560-yard (512 m) lengths (hanks) of worsted yarn that a pound (0.45 kg) of wool yields. The finer the wool, the more yarn and the higher the count. It has been largely replaced by direct measures.

Spinning count is a measure of fiber fineness and distribution developed by the English. It is defined as the number of hanks of yarn that can be spun from a pound of wool.

• In the textile industry, a hank is to a unit of yarn or twine that is in a coiled or wrapped form (as opposed to other forms such as a ball or a cone or a bobbin or a spool).

A hank of wool is 560 yards long (560 yd/lb = 1.129 km/kg). In theory a pound of 62s wool could produce 34720 yards of yarn.[1] As it is now a relatively simple matter to measure the average fiber diameter and distribution, spinning count is being replaced with the specification of average fiber diameter in micrometers and fiber distribution in standard deviations.