Need a yarn suggestion for a non-knitting use

Hello all. I’m happy to have found this forum and I’m hoping you can help me. I hope I picked the right category, and I apologize if I haven’t.

I don’t knit, so I don’t really know yarn. We use yarn when sailing to tie spinnakers (the big colorful sails) together to make them easier to set. The key, however, is that the yarn must break easily.

Here’s what we’re looking for in yarn:

  • Must break easily
  • It is helpful if it is thicker than fingering (just from a dexterity standpoint).
  • Comes in small (long) skeins, not large skeins, balls or twisted.
  • the less expensive, the better.

Color and composition really don’t matter.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what yarn would be best for this application? And an online source would be great if possible (I’ve had no luck finding anything that will work at places like Michael’s).

Thank you so much! I appreciate the help with this non-knitting issue.

the only thing you post I am not sure what you mean when you say it should be thicker then fingering? Do you mean it should be as thick as a finger?

If it should, I have never seen any that thick at any of the craft stores, usually yarn (that we knit with is very very thing made of just a few strands (the yarn I am working with is made out of 4 stands) You might want to try a hardware store that sells the thicker stuff… Someone may have an idea on here? …

the only thing you post I am not sure what you mean when you say it should be thicker then fingering? Do you mean it should be as think as a finger?

Fingering yarn is the stuff I use to make socks, it’s pretty skinny with 7 or more sts to the inch.

All I can think of is maybe a cotton yarn, but most of the ones I’ve used don’t break that easily. Maybe a twine? They come in various sturdinesses.

Yarn breakage is not a desired quality in knitting/crocheting. I’m not sure you’ll find any yarn that matches this criteria.

Roving might pull apart but I don’t think it would meet any of your other criteria.

Hmmmm . . . I’m thinking if I had a place to sail, I probably wouldn’t knit much either.

A yarn that is “easy to break” is rather relative, doncha think? After all, what might be easy for [U]you[/U] to break, could be really difficult for someone else. So can you tell us what you’ve used before and what you liked and/or didn’t like about it?

Also, is this yarn something that’s thrown away or does it fall into the water on a regular basis? I’m thinking a natural fiber might be better if it’s something that winds up overboard all the time.

Your best bet might be to go to a local yarn store and test out some of their yarns. Then once you find what you’re looking for, you can search for it or a similar type yarn online.

Happy sailing!

P.S. Probably not necessary to add this caveat, but will do so anyway: When I say “test out,” it’s probably not a good idea to go around yanking off pieces of yarn in any store. Someone just might get a little testy!

Thanks for taking the time to reply, folks.

Sorry I should have clarified; when I said fingering I was referring to baby fingering.

As for breakage, I guess that is sort of subjective. In general, I consider it to be a yarn that breaks fairly readily when given a good pull in two hands.

In the past we’ve used the acrylic afghan yarn from Herschnner’s (sp?), but it seems that they only put that in large skeins now, which is rather unwieldy to manage for this use. I was hoping maybe someone knew of something similar.

Most of the yarn ends up right back up on the deck but the occasionally piece does end up in the water so something biodegradable would be a huge plus.

Thank you again.

As you’re looking for yarn in small quantities, Lion BrandBonbons Yarn might be worth considering. I’ve seen it recently at local stores. I thought it was acrylic but when I looked at the page I linked to, I saw that it’s cotton. I wonder, do they also have it in acrylic? Hmmmm.

ETA I looked again and it is available in acrylic also.

You might actually want cotton garden twine. It’s very loosely twisted and soft, will break with a hard pull and comes in poly-wrapped pull balls made to be jammed into a pocket while you’re working.

It seems there ought to be a better way of taking in sails, like a good strap you could attach midway and fasten with a quick-release buckle (one hand will pop it.) That would save the tying and breaking.

Another thought I had is that if you’re really happy with the previous yarn you’re using but don’t like how it’s distributed (I believe you said it was in too large of a skein), you can invest in a yarn ball winder, buy the yarn in bulk, and then just wind off the size balls you need.

Hope you find something that works.