What is the difference between 8/4 and 8/8 cotton yarn?

The terms 8/4 and 8/8 indicate the thickness and length of cotton yarn. The number in front of the hyphen indicates the thickness of the cotton that the yarn is made of, whereas the number after the hyphen indicates how many strands/ply - or yarn fibres - the yarn is spun from. You can use these numbers to assess how much yarn you will be needing for a project.

At both 8/4 and 8/8, the cotton yarn is therefore spun from cotton with a thickness 8. The difference between the two designations is thus that one type is spun from 4 ply, while the other is spun from 8 ply.

8/8 cotton yarn is therefore thicker than 8/4, as it is spun with twice as many strands. This impacts the yarn length of the two types, as cotton yarn is typically available in skeins of 50 grams. In general, the yarn length of 8/4 cotton yarn is 170 meters, while the length of 8/8 is around 75 meters.

Cotton Yarn

Up to 90%