This is 300 meters of conductive yarn spun from a stainless steel polyester fiber blend and wound on a spool. You can use it as a creative way to knit or crochet various electronics onto clothing projects or even making great stretch sensors. This large 100g spool is a great way to get into wearable electronics without a large upfront cost and a large enough quantity to not be afraid of making a few mistakes.
This yarn is extremely pliable and soft to the touch so there should be no worry of loss of comfort when incorporating it into your next e-textiles project. Each spool of this Nm10/3 conductive yarn is composed of a 80% polyester 20% stainless steel blend, has a breaking load of 8094g, and has a surface resistance of <104Ω.
Note: This may not be the thread you are looking for. If you are looking to sew conductive fibers into your project (instead of knitting or crocheting), conductive thread can be found here or in the Recommended Products section below.
Whether it's for assembling a kit, hacking an enclosure, or creating your own parts; the DIY skill is all about knowing how to use tools and the techniques associated with them.
Skill Level: Rookie - Basic hand tools are required and instructions will allow more freedom. You may need to make your own decisions on design. If sewing is required, it will be free-form.
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The yarn is definitely conductive with all of the smart screens that I tested it on responding very, very well. There is one thing that you do need to be aware of for this purpose in particular: It's a fine yarn, only a little thicker than lace-weight but not quite a true fingering weight. What this means is that if you want WARM fingertips for your gloves, I recommend stitching the conductive yarn to the tips after you've knitted them up with something warming. That's what I did, and it works beautifully.
It's nice to have something to crochet with, but I'd classify this more as twine than yarn. It twists up on itself like mad, more than any fiber wound on a cone I'm ever worked with. A necessary annoyance? Hm. I have to think there is a different brand. But hey, how else would I be able to crochet a conductive doily?
Made from the wool of electric sheep? ;-)
Well, not exactly. It's from sheep with stainless steel wool. Steel wool sheep have been around for a long time, as you no doubt know, since that is a primary source of pot scrubbers. Stainless wool, however, has been more difficult. But an Australian university has successfully gene-spliced steel wool sheep to emit Scotch-Guard from their lanoline glands, so now we have stainless steel wool.
An android can only dream
I just got some today, so in case anyone is wondering:
1) It is a "fingering weight" yarn, ie: pretty fine. Sock or "baby" weight, don't be thinking chunky sweaters.
2) A single strand is not very stretchy. I was hoping it would go through our knitting machine (Passap model 80), and I still plan to try, but knitting machines need a yarn with some stretch to it, otherwise they tend to jam up. So I think this is a hand-knitting yarn. Making a stretchy cord or such is probably best done by spool knitting some of this up in to a tube. Will report on knitting machine when I have to to experiment, but it won't be for at least a week.
Looks like fun stuff.
1) so about a 1 weight by most guides? Good, that's the heaviest that I like making lace from. I can work with worsted weight, but it takes about 3 times as much yarn for the same project. 2) if it isn't stretchy, I guess that rules out using it for tatted lace. Pulling a ring tight seems like it could snap this from the description and your comment. Guess that leaves bobbins for me (you other folks can crochet and knit). Once I finish my bobbin collection (thinking epoxy casting so I can get 100 bobbins in the next month) this will go on the wish list and see what happens. I've got a project in mind already.
Er... umm.... there are so many yarn weight designations and they seem to conflict, and I've never learned them very well -- so I'm not sure what a '1 weight' really is. This stuff is more like a heavy embroidery thread, it seems to me, althogh I've never done embroidery. Another thing I've never done is tatting or lace making. If you must have stretch, it might be a problem. But actually one of the first things I thought when I saw this was "this is a good weight for lace". As long as you like the color :/ If the bobbin method of lace making doesn't need stretch then you might give this a go.
A 1 weight is, by all the guides I've seen, about 'fingering weight'. I guessed the number by your description; but you are right that no two designations ever agree. And I prefer a bit of stretch, like normal cotton, for tatting. I use the needle method, and find it just works better. But I might be able to use this as the center thread and something else to be the visible part . . . okay, can't let my brain wander in the middle of posting. But if someone else thought it was a good weight for lace, it's worth a shot. As for color, that's what dye is for.
Bobbin lace, I learned to make with linen thread; much much finer than most yarns even designate. Only slightly thicker than sewing thread (which I've used for both types of lace before). On the plus side, patterns can use a "gimp thread" that is often bigger and either shiny or another color to accent the pattern. And since I just got 120 wood bobbins real cheap, it's time to start some glowing projects. I had been thinking to use some EL wire through a few patterns, guess I'll see what works when the next order gets placed.
Thanks for the replies about the thread. And sorry for hijacking a bit, I take any excuse to teach a little about lace making.
p.s. I wish "gimp thread" wasn't the lace maker term for it's purpose. It's a thread that just sits in the pattern and doesn't do any of the weaving. The social activist in me wishes lace makers could have named it anything else.
There's more than enough here to fly a kite!
but if it gets hit by lightning?
I'm gonna make a conductive sweater! shocked
I am really wondering: surface resistance? what is meant here? I would like to know the resistance per meter when actually using this as a conductor... anyone?
Hmm, I wonder how I could use this in a piece of lace...one conductive thread hidden in a bunch of others? Might work for bobbins, but tatted lace is so tricky to swap a thread in and out.
It's a little on the thick side for tatted lace, but just about perfect for knitted or crocheted lace.