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Aba
A fabric woven from the hair of camels or goats. A loose sleeveless outer garment worn as traditional dress by men in the Middle East. If you are not sure where the Middle East is located, you may wish to find a map from our World section.

Abaca
A naturally occurring fiber found in the stem of the abaca plant. A member of the banana family, Musa Textilis. The fiber is also called Manila hemp, and is used extensively in the manufacture of marine cordage, abrasive backing papers, tea bags, and other products requiring high tensile strength.

Accent / novelty yarns
These yarns are very fine and are not intended to be used by them; they are intended to be knit with another yarn and will provide additional color and texture to a finished fabric. They do possibly change the gauge of your fabric, so a swatch is recommended whenever you are going to use an accent yarn to make the necessary adjustment to your needle size.

Acrylic fiber
A quick-drying synthetic textile fiber made by polymerization of acrylonitrile usually with other monomers.

Adhesives
an essential part of the manufacturing process for a variety of apparel applications ranging from applying labels, decorative trim and waterproofing tapes to innovative solutions like stitch less garment construction.

Aiguillette aglet
Specifically, a shoulder cord worn by designated military aides

Amice
A liturgical vestment made of an oblong piece of cloth usually of white linen and worn about the neck and shoulders and partly under the alb.

Alb
A full-length white linen ecclesiastical vestment with long sleeves that is gathered at the waist with a cincture

Alençon
A delicate needlepoint lace.

Allover
An embroidered, printed, or lace fabric with a design covering most of the surface (allover the surface).

Alpaca
True alpaca is a hair fiber form the Alpaca animal, a member of the Ilama family of the South American Andes Mountains. Also imitated in wool, wool and alpaca, rayon, mohair and rayon or cotton and a cotton warp and alpaca filling also synthetics - e.g. Orlon. Fine, silk-like, soft, light weight and warm. Has much lustre and a resembles mohair. If guard hairs are used it is inclined to be boards. It is strong and durable. True alpaca is expensive so often combined with other fibers or imitated by other fibers - e.g. Orlon.

Amaranthine
The color of amaranth, i.e., red.

Amber
A variable color averaging a dark orange yellow.

American Upland Cotton
Currently representing the bulk of the world crop, American Upland fiber runs between 3/4" and 1 1/4". If you want to learn more about cotton, you can visit our Cotton section.

Amethyst
A variable color averaging a mod purple.It is also the birth stone for the month of February.

Angora [Goat / Rabbit]
(Goat) Soft long hair of the Angora goat, often called Mohair. The goat is native to Anatolia in the Angora province of Turkey but is extensively raised today in Texas by western ranchers. (Rabbit): Hair from the Angora rabbit. Often blended and mixed with wool to lower the price of the finished article or to obtain fancy or novelty effects.

Anklet
A short sock reaching slightly above the ankle. If you are looking for sock factories, click here.

Anthrax
A disease known as "wool sorters disease". Mohair, Camel's hair, Alpaca, and Cashmere most liable to carry infection. Both men and animals subject to this infectious disease, which develops a virulent ulcer and high fever. It localizes in the skin or lungs and sometimes in the intestines. Not always fatal. When confined to skin alone, a cure is usually affected.

Application identifier:
A numeric prefix to a UCC/EAN-128 code that defines the encoded data to follow. These are generally used as secondary codes to provide information not included in standard U.P.C. numbering, such as product dates, weights and lot/batch numbers. It may also identify a UCC serial shipping container code.

Apricot
A variable color averaging a mod orange.

Apron
A garment of cloth, plastic, or leather tied around the waist and used to protect clothing or adorn a costume

Aqua
A light greenish blue.

Aquamarine
A pale blue to light greenish blue.

Arctic
A rubber overshoe reaching to the ankle or above

Argent
the heraldic color silver or white.

Argyle
A sock knit in an argyle pattern, namely varicolored diamonds on a solid background color

Armband
A band usually worn around the upper part of a sleeve for identification or in mourning

Armlet
A band, as of cloth or metal, worn around the upper arm

Armor defensive
Covering for the body, generally made of metal, used in combat. Usually thought of as armor worn in medieval times. Bullet proof clothing can be considered as modern day armor.

Armure
Fiber can be of cotton, silk, wool, rayon, synthetics, and blends. Plain, twill, or rib, background often has a small design either jacquard or dobby made with warp floats on surface giving a raised effect. Design is often in two colors and rose. The name was derived from original fabric which was woven with a small interlaced design of chain armor and used for military equipment during the Crusades.

Art linen
Plain weave. It is woven with even threads that are especially good for embroidery. It is very easy to "draw" the yarns for drawn thread work. Comes bleached, or colored. Has a soft finish.

Ascot
A broad neck scarf that is looped under the chin

Ashen
Resembling ashes (as in color).

Astrakhan
A cloth with a usually wool, curled, and looped pile resembling karakul, namely the tightly curled glossy coat of the newborn lamb of a breed of hardy fat-tailed sheep from Uzbekistan with a narrow body and coarse wiry fur. Poor grades often have cotton warp or back. Good grades woven with a pile weave and cut. Cheap grades are knitted. Resembles astrakhan fur. Deep pile with curled loops. Durable and warm.

Auburn
A moderate brown.

Avocado
A light yellowish green.

Azure
The blue color of the clear sky.