Comments on: How Do You Pronounce Skein?

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:12:27 +0000

I’m a third generation California and learned to crochet from my mother and grandmother. They always pronounced it “skeen.” I hadn’t heard it pronounced “skane” until I moved to Oregon.

By: Panya

Panya — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 01:14:20 +0000

@ Carol Scott — I usually call that ‘crochet thread’ or ‘embroidery thread’ — sometimes just ‘thread’ if it’s obvious which type I’m talking about [i.e. not the type for sewing]. I also see it called ‘floss’ or ‘embroidery floss’, but I never say that myself.

By: Carol Scott

Carol Scott — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:03:28 +0000

Honestly, I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way but ‘skane’, and wouldn’t have even considered another pronunciation. I suppose that’s because my mother, both of my grandmothers and several aunts and great-aunts were crafters, so I’d heard many of them referring to the skeins as ‘skanes’ ever since I was an infant. Another crochet material with multiple names appears to be the thinner, doily-making substance, which my relatives always referred to as ‘crochet cotton’, but which younger women nowadays simply call thread. That bothers me because there’s a definite differentiation between this and what is commonly referred to as thread. Has anyone else run into this contradiction?

By: Na No Da

Na No Da — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:18:31 +0000

I called it a “seeking” like sea king the Pokemon lol. But that’s because I’m mildly dyslectic so my brain adds letters that aren’t there. I finally bothered to look up how to pronounce it because I knew I was saying it wrong. Lucky me I usually just call it yarn! I only recently read the word on a web comic about knitting or else I wouldn’t even know of the word. And thank you Panya for the “rein & vein” it makes much more sence now when I look at it!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:21:00 +0000

I pronounced it skin at first but i think i’ll pronounce it skane for now on lol.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:21:13 +0000

My mother always called it “a thing of yarn.” She only ever used RHSS, and never gave me a colorway name when she sent me to get it, but I knew enough about color shades to know the distinction between “a thing of baby blue yarn” and “a thing of light blue yarn.”

Sometimes I call it a skein (and I pronounce it skane), and sometimes I call it a ball. Having grown up with a skein of yarn being as big as my forearm and 300+ yards, calling that little 102-yard string of Patons Silk Bamboo a “skein” just seems silly!

By: kaylee

kaylee — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:50:07 +0000

i have always pronounced it as “skeen” as that is the only way i have ever heard it pronounced

By: Karin

Karin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:45:26 +0000

I say it like “scan”

By: Raidell

Raidell — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:10:45 +0000

I used to pronounce it “skine” (rhymes with “nine” and “stein”), but my parents corrected me and said it was “skane”, so that’s how I’ve pronounced it since.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:54:53 +0000

I grew up in California. It is Skane here. I have heard Hank but that was something we had to wind off into a ball.