Cotton fibres can be treated in different ways during spinning, often chemically, to make them lie flat and parallel.The more fibre ends stick out of a twisted yarn the coarser its texture; the more parallel the fibres lie the silkier the yarn. Silk is silky because it is a filament yarn, extruded from a silk worm, and so has no broken ends per length of silk (just like mechanically extruded rayon, polyester, or nylon fishing wire).

Combing cotton through carding rollers gently teases the fibre into a parallel sliver before it is twisted into yarn, laying all the fibres in line.The more times this is repeated the silkier and smoother the finished garment. String vests and pullovers are knit from cotton spun in England and yarn dyed with colours to match the season's garments.