Hilado

Hilado is the process of turning staple fibers into yarn, and the yarn produced is also referred to as hilado in Spanish. It encompasses twisting fibers together to form a continuous strand that can be used in weaving, knitting, and sewing. The term covers both the technical operation and the resulting yarn.

Across fibers, preparation includes opening, cleaning, and blending; carding aligns fibers into a sliver; combing may be applied to produce a smooth, parallel fiber ribbon in worsted systems. Slivers are drafted and drawn, then twisted in a spinning operation to produce yarn; the yarn is wound onto bobbins, cones, or packages for further processing such as knitting or weaving.

Common spinning methods include ring spinning, open-end (rotor) spinning, and older systems such as the mule. Ring spinning typically yields finer, stronger yarns; rotor spinning is high-speed and efficient for coarser yarns; open-end spinning generally requires less twist and is widely used for many synthetic fibers.

Hilado uses natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk, flax) and synthetic or man-made fibers (polyester, nylon, viscose). The choice of fiber and processing determines yarn properties such as strength, elasticity, uniformity, and appearance. For wool and its blends, there are two main families: worsted (combed, smooth) and woolen (carded, fluffy).

Historically central to the textile industry, hilado advanced with machines during the Industrial Revolution, including the spinning jenny, water frame, and ring frame. Today, hilado production is highly automated in mills, with quality control and standardized yarn counting systems (such as tex, cotton count, or denier) to specify thickness.