Defining the Width: Rows and Spaces

Because some patterns and techniques may specify either collapsing several threads together to create a thicker working edge or working with interior spaces (spaces that are formed by openings between threads other than Thread 1 and Thread 2), we need a common way to refer to these threads and spaces..

Sashay has 10 threads plus an embellished edge

In Knockout Kreations' Simple Switchin' Headbands, Angelina refers to the spaces between two long threads as "rows of loops". While she begins numbering them from the embellished edge, it is more practical to number them from the working edge, since different yarns have different numbers of threads, and different arrangements of threads, across their widths.

I tend to look at the width-wise spaces of a  yarn through a line perpendicular to the yarn's length. For example, I see either three full spaces across the width of Starbella (marked A, B, and C), or four spaces (a, b, c, and d). Kind of confusing, right?

Starbella Flash has seven threads (plus an embellished edge) - but how many spaces?

In the end, I think Angelina has the right of the count, while not of the order:  if we number our width-wise spaces based on the thread count, the confusion disappears, even if those spaces seem to progress in a zig-zag faxhion:

Starbella Flash - The threads are numbered yellow; the spaces, white.

Space 1 is formed by threads 1 and 2; space 2 is formed by threads 2 and 3; space 3 is formed by threads 3 and 4, and so on. By this method, Sashay has 10 spaces, Pirouette has 6, and the smaller-holed Twist & Twirl, 28.

Spaces in Sashay

Piroutte has six spaces
plus a three-row embellished edge

Twist & Twirl has 28 spaces

It may be easier to envision the spaces as forming a sort of diagonal across the width of the yarn, as you can see in this sample of Trendsetter Yarns' Flamenco.

Spaces in Flamenco (Trendsetter)