The day after epiphany is traditionally celebrated as St Distaff’s Day. This is when women would have returned to their never ending spinning work after a break over the Christmas period. Whilst women and girls had to return to their tools, men and boys were allowed to play pranks on St Distaff’s Day – including trying to set fire to the flax or dressed distaff. I won’t repeat everything already published online – but the bookofdays.com has the most comprehensive descriptions of traditions on this spinning day – including the poem by Robert Herrick (1648) titled ‘St Distaff’s Day’.
So in honour of St Distaff’s Day, here is a short video of me spinning long line flax. I am using a traditional pole distaff which attaches to my Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel (one of the few spinning wheel manufacturers who offer a distaff attachment). Most spinners prefer to dress long line flax on a cage or cone distaff – the dressed distaff looks more candy floss like, and fibres are drafted in a random arrangement.
I prefer to simply dress my distaff and attach the flax so it hangs straight down, if you have put in the muscle effort to hackle your flax strick into a shiny ponytail, anything but seems a waste. This type of flax dressing on the distaff is often linked with a French style for spinning long line flax – it produces a sleeker, finer linen yarn often associated with fine linen cambric’s (linen from Cambrai). I am using boiled flax seed to moisten my fingers – flax is always better spun wet. I will do another post later to confirm the length and weight of spun yarn in order to work out the linen count.
So Happy St Distaff’s Day to all spinners and crafters! I don’t know about you, but I kept spinning and weaving over the Christmas period – its such a cozy thing to do on winter evenings. This highlights how spinning in particular used to be an essential daily task but has now become a pleasure activity over the centuries as clothing and textile manufacture has become more mechanised.