The History of Spindle Spinning

A discussion on the prehistory of spinning, and an understanding of suspended versus supported spindle spinning. A short history of drop spindle spinning.

Recently I have had someone comment that the Kromski drop spindles aren’t historically accurate – they queried the top whorl position, noting that medieval spindles generally have a whorl sited at the bottom of the spindle shaft.  This statement is true, but is only a basic understanding of spindle spinning – the real history is far more varied and interesting.  So lets go back (way back) to a possible beginning, and see what we can uncover about this versatile tool.

How far back exactly? Elizabeth Wayland Barber suggests that we need to time travel all of the way back to prehistory around 20,000B.C to the Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age).[1]  Roughly about this time humans realise that if they twist plant fibers together that they can create string/rope/twine.  Archaeologists can guess this as during this time needles become common, as do beads which suggest having some sort of string for sewing.  The first actual physical cordage discovered comes from the famous Lascaux painted caves in France dated to 15,000 B.C.[2] 

Early types of string or cordage would have possibly been made by rolling plant fibres down your thigh.  At some point (we don’t know when) in the journey for greater efficiency people would have realised the usefulness of using a stick to help twist the fibres, and possibly wind the string up on. The thing you will notice if you’ve ever tried to twist fibre is that you need to keep it under tension as you twist, and you will need a hand free to continually add new fibre to the end of your twist.  By adding a weight such as a stone or piece of bone to the end of your stick you create tension; the weight will twirl the stick for as long as physics lets it whilst you have a hand free to add in more fibre. Hooray! 

By the Neolithic (New Stone Age 10,000B.C)[3] hunter-gatherer lifestyles were starting to become more sedentary, with the domestication of plants and animals and the invention of pottery upturning social norms.  In the archaeological record you start to find evidence of spindle whorls.  By this time, humans would also have had better access to fleece (wool fibre) from domesticated sheep or goats, as well as the plant fibre they were familiar with making string – now they would be making yarn.  By the Early Bronze Age (3,100B.C) societies were becoming more complex and some were urbanized.  Famous examples include the Egyptians, along with the Minoans (Crete), both with beautiful pictorial evidence of spindle spinning and weaving looms.

Elizabeth Wayland Barber finishes her chapter on the Paleolithic with a comment about string:

“invented early, it was known worldwide.  Weaving on the contrary, is much more complicated and may have been thought up only once, much too late to spread with humankind.”

[4]

 This simple idea blew me away; string and possibly therefore some form of spindle spinning was invented so early and was so portable it was taken with paleolithic peoples as they ventured out into new territories and even to new worlds.  This would explain why nearly every culture in the world has a history with the spindle, but also why spindles are so diverse; cultures have had thousands of years to make their version of the spindle their own (like languages).

So back in the present, what are the different types of spindle?  

A spindle consists of a shaft (generally a smooth stick of wood, but not always), and a weight called a whorl to make the shaft spin for longer. The whorl can be situated anywhere on the shaft, it can be any shape and weight and made from a variety of materials from wood, metal, bone, pottery, glass or plastic. At the tip of the spindle you can find a hook, a notch, or a spiral groove to secure your yarn, although some spindles are smooth at the tip and require you to secure your yarn with a half hitch instead.

Abby Franquemont in her book Respect the Spindle categorises spindles into two main types (although also notes that there are ‘hybrid’ spindles that span these two categories):

1. a suspended spindle (or drop spindle) that spins suspended from the yarn as it is made.
2. a supported spindle which needs support to bear some of its weight.[5] 

You do not ‘drop’ a supported spindle like a yoyo but generally rest it in a bowl, on a table, on the floor, some you keep clasped in your hand and just twiddle.

Suspended (drop) spindles can come in top/high whorl, mid whorl, and bottom/low whorl varieties.  Even within these categories there is room for variation; like the Turkish spindle – a low whorl variant that has a crossbar rather than a whorl that creates a centre pull ball of yarn (yay! Cheer the knitters). 

Supported spindles generally have a low whorl, or no whorl at all; some can be tiny like the Tahkli for spinning cotton, or large like Navajo and Russian spindles. 

The most obvious conclusion to draw regarding spindles from around the world is that they evolved to be suited to the fibre available in the region, and the type of yarn they wanted to create (fine or heavy etc)

So, back to my original query – where do north western European medieval spindles fit into all of this wonderful variation in spindle spinning? 

Luckily we have pictorial evidence in the form of illuminated manuscripts[6] and some carvings, as well as actual surviving spindle whorls (fairly common in the archaeological record).  Archaeologists are also becoming more astute to keeping an eye out for spindly looking sticks on sites that may preserve wood (Birka in Sweden is one of the most famous for preserved spindle shafts).  

Medieval spindles are low whorls and are generally considered a hybrid of suspended and supported – and are usually described as semi-supported orshort suspension.  This means that you never ‘drop’ drop a medieval spindle (it is not historically appropriate to suspension spin a spindle without a distaff at a medieval reenactment or living history event, although I’ve seen it done).  You may let it spin free of your fingers momentarily but they are close by and follow the trajectory of the spin.  The direction of travel for the spindle is also different – instead of straight down, you pass the spindle across/down your body diagonally as you extend your spinning arm away from the distaff.   The other big difference is fibre arrangement (both plant and wool) – the fibres are preloaded on a distaff which helps to control the drafting of the fibres.  For those of you history enthusiasts there is a great website with some scholarly experimental archaeology that is very insightful by EXARC.[7]

Like our Kromski drop spindles, the most common modern spindle today for beginners is a top whorl spindle with a hook for suspended spinning. 

From my brief outline of medieval European spindle spinning above it is easy to conclude that it is not a comparable spindle type to a European medieval spindle.  But this is ok, as it’s a matter of perspective. 

From our modern view point European medieval spindles look archaic, but fresh from our time travels back into prehistory you realise that medieval spindles are an accumulation of over 20,000 years of knowledge and practice twisting fibres.  These medieval spindle spinners were at the peak of the craft; they could produce enough yarn to supply most of the domestic demand in large complex societies and even supply textiles for trade.  When the spinning wheel finally made an appearance in Europe in the 13^th century[8], most spindle spinners were skeptical that it could replace their fine spindle spun yarn, and they were right.  So when teaching someone to spindle spin, it’s probably not best to jump in right at the very end with the more complex elements of the craft.

Instead we go way back to the beginning, and pick up a kromski drop spindle.  These spindles are basically a shaft (stick) and a whorl (weight).  They are a top whorl, which is great for beginners as you can clamp the shaft under your arm or between your knees while you work out what an earth you are meant to be doing with your hands/fingers/fibre (a bottom whorl makes this more difficult).  If you are getting tired fingers, or are struggling to twirl the shaft, you also have the option of setting the spindle spinning by rolling it down your thigh – just like early cordage, and just like those wily Egyptians who used a top whorl thigh roll technique to produce exquisite linen textiles.  

What about the lovely modern colours the drop spindles come in?  I personally think that any Stone Age spinner would want a colourful spindle – who doesn’t love some personal adornment? 

So when someone asks “is this historically accurate?” the answer is always “yes, and no” – it is always dependent on the type of spindle you are spinning as to whether it is historically accurate to that particular region or time in history. 

But all spindles have a common ancient heritage that basically involves twisting fibres with a stick and a weight.  Best of all, once you have mastered your colourful beginners top whorl suspended spindle – there is a whole world of different spindle types out there – historic and modern, suspended and supported – waiting to be explored.

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[1] Wayland Barber, E, 1994, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years, Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times, Norton, p43.

[2] P51.

[3] Bronze Age – Wikipedia

[4] Wayland Barber, E, 1994, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years, Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times, Norton, p70.

[5] Franquemont A, 2009, Respect The Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns With One Amazing Tool, Interweave, p13

[6] That’s a blog post for another day – what’s your favourite medieval spinning lady? Mine is definitely the lady with her distaff feeding gigantic chickens in the Lutteral psalter.

[7] Recreating Historic European Spindle Spinning | The EXARC Journal

[8] Spinning wheel – Wikipedia