Its pretty, its useful, and its drop-proof! Making and using a wrist distaff for hanspinners.
My relationship with the distaff all started in the quest to spin flax, which I firmly believe can only be rightly done from a long distaff. I began by searching for a person or company who makes …
This is a unique design of mine for holding your fiber out of harm's way while spinning it into yarn. When I first learned to spin, the fiber kept getting caught up in the spun singles, which is a MESS! I wanted some way to hold the fiber up and out of the way, so I designed this two-pocket wrist distaff and it does the trick! There is one ribbed pocket that your wrist goes into and below that is the pocket for the fiber. My first prototype just had ONE pocket and in the summer, my wrist would sweat and dampen the fiber, causing it to stick to me and sometimes even begin to felt. I played with the design until I was satisfied with it's ability to hold the fiber, while keeping it away from my skin. THIS IS FOR THE PATTERN of the KNITTED version, ONLY. I have a completely CROCHETED version and one version which has a knitted wrist cuff and crocheted fiber pocket, in my other listings
I have many thousands of images on my computer of all things fiberish, and from time to time as I'm browsing through them something will emerge as a common theme, feature, or phenomenon. I present to you one such: Romanian...
A nifty tool to manage your fiber
Explore Regency Fashion Plates' 2496 photos on Flickr!
A girl spinning, standing in a landscape, distaff propped on left hip and resting against left wrist, drawing thread down to right through left hand, looking towards the viewer, wearing a coned hat; after Mercier; from a set; state before publication line. Mezzotint
Courses on demand – contact to arrange a date A fun day learning about flax, suitable for spinners who have mastered the basics £100 Flax We will look at spinning long line flax from a towel …
Ever wish for a third hand to keep your fibre supply tidy while using your spindle? If so, a distaff could be your new best friend. You can load a distaff with a large supply of fibre, be it roving…
The half-wit sat on the floor and laughed fervently as he pulled apart pieces of wool.-- Iceland's Bell, Halldór Laxness
A distaff is great for holding your fibre and acting as a third hand when drafting. It has other uses too. Here is a miniature of Orpheus lying on his back, protecting himself from Thracian women a…
What does it mean to worship a god or goddess of smiths, but never to have worked with iron or bronze? What does it mean to worship a goddess of the hearth, but never to learn to bank a fire to last through a winter’s night? How can we understand gods of brewing or hunting or grain if we never make our own beer, clean our own game, bake our own bread or grow our own food?
Yesterday was laundry day. While I had 20 or 30 minutes between loads, that's not very much when it comes to weaving..so... instead of weavi...
Handspinning has completely taken over my spare time lately. I work full time and commute for a total of three hours every day, so I need to set goals for my crafting to actually get things done. If I don't, I will just collapse on the sofa when I come home in the evening and do nothing. Sad but true. So a while ago, I decided to try to spin for an absolute minimum of eight hours per week (with a spindle - wheel spinning doesn't count). It's not much, but it's something and it has made a little difference - I'm getting faster for one thing! And since spinning for me partly consists of collapsing perching primly on the sofa anyway - see video below! - it's not even particularly taxing to keep it up. These days, I almost always spin with a distaff if I have the choice, twirling the spindle with one hand and drafting with the other. It wasn't love at first sight when I started learning this traditional and time-honoured technique, though. I think 'complete and utter frustration' sums up my initial feelings quite accurately. All aspirations of thread control went out the window and it was like starting all over again with only thick-and-thin, useless yarn as the result (useless for my purposes, that is. I don't do art yarn. Not at the moment, anyway). It took a fair amount of practice, but once I got the hang of it, it quickly became my preferred way of spinning. I went from total frustration to 'No more suspended spindling for me, EVER!' in less than 3 months. The distaff is a fantastic tool - it works as a third hand. Judging from how spinners are depicted in contemporary art, it also seems to be virtually ubiquitous to medieval spindle spinning (there are a few exceptions, of course, like in this early 13th century manuscript, and perhaps this one from the 14th century). Even when more or less suspended spinning is shown - as in this rather rare depiction of a top whorl spindle, for example - the distaff is still there, and the one-hand drafting technique, too: British Library, 'The Rutland Psalter', Add MS 62925 fol. 86r, c. 1260. With a distaff to hold the fibres, my hands are free to draft and twirl the spindle and it gives me a much better workning position than suspended spindling without a distaff does. I also find that it's much easier to control the amount of twist that goes into the thread this way (which is kind of important when you spin yarn for historical purposes). In addition, it completely removes the problem of back-spin - that annoying phenomenon when your thread has eaten all the momentum of the turning spindle and it starts going the other way while you're still busy drafting. Many medieval spindle whorls are small with a low moment of inertia, which means they spin fast, but stop turning really quickly and you have to restart them a lot to avoid back-spin when you're spinning suspended. And guess what - the distaff/spindle in hand-technique more or less takes the 'drop' out of 'drop spindle' (a term I've never really understood anyway - it has no Swedish equivalent; here we just have 'sländor' (spindles), plain and simple). Now I don't mind using my precious clay whorls on our hardwood floors at home, because even if the thread breaks, I don't drop them anymore. Here's a video of me spinning warp thread for weaving, with a distaff made out of a broom stick. When I've spun a length of thread, I stop drafting and add extra twist to it. As I relax the thread to unhitch the half hitch that keeps it on the spindle, I simultaneously check the twist by feeling the resistance as the thread curls back on itself. More and more medieval reenactors use a distaff and hand-held spindle when spinning these days. It's becoming quite a trend among historical fibre geeks! Usually, I'm not a huge fan of reenactment fads. Far too often they are based on scant sources and result in odd over-representations when suddenly the whole reenactment community is doing the same thing. And people often end up copying other reenactors rather than looking at the sources themselves, which is not the way to go in my opinion. But when it comes to distaffs and spinning, it's a trend that simply can't go wrong! It's raising the authenticity in reenactment displays by showing tools and techniques that were actually common and widespread both geographically and over time. In art, medieval distaffs appear to be around a metre in length, held under the arm, tucked into the belt, held between the knees while sitting or sometimes mounted on a stand. The Roman or ancient Greek tradition of short, hand-held distaffs doesn't seem to be the way to go for medieval spinning. I've found one medieval image - or rather a sculpture - with what might be a hand-held distaff. It's St Gertrude of Nivelles, a 7th century saint often portrayed spinning and surrounded by rats. However, it might just be that the rest of the distaff has broken off, but I couldn't tell by looking at the statue whether that was the case or not. It's a nice rat, though... St. Gertrude of Nivelles, wooden sculpture,1390-1400. Originally from Pfarrkirche St. Michael in Spiringen, Switzerland. Swiss National Museum, Zürich. Pix by Vix. As far as I know, not a whole lot of finds have been identified by archaeologists as distaffs. I mean, a lot of the time they would just be plain sticks, so there's not much to identify really. There's a medieval one from Schloss Gottorf in northern Germany (see below), though, and several distaff heads have been found at medieval Novgorod in Russia. From Staraia Ladoga, also in Russia, there are reported finds of distaffs from as early as the 9th century. Both the ones from Novgorod and those from Staraia Ladoga seem to be 'bat distaffs' with a top section shaped like a paddle, a type that remained popular in Russia well into the 19th century (Sherman 2008). It's not a type that seems to be depicted in European medieval manuscripts, though, and although similar distaffs exist here in Sweden from post-medieval times, I've decided to stick with the straight stick version for now. Although Novgorod traded a lot with Europe through the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages, I'm personally a little wary of using finds from such a relatively far-off place when my focus is southern Scandinavia/northern Germany (on the other hand, the huge amount of well-preserved wooden objects makes it very difficult not to glance eastwards to Novgorod every once in a while...). Medieval distaff (and also spindles and parts of niddy-noddies), Schloss Gottorf, Germany. Pix by Vix. There are many ways of dressing a distaff. The most commonly depicted versions in medieval manuscripts appear to fall into two (very!) broad categories: - the more or less fluffy fibre bundle, often tied in place by a narrow band - the cone-shaped fibre bundle, either tied with a band or with some sort of cloth (?) cover, or both. More images of medieval distaffs and spinning can be found over at my Pinterest board Medieval Fibre Preparation & Spinning, where I've also tried to add the original source for all the pins. 'The Holkham Bible', British Library, AddMss 47682, fol. 4v & 6r, 1320-30. A nun (St. Gertrude?) spinning in the company of a helpful cat. 'Maastricht Hours', British Library, Stowe MS 17, fol. 34r, 1st half of the 14th century. British Library, MS Royal 10 E IV, fol. 49v, early 14th century. Another one of those rarely depicted top whorl spindles! 'The Taymouth Hours', British Library, MS Yates Thompson 13, fol. 23v, 2nd quarter of the 14th century. Could this perhaps be an image showing the elusive practice of spinning dyed wool (see this previous post)? 'Ormesby Psalter', Bodleian Library, MS Douce 366, fol. 71v, c. 1310. Basically, it's perfectly possible to achieve all these different shapes using a simple straight stick as a distaff. The cone-shaped ones may have some sort of structure underneath, perhaps like a 'modern' (19th century) cage distaff or something similar, but it's difficult to tell from the contemporary images exactly what's hiding under the fibres. In some cases, it's obvious that the images show flax being spun rather than wool - if the spinner (or monkey, in the case of the illuminated manuscript below) is running the thread through their mouth, it's a pretty good indication of flax (or hemp) spinning, since it's commonly spun wet. A monkey spinning flax. British Library, Additional 18851 f459, 1480s. But sometimes people claim you can tell what fibre is being spun in an image just from the shape of the fibre bundle on the distaff. I'm not so sure. Medieval images just aren't detailed enough and most distaff shapes can actually be created with either wool or flax. It's just a matter of how you arrange the fibres. Wool can be gathered into long, thick tops that look very much like flax strick (hackled flax bundles) when tied to a distaff and flax, on the other hand, can be wrapped like candy floss around the distaff head. Which ends up looking rather round and fluffy and wool-like. Long fibres that hang straight down may of course be flax, but then again, this is what my distaff looks like when I'm spinning worsted wool: Combed wool from the double-coated Värmland sheep, a Swedish landrace breed. And this is how I go about dressing it: Top left image: hand-combed tops rolled into little 'bird's nests' for storage. Bottom left image: a wide band of woollen cloth (150x10 cm) with pieces of the tops arranged in layers. Right image: the band and wool rolled around the distaff and secured with a pin and a linen tie. A similar way of doing this can be found at Katrin Kania's blog A Stitchin Time: How I dress my distaff. Here's another way of getting the fibres onto the distaff; this works very well for industrially prepared tops or for hand-combed wool, but carded rolags can also be tied to the distaff in this way. Combed tops (or their modern counterpart) can also be wound around the distaff, as may be the case in this image: 'The Queen Mary Psalter', BL Royal 2 B VII, fol 158, between 1310 and 1320. Modern carded batts or hand-carded (or even just teased) wool collected into a big pile can be rolled into a nice little package like this... ...which looks a lot like the distaff arrangement in this image... 'Speculum humanae salvationis'. GKS 80 2o, fol. 6r, the first half of the 15th century. Det Konglige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, Denmark. ...and also like the Virgin Mary's fibre bundle in this image (but without the angel): Virgin Mary, pregnant and spinning. Anonymous, c. 1410. Hungarian National Museum, Budapest. The package can be attached to the distaff at a jaunty angle as in the image above, or simply stuck unceremoniously onto the top of the distaff as it is: There! Let's start spinning already! As long as the fibres aren't too sticky, I've found that almost anything goes when it comes to dressing a distaff. A great messy tangle is fine - as long as it's possible to pull the wool off it one-handed, it'll work - but it will affect the thread. Snags, neps and sticky fibres on the distaff naturally make a less even thread, while carefully prepared wool really helps in spinning a smooth thread. Like so many other things, the end result owes so much to the preparations. I often use the tie around the bundle to control the flow of fibres, adjusting it to give me just enough resistance to draft against when I want a non-fuzzy thread. I personally find it helps with a little bit of resistance when I want a smooth thread, but for fluffier yarn I just let twist do most of the drafting for me. At the moment (in between sessions of spinning for weaving), I trying to learn how to do a proper woollen long draw, which of course requires yet another slightly different one-handed drafting technique. I'm starting to get some usable thread out of it now, and it's good practice for the day when I finally get myself a great wheel... References: Textiles tools from medieval Novgorod: http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodfabricP.html Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volym 4: "From Flax to Linen in Medieval Rus Lands" - Heidi M. Sherman, 2008. Dressing distaffs: How I Dress My Distaff- A Stitch inTime So what IS just sogreat about adistaff? - 15th Century Spinning
The clothing styles of medieval Europe in the early Middle Ages (aka Dark Ages) did not change rapidly, and garments were plain but distinguished by fine fabrics.
Yesterday was laundry day. While I had 20 or 30 minutes between loads, that's not very much when it comes to weaving..so... instead of weaving I made the wrist distaff that I have been wanting to make forever... but just kept putting off. It consists of about 20 pieces of yarn that are about 30 inches long. (Notice all the "abouts"... I seldom measure anything..If it looks "about right", then it's fine with me.) These are all held together and folded in the middle to find the center. Keep your finger in between the fold or you will find that you will be 10 minutes sorting out the yarn and have to start over... (guess how we know this!) Working out from the center, the yarn is "measured" to about twice the amount needed to circle the wrist and then tied of with a string at that spot on one end. With the string tie hooked on something substantial ( in this instance it was my big toe...lol A sight to behold if ever there was one!), you divide the yarn into 3 equal groups and begin to braid the center. When it reaches the desired circumference of your wrist..making sure it will fit over your hand also... the braiding is then tied off on this end. There should now be fairly equal lengths of loose yarn on each end. I trimmed 2 or 3 on each to be shorter and did some random cuts to put some of the beads at different levels.. This helps to hold the wool. And here comes the picky part. The beads can be any kind you want. Any color you want. The only stickler is that they must have a hole big enough for the yarn and the eye of the needle you will be using. Each length of yarn hanging from the braid is beaded. I used a single good sized bead with a knot tied at the end to hold it. You can use as many beads on each piece of yarn as you like, but each piece of yarn should have at least one. After the beading is finished on both ends, the braided wrist area is joined by putting the ends of the braid together, then wrapping a length of yarn around them.. joining both sides into one. Tie it off with a knot. I then applied super glue to all the knots. While I don't plan to be throwing it around much, I figure a little extra oomph on those knots couldn't be a really bad thing. And... you don't absolutely have to bead your distaff. The beading gives some weight to the lengths of yarn and helps to allow the wool to fall off the distaff easier as you can twirl the weighted lengths of the distaff as you spin. However, the first distaff I made was not weighted and I found it nearly indispensable for holding plenty of yarn on hand as I was spinning and also for keeping the wool away from the spinning yarn. (Hate that when the wool becomes tangled in the spinning yarn...) I should add here that you can make a wrist distaff of almost anything... from crochet cotton thread to strips of rags... but the use of a woolen or semi-woolen yarn will give something for your wool to "hold" to and be less likely to just slip up and down on the distaff. This is really a post that should be on Fabric Follies Two.. hmm May just copy and paste it over there..lol
A blog about a journey to learning and perfecting my passion for fiber spinning, Fiber Art, Homemade crafts, etc.
I’ve read several places that it is useful to have a wristaff/wrist distaff for spindle spinning. A wrist distaff is a tool which sits on your wrist and hangs down, on which you can coil your…
A nifty tool to manage your fiber
FELTED WRIST DISTAFF TUTORIAL - SPINNING TOOLS
Earlier this summer I got a antique French spindle from a follower. It is the first antique spindle I have and I’m childishly happy about it. Today I share a video where I spin on my antique French spindle. A French spindle is held in the hand. The shaft stays in the hand or close … Continue reading "Antique French spindle"
