Hand Spinning

Hand Spinning

Spinning is an ancient textile art in which plant, animal or synthetic fibers are twisted together to form yarn. For thousands of years, fiber was spun by hand using simple tools, the spindle and distaff. Only in the High Middle Ages did the spinning wheel increase the output of individual spinners, and mass-production only arose in the 18th century with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Hand-spinning remains a popular handicraft.

Characteristics of spun yarn vary according to the material used, fiber length and alignment, quantity of fiber used, and degree of twist.

Read more about Hand Spinning:  Contemporary Hand Spinning

Famous quotes containing the words hand and/or spinning:

    Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Hume in 1737.
    Sydney Smith (1771–1845)

    Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by everyone; in France, drunkenness is a consequence, never an intention. A drink is felt as the spinning out of a pleasure, not as the necessary cause of an effect which is sought: wine is not only a philtre, it is also the leisurely act of drinking.
    Roland Barthes (1915–1980)