 |
| (Photo Credit) |
The creation of medieval textiles was a long and arduous process.
One that required a lot of time and patience for every person involved in the
process. Wool, for instance, had to be treated in a special way to ensure it
was ready for use later. Wool needed to be washed, greased, and then combed
before the fibers were ready for spinning. Spinning is the process in which raw
fibers, like wool, are made into thread that later becomes cloth.
 |
| (Photo Credit) |
Spinning, a process mostly done by women, required two
important tools, the distaff and spindle. The distaff would hold the treated
wool in an orderly manner while the spinster would pull the fibers off the
distaff. The right hand of the spinster would control the spindle, keeping it
moving, twisting the fibers till it turned into thread. (A process that if one
tries to emulate requires an incredible amount of coordination.) The thread made
in the process would then be used by a weaver to make cloth. Due to the amount
of time that the process took, a distaff and spindle allowed a portable
solution while still able to make strong thread. While new technologies, like
the spinning wheel, replaced the distaff and spindle both tools are still used
to spin thread.
Sources:
Alvarez, Sandra. "Handspinners of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance." Web blog. Medievalist.net. January 6, 2013. Web. accessed October 19,2017. LINK
Medievalists.net. "The Middle Ages Unlocked: Medieval Crafts." Medievalists.net, July 15, 2015. Web. accessed October 19, 2017. LINK
It has always amazed me what a laborious and painstaking process the making of clothing has been for most of human history. It is hard to imagine living in a world without mass produced clothing where it would almost all be produced by hand and likely locally.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazingly complicated yet fascinating process, there was so much work to be done just to get the yarn ready to be spun. Great post!
ReplyDeleteCreative title! Amazes me how much time out of a day medieval women spent dedicating themselves to this craft... In the video we watched in class on Wednesday, I remember hearing they would carry their distaff and spindle around with them to work on their spinning in their free time between chores.
ReplyDelete