Spindles and Spinning Wheels

The tools that twist loose fibre such as wool, flax or cotton into thread or yarn, from the hand spindle and its whorl to the distaff that holds the fibre and the spinning wheel that mechanised the twist. A tool belongs here when its cited source describes it as used for spinning. It excludes looms and the tools that wind or measure finished yarn. Spinning is far older than weaving on a loom, and the spindle in its many forms was the main way of making thread for thousands of years before the wheel replaced it.