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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- When I started sharing my spinning research the biggest criticism I got was that the spinning style I was trying to learn “did not exist, has never existed, and no one would ever have spun like that when they spun because they needed too”
These days, I have a lot of evidence for grasped and distaff spinning styles including many videos of people spinning in their traditional methods. I still get these criticisms but they are much rarer.
I get other criticisms. For example, I get asked “why do you share this method as though it’s something special that people don’t know about? Everyone knows about this method, obviously it’s how people used to spin”. Which is both frustrating (considering the first criticism I get) and yet somewhat gratifying to think there are parts of the world where this method is still common enough to elicit this response.
Another criticism I get, and the subject of this video, is the names I give to various spinning styles. We need to have some way of differentiating the different spinning methods with words, or else how are we to talk about them and discuss them?
I’ve used ‘grasped’ spinning because that’s what Norman Kennedy uses and he was a ‘gateway’ for me to researching this style of spinning, he was my first real evidence that this spinning existed and people did actually spin this way and it wasn’t all made up. I’ve seen it call other things, like ‘rotation in the hand’, ‘twiddling’, ‘in hand’, ‘in the hand’, ‘lap spinning’, ‘drop spindle spinning’ and ‘supported spinning’.
Yes, this method I’ve seen called both supported spinning and drop spindle (a type of suspended spinning) spinning. Those who call it supported spinning do so because the spindle is not suspended. Those who call it drop spindle spinning tell me it is because the spindle is not supported.
In my techniques I also use a type of suspended spinning, but this is different to the drop spindle spinning you see most modern crafters doing. I’ve always thought that ‘drop spindle spinning’ named a TYPE of suspended spinning, after all why give it a name if not to differentiate it from other types of suspended spinning? To clarify, I’ve often called this ‘American drop spindle spinning’, with the explanation it’s not just found in America. The America part came from the American craft revolution of the 20th century that popularised many old skills as modern crafts, and that a lot of the spinning research at this time came out of the Americas. A lot of modern craft spinners spin based on this research.
The style of Spinning I do I’ve referred to as ‘European Distaff Spinning’, because it uses a distaff and my research is based on Europe and the UK,
Obviously these names lead to confusion and complaints because different techniques are found throughout the world at different times (ie spinning in Europe prior to the dark ages was different to the spinning post the dark ages) so even if I use these names with caveats, people will still want to point out the names are wrong.
So I thought I would make a video where I had a coherent discussion on this, but instead I made a video that is proof my videos are not really scripted.
In her video, Katrin uses terms such as ‘long suspension’ and ‘short suspension’. Which you can read here:
• NESAT XIII, Liberec: K...
My video was filmed some months ago, I’ve only just gotten around to processing and uploading it, so since then I’ve had the chance to take some of these terms for a spin and have seen them being used in the wider distaff spinning community.
They are working well so far.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on what works well and what doesn’t.
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Hidden Past by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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I was just shown your video. I have been using a drop spindle for 45 years. I'm as fast as on a wheel. TH-camr Sally Pointer can also remark on grasped spinning. I learned grasped spinning for about the first six months until I had gained confidence and speed required to drop spin. When you first started speaking your spinning was slow and tightly overspun and you have wool on a linen distaff. It took me awhile to figure out you weren't spinning linen.
Your spindle looks so much like mine and Sally Pointer's right down to its size and flywheel weight I have little doubt that if you kept it up you'd learn drop spinning. Everybody does. I stand and take two spins wrapping the first 6' between elbow and thumb and take another spin to spin 12' of yarn before wrapping it on the spindle. It's a dance. Your problem with the archaeologists is because this is like listening to a child talk about riding a bicycle who still has training wheels on his bike.
The spindles you find in spinning stores seldom work well. The big wooden flywheels are for teaching only. They're much too slow for any practical use. The size and weight requirements of a spindle flywheel are pretty tight but within those constraints there can be a lot of leeway. I once got stuck in New York and went to a dog grooming salon and said I was a spinner. They gave me the entire fleece of a husky they had shorn that day. I took a bus home to middle America. I took a potato and stuck a pencil through it and used them as a supported spindle (set on the floor of the bus) and spun the dog's hair into enough yarn to crochet my sister a hat. Really warm hat but if you wet it it smelled like a dog.
Thank you for presenting many sides of the subject of naming. I try not to get stopped by a name but ask questions to clarify and understand to draw parallels to my own experience. Neither is correct or incorrect, only different.
The use case, I think, for differentiating grasped/suspended/supported is in spindle design more than spinning & drafting technique. Spindle designs vary broadly, but there are extremes that exclude one or more spinning styles:
A grasped spindle should have a narrow tip for flicking that can be held between two subsidiary fingers (so most thorn-type spindles intended for supported spinning are out, unless you have enormous hands; any spindle with a hook becomes awkward and/or dangerous and/or prone to mangling the hook); it should be light enough to be held by the weaker fingers; it doesn't matter how the bottom of the spindle is shaped.
A suspended spindle (for long suspension; long enough to draft with both hands) should have a hook or accept a half hitch (preferably a single half hitch; very narrow tips with out a whorl between the tip and the cop are challenging for beginners to handle with just one), should spin for at least twice as long as it takes to move your flicking hand to the fiber supply and back (so very light, centrally-weighted spindles are out), their weight shouldn't put the yarn under breaking strain, and it doesn't matter how the bottom of the spindle is shaped.
A supported spindle should have a narrow tip for flicking (sturdy hooks are probably fine, but delicate ones may be unwise), and a narrow spot at the bottom to reduce friction. Supported spindles can be heavier than the yarn or the weak fingers can bear, though they should be light enough not to fatigue the flicking hand, or if heavier than that, tall enough to permit a thigh roll (e.g. Navajo spindles).
As you demonstrate, a spindle with a narrow tip & base, which is light enough to hold with the weaker fingers, and spins for long enough with a half hitch to reach the fiber supply with both hands, can be used in any style which is convenient... but the existence of such spindles does not imply that all spindles are so versatile. :)
A supported spindle
I think you are onto something by separating the number of drafting hands onto its own axis. An additional factor to consider is woolen vs worsted. It's (hopefully obviously) a spectrum, but again we can look to the corners for exclusionary principles. I usually see you spin with at least some worsted character: (1) pulling out mostly untwisted fibers, and (2) smoothing and compressing the fibers as you draft them. With one hand anchored at the spindle, there is no way to manage a worsted style without the extra hand offered by the distaff. When it comes to woolen style spinning with a distaff, I have had some success with a sort of supported longdraw (pulling on already-spun yarn, and using the twist to draft out fibers without compression) but I find it more difficult to keep an even diameter, and the dressing of the distaff has a substantial effect on the results. I currently find it easier to manage woolen from rolags, but that's easily due to my inexperience with a distaff.
Incorporating this axis, I would conclude the following:
Grasped spindling and supported spindling both require a distaff for worsted-style spinning.
Suspended (long suspension) spindling does not require a distaff for worsted-style spinning.
If you're going to spin woolen from a distaff, pay more attention to prep.
Great video! what's your favorite fiber to spin and what is the fiber prep you use combed top/carded?
And the people who spun this way historically would have just called it "spinning"!
I remember a conversation between North Americans about what to call a knit cap you wear to keep your head warm in winter. I grew up in Colorado and called it a stocking cap, but the Californians called it a beanie, the woman from Toronto called it a Toque, and the girls from the southern United States called it a toboggan, which I always understood to be a type of sled. And people will get heated over things like this!
Then there is the spinning horizontal I know one called Blackfoot spinning then there is the clasped where the spindle is sort of held in the palm and twisted with fingers.
Admittedly, and this is just my opinion, but I like having the different terms for the same thing. I believe it adds character and charm to the craft. It also emphasizes how each individual is unique.
I've never had an issue with the terms you use. In fact, I use the terms grasped spinning myself. But, if someone uses a different term, it doesn't affect me.
It's the same thing with the term American spinning. I actually use a different term, but I understand you just fine.
Whatever you choose to call the different styles, I'm fine with.