Woolworks Curriculum Guide Grades 3-8 Lesson 4: Simple Machines

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"The first task of learning to spin is to understand how spinning works. Spinning is actually a two part process that involves first drawing out fibers into thin strands, then adding a twist to make the fibers stick together and become yarn. If you go back to the diagram of the wool fiber in the Science of Wool lesson and look at the scales, it's easy to imagine how those fibers, when twisted together, can lock together and form long strands thanks to those scales. It doesn't take long to see that the addition of a tool into the twisting process would greatly increase the ability to make longer strands. Early man probably used a hooked stick cut from a tree to aid them in spinning long lengths of fiber. Soon, someone figured out that if you add a weight to the string, and spin the weight, that the momentum of the spinning weight would make spinning more efficient by sending the twist into the fiber. Hence, the birth of the drop spindle."