History of Spinning for Kids - when did people first learn to spin? how did they spin? what is spinning good for besides clothes?

History of Spinning

(continued from page one)

All of the cloth used in the ancient world was made with thread produced in just this way. (well, there are different methods where the whorl is at the top, or the spindle stays on the ground, but they are not very different). Also, thread and rope for nets and ships was made this way.
fishing net
donkeys
As with a yoyo, people who have been practicing for a while can spin while doing other things. People spin while they are walking somewhere, or riding a donkey. People spin while they are talking to their friends, and even in the dark after the fire is out for the night. Both men and women could spin, though women did most of the spinning for clothes, and men did the spinning for nets and rope. Women probably did more spinning. You need so much thread to make clothes that women probably needed to spin pretty much all the time.

There are a lot of different fibers that people used to spin. Probably people began by spinning plant fibers, like hemp and flax (when you make cloth out of flax that is linen). Then they began to spin wool as well, and then cotton and silk. Then you have to weave the cloth


Here's a video of women in Peru (in South America) spinning:



To find out more about spinning, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

spin it

Spin It: Making Yarn from Scratch, by Lee Raven and Traci Bunkers (2003). Projects using hand-spindles.

World Textiles: A Concise History, by Mary Schoeser (2003). For adults.

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (1995). Not for kids, but an interested high schooler could read it. Fascinating ideas about the way people made cloth in ancient times, and why it was that way.

First page about spinning
Click here for a spinning project
Weaving
Wool
Linen
Main clothing page





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