Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, July 28, 2010
The Giles County Historical Society and the Giles Arts Council have sponsored needle arts classes for several years now. This year, the offerings have extended to other heritage arts. On Saturdays, August 7th and 14th, a Drop Spindle Class with Mary Orr is offered from 2:30-4:30pm. Mary has participated in events at the Historical Society for many years, demonstrating spinning and dying wool.
Spinning fibers into thread or yarn is an ancient art with archaeological evidence of spun fiber dating to 20,000 years ago. Early thread was made by rolling animal hair or plant fibers on a person’s thigh, adding fiber and continuing to roll until the length of thread reached the desired length. Later, the thread was tied to a rock which was hung and rotated until the thread was sufficiently twisted.
Spindles were an improvement on the rock method of spinning. A spindle is an 8 to 12 inch stick on which the thread was wound after twisting the fibers. The left hand holds the wool, while the right hand twists the fibers together. The spindle is dropped to let the natural forces twist the threads which are then wound onto the spindle. Since a spindle with yarn weighing the bottom of it spins better than just the stick, a spindle whorl or disk was added to the bottom of the spindle to help the spinning process, thus creating the drop spindle that is still used today.
The Giles County Historical Society and the Giles Arts Council have sponsored needle arts classes for several years now. This year, the offerings have extended to other heritage arts. On Saturdays, August 7th and 14th, a Drop Spindle Class with Mary Orr is offered from 2:30-4:30pm. Mary has participated in events at the Historical Society for many years, demonstrating spinning and dying wool.Spinning fibers into thread or yarn is an ancient art with archaeological evidence of spun fiber dating to 20,000 years ago. Early thread was made by rolling animal hair or plant fibers on a person’s thigh, adding fiber and continuing to roll until the length of thread reached the desired length. Later, the thread was tied to a rock which was hung and rotated until the thread was sufficiently twisted.
Spindles were an improvement on the rock method of spinning. A spindle is an 8 to 12 inch stick on which the thread was wound after twisting the fibers. The left hand holds the wool, while the right hand twists the fibers together. The spindle is dropped to let the natural forces twist the threads which are then wound onto the spindle. Since a spindle with yarn weighing the bottom of it spins better than just the stick, a spindle whorl or disk was added to the bottom of the spindle to help the spinning process, thus creating the drop spindle that is still used today.
