Off-gridders are acutely energy aware. They have to be; they realise very quickly that what they don’t demand, doesn’t have to be generated. It is no coincidence, then, that hand-tools are much discussed, coveted, refurbished, and, indeed, loved. One tool that ticks all those boxes hereabouts is the spinning wheel. My partner will often sit treadling one of our workhorse Ashfords (pictured above), as we have our cuppa and discussions at each end of the day; she says it’s therapeutic. I just love the way spinning wheels do exactly what they have to do, perfectly, as is so often the way with tools designed when energy was scarce. One way or another, we’ve been spinning yarns for years — and every now and then, she believes one!
The earliest spinning tools were simple spindles, and examples have been found from as far back as the Neolithic age. Indeed, a recent article traces fibre twisting all the way back to the Neanderthals. Wheel spinning has been around for more than 1000 years, refined and mechanised particularly since 1800, but the basics haven’t changed: short staples of something fibrous, twisted together to form a continuous thread or rope.
Hand spindles
The earliest depictions of spindles can be seen on Egyptian wall paintings and Greek vases, and they are referenced in early Greek and
