The distaff side

[lizwilliams]

Last weaving class of the year and I have been spinning flax: you arrange it in a web around a wooden distaff (or a paper cone) and then spin it off onto a wheel. If you're unmarried, you tie a red ribbon around the top in a fancy pattern to attract the eye of your suitors, and if you're hitched, you tie a green ribbon and don't bother.

It's very tough, fibrous stuff: easy to spin and in fact a bit too easy - if you take your eye off it, the twist lent by the spinning wheel runs right up into the distaff and I imagine you'd end up with a large hairy hat.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

As in:

I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the maidens know that he's married

do you think?

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Could be!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Spinning flax is the one thing I remember from visiting the Farmer's Museum as a kid. Well, that and the Cardiff Giant. *g*

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

We went to the Farmers' Museum but I don't remember the flax!