Colonial Williamsburg - The Lost Art of Drop Spindle Spinning

Betsy tries out drop spindling at the mantua-maker and millinery.  

Cloth was precious back in the 18th century, and there were no shortcuts.  You had to make the thread before you could weave  the cloth.  I had a taste of the process of creating yarn and thread when I visited the local Williamsburg millinery, which uses not only spinning wheels but an apparatus called the "drop spindle" which resemble a wooden spinning top.

Though our instructor assured us that spinning yarn from loose wool would be easy, and colonial lads and lasses learned to drop spindle spin by the age of five, I could only fumble through the steps.  But here are some pointers.  Use washed and carded wool from Leicester Longwool sheep, now only raised in Williamsburg and remote parts of Australia.  (George Washington had an exceptional flock too, at the time.*).  Use your drop spindle to help you twist the loose wool clockwise into a thread.  Then take that same wool thread and twist it again counterclockwise.  Now you have double worsted yarn.  Now you can dye it and work with it. Easier said than done.  I think I'll just buy ready made.

Leicester Longwool look like regular sheep with perms. They are now quite rare.  

* Leicester Longwool sheep (pronounced "lester") were first bred in England in the mid-1700s and were highly valued in America, but the British only sold ewes to the colonists, so they would have to reorder more sheep when the ewes died.  To start his own breeding stock, George Washington asked a British friend to send him only lambs, which were all described as ewes, but who could really tell? In this way, Washington built up his flock.