Weaving

6 7 Spinning WheelS thread from a circle The spinning wheel developed between 500 and 1000 AD through a number of stages, initially turning the vertical spindle horizontal and putting a groove in the whorl that could be driven by a band from a large, handturned wheel. In the sixteenth century, treadle power freed both hands, and a century later spinning was seen as an accomplishment for genteel ladies. In India in 1920 Gandhi compared losing the wheel to losing a lung he advocated spinning to create independence in his country, developing a portable wheel called a charka. Long before him, Aristophanes Lysistrata had likened a statesman creating harmony in the state to a spinner drawing together tangled fleece to create yarn. The classical Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, determined when life began and ended by spinning, measuring, and cutting the Thread of Life. Spinning also appears in many fairy tales Sleeping Beauty pricked herself on a spindle, and Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold. Thread is the very symbol of life. It was put on cattle, babies and corpses to protect them from evil. A broken thread meant a quarrel, and it was unlucky to leave thread or the driving band on a wheel at night. Old Welsh sea captains would not allow wheels on board, and wool was not wound at night as it endangered seafarers. The Madonna is sometimes shown spinning, her destiny the redemption of the world.