How to dress a distaff with flax for handspinning linen yarn

There are as many ways to dress a distaff as there are spinsters who use them. Here are a few ways of dressing flax fibre on a distaff for spinning into linen yarn. I use strick and line linen, as well as hackled and carded tow, and commercial roving. The distaffs include stick, cage, and comb.

Free pdf download for dressing a distaff with flax: https://permies.com/goodies/106/raven
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A distaff is a device to hold fibre to facilitate drafting and spinning. Distaves (plural of distaff) can be of various construction, but it is the purpose that counts. It could be a nail or a hook on the wall, a broom, a stick, or a rake. Often the distaff is purpose-built and highly decorative.
Paraphrased from the Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos

0:00 why spinning linen thread needs three hands
0:45 flax's quantum entanglements
1:25 cage distaff
3:25 stick distaff
4:54 roving from the fold
5:19 truncheon distaff
6:23 paddle or comb distaff
6:51 Hitchiker's distaff
7:48 carded tow
8:29 happy spinning

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