Thursday, January 10, 2013

Old-school Drop Spindle!

Drop spindle and cotton
When we visited Matera, a city where people built their homes into natural limestone caves, I saw an old drop spindle and loom in a museum! It was pretty fantastic to see the evidence of textiles, and especially spinning, since it seems that very few people in Italy still spin.

Drop spindle
There was also this stick with cotton on it, as a way to hold the fibers. The museum also had an old hand-crank machine for wringing out clothes.
Old loom














I also learned that the women would often rent a large loom, just for the winter, to make the family's cloth.

Wringing machine for laundry


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