Wrist Distaff

I wanted to share something different with you today.

This wrist distaff is made from tussah silk that I hand dyed and spun into yarn using my own drop spindle. The opening for your wrist is 11 inches while the distaff measures approximately 6 inches. It has beads at the end of each tail for weight. Did I mention that I braided every single one of those strands? It took me over an hour. My singles were pretty well behaved because they had been sitting for awhile but still....

This one is available in my shop. I also made myself one and have to admit that I am still trying to figure out the correct way to use it. Most of the time I just do small lengths of roving and wrap it around my wrist. That seems to work until I have a "power surge" aka "hot flash" and then the roving just sticks to me so I really need to figure out how to work the distaff. Hopefully once I am moved back to the New York/Vermont area I can find someone who will take pity on me and show me the proper use of this wonderful tool.

I saw different version of a wrist distaff, several actually, on another blog yesterday. One of them was very modern looking and made of metal. The other one was just yarn twisted around itself and tied in a knot at the bottom. It was very sharp looking though.

Until next time... happy spinning....