page_title: Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods
section_title: Spinning
hierarchical_section_title: Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods / Yarn formation / Animal protein fibres / Wool / Spinning
caption_attribution_description: English: picture of a 2 yard niddy-noddy made by Clemes &amp; Clemes, Inc. of Pinole, CA
context_page_description: Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet processes to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns.
  The three main types of fibres are natural vegetable fibres, animal protein fibres and artificial fibres. Natural vegetable fibres include cotton, linen, jute and hemp. Animal protein fibres include wool and silk. Man-made fibres including nylon, polyester will be used in some hobbies and handicrafts and in the developed world.
  Almost all commercial textiles are produced by industrial methods. Textiles are still produced by pre-industrial processes in village communities in Asia, Africa and South America. Creating textiles using traditional manual techniques is an artisan craft practised as a hobby in Europe and North America.
context_section_description: Hand spinning can be done by using a spindle or the spinning wheel. Spinning turns the carded wool fibres into yarn which can then be directly woven, knitted (flat or circular), crocheted, or by other means turned into fabric or a garment.
  The spinning wheel collects the yarn on a bobbin.
  A woollen yarn is lightly spun so it is airey, and is a good insulator and suitable for knitting, while a worsted yarn is spun tight to exclude air, and has greater strength and is suited to weaving..
  Once the bobbin is full, the hobby spinner either puts on a new bobbin, or forms a skein, or balls the yarn. A skein is a coil of yarn twisted into a loose knot. Yarn is skeined using a niddy noddy or other type of skein -winder. Yarn is rarely balled directly after spinning, it will be stored in skein form, and transferred to a ball only if needed. Knitting from a skein, is difficult as the  yarn forms knots, in this case it is best to ball.  Yarn to be plied is left on the bobbin.
  A skein is either formed by the hobby spinner, on a niddy noddy or some other type of skein winder. Traditionally niddy-noddys looked like an uppercase "i", with the bottom half rotated 90 degrees. Hobby spinning wheel manufactures also make niddy-noddys that attach onto the spinning wheel for faster skein winding.
caption: A niddy noddy ready to have a skein wound on it.
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