MasadaSpindle
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Spinning - 2007/05/20 19:51
Clockwise-counter-clockwise I found a good answer that may explain more technically the reason for spinning flax in an S-direction. It is found in the Encyclopedia of Hand Spinning by Mabel Ross from Scotland, a former scientist and mathematics teacher (who sadly has since passed on). I was fortunate to learn with Mabel Ross and she was a no-nonsense type spinner and full of humor. She wrote: "In common with other cellulose fibres, the cell walls have a spiral fibrillar structure, the outer layer of which exhibits an S-slope. If a short piece of fiber is thoroughly wetted, the swelling of the fibrils causes the end of the fibre to turn in an anti-clockwise direction, and during subsequent drying, this is reversed...The fibrillar structure is sometimes quoted as a necessary reason for spinning flax with S-twist. However, both Z and S twists are habitually used to spin flax without difficulty and their respective use as warp and weft produce maximum lustre in the cloth because of the similar direction in which all the fibres lie." SO...LEFT, RIGHT, CLOCK-WISE, COUNTER CLOCKWISE...WHATEVER IS GOOD FOR YOU FOR FOR IT!
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