Spin-Off – September 2019

Fall 2019 • Spin Off 17

In the introduction to their book Cotton: Origin,

History, Technology, and Production, editors Smith and

Cothren state, “The first improvement in spinning

technology was the spinning wheel, which was invented

in India between 500 and 1000 CE.” In A History

of Textiles, Wilson says that the spinning wheel was

developed in India around 750 CE when “the spindle

was mounted on a frame and rotated by turning a wheel

that held a cord attached to the spindle.”

Charkhas in the Twentieth Century

The politics attached to the charkha come from Gandhi’s

involvement in India’s independence movement from

the 1920s through the 1940s. As a means of countering

British economics in India and establishing a symbol of

resistance easily acceptable to Indians, he chose khadi

cloth. Khadi is a simple cloth, typically cotton, made from

handspun, handwoven fiber. He chose khadi to represent

the new India, and as Rohini notes, “Khadi was to be an

agent of change for providing livelihood, self-sufficiency,

and at a moral plane, inculcate virtues like patience.” The

charkha, or common spinning wheel, was integral to the

production of khadi cloth.

However, the spinning wheel used day to day by

millions of Indians was not easy to set up or move. To

ameliorate this problem, Gandhi held a contest in July 1929

to design a spinning wheel that was small, lightweight, and

portable. The prize-winning book-size charkha is the one

he took with him to jail. It is also the one that we are most

familiar with in North America today.

Step Two: Skill Building

After researching a new-to-me tool, in this case the

charkha, tension rises as I think about trying to gain the

skills necessary to work with it. This part of the learning

process for me is akin to reading about a journey and

then going out and buying the tickets. A charkha

requires the spinner to learn to “spin off the tip.” This

means that during spinning, the spinner changes the

angle of the newly spun yarn so that it either does not

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Charkha a domestic spinning wheel used in India chiefly for cotton.

Etymology: Hindi carkha, from Persian charkha, charkh wheel,

from Middle Persian chark —Merriam-Webster

wind on and accumulates twist, or it stops accumulating

twist and can then be wound onto the spindle.

I decided to start my learning process using a

supported spindle, but other spinners may just want to

jump in and try the charkha directly. I chose to start

with the Indian takli, a low-whorl supported spindle.

(Read more about taklis on page 36.) It is supported

because its bottom tip rests on a surface, such as a small

bowl, during spinning. A takli has a heavier whorl

than a similarly sized suspended spindle, which gives

the spindle a longer period of rotation before slowing.

Because the spindle is supported, the added weight does

not add tension to the yarn as it forms.

In addition to patience and perseverance, I learned

the importance of twist angle for ensuring the amount

of twist needed to keep the fiber from drifting apart. I

learned to make cotton punis for easier spinning. And

after leaving a lot of cotton wisps around the house, I

finally gained enough confidence to search for my next

step toward charkha spinning—using other supported

spindles such as Russian and Tibetan.

Joanne was able to see one of Gandhi’s traditional charkhas

at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.