So Just touching base with you all to bring the fantastic news that I am not dead!
Hooray!
I’ve had a bit of a case of non-spinning related real life recently (nothing bad, real life of the good variety!) and lost touch completely with the spinning and weaving side of my real and virtual lives.
But I’ve missed you all so now I have a chance to get back in touch so I am. Thank you again to my loyal followers and friends I have not yet met for being interested in my work and taking the time to leave comments. I have a ton to read through and answer so I’m not ignoring you all, just catching up slowly. I don’t like leaving people half-baked replies and in most things I’m a “dive in with both feet” or nothing kind of person.
Looking forward to catching up with you all!
15thcenturyspinning 
Glad you’re back!
Thanks! Good to be back! Got a lot to catch up on. š
Hello! Glad to hear you’re back. I’ve been busy spreading your spinning method around my reenactment group as an interesting theory to try. So far, so good…
Thank you! It’s good to be back. I’ll be interested to hear how your re-enactment group goes with experementing with my theories! The thing I’m really beginning to understand is that there’s variations with how you’re spinning the spindle or securing the thread etc, but the thing that remains constant is one hand near a spindle, and one hand at the distaff. It’s like the use of the distaff almost defines the general figure of spinning, if that makes sense.
Oh, I definitely agree that the distaff is key. So far, I’ve got two other people trying variations on the method. One is doing a variation involving a distaff, semi-cross-the-body posture but a more suspended sort of spinning. The other has just got a distaff so I’m not sure what she’s doing yet. I’m doing almost completely in-hand and it is going well so far but I’m still very slow and I haven’t got the thread off the spindle yet to see whether it is over/underspun.
Another thing I think is key is the spindle and particularly the whorl. The reason the in-hand method is so good with medieval reproductions is because the small, heavy whorl doesn’t enable a long, slow spin. It’s easy to spin suspended (and at the bottom of a long thread) with a wide whorl or a light one – much harder with a small, narrow, heavy one that spins fast and starts going backwards almost instantly.
Yes, I agree about the backspin! Your spindle is spinning really really fast and suddeny it’sspinning the other way. Having a hand always at the spindle, whether using it grasped or suspended means the spindle is very nearby for you to grab when this happens.