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Spike used for spinning fibers into yarn

A spindle is a straight spike, usually made from wood, used for spinning, twisting fibers such as wool, flax, hemp, cotton into yarn. It is often weighted at either the bottom, middle, or top, commonly by a disc or spherical object called a whorl;

Modern hand spindles fall into three basic categories: suspended spindles, supported spindles and grasped spindles. Supported and suspended spindles are normally held vertically, grasped spindles may be held vertically, horizontally or at an angle depending on the tradition. Suspended spindles are so named because they are suspended to swing from the yarn after rotation has been started. Drop Spindles are a popular type of suspended spindle and get their name because the spindle is allowed to drop down while the thread is formed, allowing for a greater length of yarn to be spun before winding on. Suspended spindles also permit the spinner to move around while spinning, going about their day. However, there are practical limits to their size/weight. Most supported spindles continue to rest with the tip on one's thigh, on the ground, on a table, or in a small bowl while rotating. Supported spindles come in a great variety of sizes, such as the very large, ~30" Navajo spindle, the small, extremely fast, metal takli for spinning cotton, and the tiniest Orenburg spindles (~20 cm, 15gm) for spinning gossamer lace yarns. Grasped spindles are also known as: hand spindles, in the hand spindles, in hand spindles and twiddled spindles; there appears no consensus on nomenclature for this category of spindles though there have been various attempts at creating an agreed nomenclature including dividing this category of spindles into two, such as Crowfoot's attempts to define the difference between grasped and in hand spindles The newly spun yarn is wound below the whorl and forms a ‘cop’. Depending on the location of the whorl and style of the spindle, the cop can be conical, football or ball shaped and it can be wound above, below or over the whorl. Spindles can also be used for plying: intertwining two or more single strands of yarn together in order to create a stronger, more balanced, more durable yarn.

While hand spindles vary, there are some similarities in the parts that make up a spindle.

Spindle shafts can be made out of a variety of materials such as wood, metal, bone or plastic. They may have very little shaping or be dramatically shaped enough to form part of the whorl. Shafts may be left plain or decorated with painting or carving. The shaft is how the spinner inserts twist through turning it between the fingers or rolling it between the hand and another part of their anatomy, such as their thigh. The thickness of the shaft affects how fast the spindles spins, with narrower shafts causing a spindle to spin faster. Many spindles will have a point at the top of the shaft to fix the thread to. Options include a simple length of shaft to tie the thread around, a shaped notch or bulb, or a hook. The overall shape of the cop and the skill in winding it also has an impact on how the spindle spins and how much thread or yarn can be stored on a spindle before it is "full". Cops can be wound in a ball, cone or football shape.

Most modern illustrations of the fairy tale The Sleeping Beauty have the princess pricking her finger on the distaff of a modern flyer spinning wheel; this version of the wheel was either not invented or not as commonly used across Europe when the major versions of the story were commonly told. The Perrault and Brothers Grimm editions have her pricking her finger on a spindle, and some versions of the story have her pricking it on a great wheel, which is essentially a wheel powered spindle.

In biology, the spindle apparatus is an assembly of proteins and DNA that forms during cell division to separate sister chromatids during mitosis or meiosis of eukaryotic cells. The word "mitosis" is derived from the Greek word "mitos," meaning warp thread.

Supported spindles spin on surfaces such as bowls that are usually ceramic or wooden. This type of spindle gives the user more control of the weight of the yarn. The various types of supported spindles range due to the difference in styles of spinning and yarn weight. Navajo spindles have longer shafts that should reach from the ground to the top of the thigh. The spun yarn is wound above the whorl. In Icelandic Viking times, the people used a high whorl lap spindle to spin wool into yarn. The high whorl lap spindle has a whorl on top with a hook on the top and a long shaft like other supported spindles. Unlike the Navajo spindle, however, the spun yarn is wrapped around the lower end of the spindle. The roving is prepped first by drafting it before the wool is spun into yarn. The separation between the drafting and spinning creates a softer yarn. Since it is a supported spindle, the yarn is less strained, which also makes the yarn soft.

A typical bottom whorl spindle has the spun single ply yarn above the whorl instead of below it like top whorl drop spindles. Bottom whorl spindles are the preferred spindle for plying yarn. Turkish drop spindles have a low whorl spindle that have two arms that intersect to make a cross. Like other drop spindles it is spun and then it hangs while the wool is being drafted and the twist travels up the wool. When winding the spun yarn on to the arms it usually is put over and under the arms on the spindle. Even though it turns much more slowly than winding onto a regular spindle, it creates a center pull ball of yarn.

Top whorl spindles commonly have a disc on the top of the shaft with a hook at the top.