Spinning

Spinning — the drawing of yarn from raw fiber by hand, with distaff and spindle — appears in UPDV as women's work in two contexts: the contribution of cloth for the tabernacle and the daily industry of the worthy woman.

Spinning for the Tabernacle

When the materials for the sanctuary are gathered, the spinning is done in the camp, by hand, by the women who can do it: "And all the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, and the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen" (Ex 35:25). Skill ("wise-hearted") and hand-work go together, and the product is named by color and grade — the same materials that will appear in the curtains and priestly vestments.

The Distaff and the Spindle

In the worthy-woman acrostic, the same craft is the morning-and-evening industry of the household: "She lays her hands to the distaff, / And her hands hold the spindle" (Pr 31:19). The distaff holds the unspun fiber and the spindle twists and winds the thread; the parallelism puts both implements in her hands and identifies the work itself as a mark of competence in the home.