Long draw method

The spinning wheel only made an appearance very late in period, and was basically just a whorler/drop spindle turned on its side with a fly-wheel attached. The technique employed for wheel-spun thread was called the long-draw method and involved walking backwards creating thread just ahead of the already-twisting part of the thread (ie drawing the thread out a long way as you walked).

The thread created this way was not as strong as the traditional (at that time) whorl-spun thread. This was mainly due to the lack of worsting and less attention-to-detail that could be paid as the spinner moved quickly backwards. It was also meant to be a quickly-produced thread.

This produced a rather interesting turn of events that stated that wheel-spun thread was illegal to be used as the strong warp threads in a fabric - which had to be replaced by the stronger whorl-spun thread. It could be used for the weft or decorative use, but anything that needed strength was not recommended.

Whorl-spun thread was thus used for quite a long time after spinning wheels were invented and put to use.