Distaff
Origin Date: Unknown
A distaff is a tool which functions almost like a third hand and is used to hold unspun flax or wool in preparation for spinning.
Fun Fact: Matrilineal lines are sometimes referred to as the "distaff line" because distaves were a common tool for women.
Drop Spindle
Origin Date: Pre Neolithic
Drop Spindles are a weighted spike of wood used to assist in the spinning of fiber into yarn or thread.
Fun Fact: The spindle is commonly associated, across cultures and land masses, with goddesses and is sometimes used as a symbol for Fate.
Spinning Wheel
Origin Date: Between 500 and 1000 AD (India)
A self-standing device used for creating yarn or thread from fiber roving.
Fun Fact: The spinning wheel is one of the first uses of mechanized tools, and predates the Industrial Revolution by several centuries.
Niddy Noddy
Origin Date: Usually attributed to the early 1400s.
A tool used to wind skeins from spun yarn. The length of the skein is also measured by multiplying the number of wraps by the length it takes to do one revolution.
Fun Fact: It is a niddy-noddy being held by the Christ Child in Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder, found in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
Cable Needle
Origin Date: Unknown
A short double pointed knitting needle which is used to "flip" the stitches in a knitted cable pattern.
Fun Fact: Even if they use knitting needles made from a variety of materials, most knitters will use cable needles made of only one material.
Swift
Origin Date: Believed to be mid-18th Century
A tool used to hold a skein of yarn in preparation for winding into a ball.
Fun Fact: Swifts are sometimes referred to as spinner's weasels.
Ball Winder
Origin Date: Early Victorian
A tool used to create a ball or cake of yarn more easily used for knitting.
Fun Fact: Before the invention of the ball winder, a tool called a nostepinne was used.
Stitch Marker
Origin Date: Unknown
Stitch markers are used to keep track of pattern repeats, number of stitches, and increase/decrease points in a knitting pattern.
Fun Fact: Knitters take great pride in collecting many and varied decorative stitch markers.
WPI tool
Origin Date: Believed something similar has been around since the late 1700s
A tool that helps to calculate the "weight" or yarn by helping to determine how many wraps per inch of yarn can be made.
Fun Fact: These were originally the tools of weavers.