distaff
SYLLABICATION: dis·taff
PRONUNCIATION: dstf
NOUN: 1a. A staff that holds on its cleft end the unspun flax, wool, or tow from which thread is drawn in spinning by hand. b. An attachment for a spinning wheel that serves this purpose. 2. Work and concerns traditionally considered important to women. 3. Women considered as a group.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English distaf, from Old English distæf : dis-, bunch of flax + stæf, staff.

Flax is harder to spin than wool the distaff helps to manage the work. (it hold the tow (raw material)
Wool get rolled into little fluffy sausages.. but flax is is long fibers, more like hair than anything else.. and evenly pulling down strand to work them in, is difficult.
(the site that is linked to above also shows a niddy noddy.. i have one of those!)



my other obsession