spun...

distaffs used to be made of forked branches. that's all. a very simple tool. the branch could be jammed under the spinner's belt, girdle, whatev. the material to be spun was impaled on the tines. sometimes the fingers were moistened. especially, if the spinner was spinning flax, i think. a drop spindle whirled and the little filaments lengthened, merged, linked together. that was a single. and then the singles were twisted around each other and that made yarn. and the yarn was put into a bath to preserve the twist.

that's all relative to hand spinning. i imagine machines do it differently.