An interesting sidenote... the word "spinster" used to refer to spinners. A long time ago, spinners were pretty much always women. This was work that a woman could do to support herself if she did not marry. Consequently there must have been a high percentage of women who were beyond what was considered "marriagiable age" who were spinners, giving rise to the term "spinster" to refer to an unmarried woman who was beyond marriagable age.

I learned this, and the information in my first post, while I was an apprentice weaver at an historical artisans' village.

Carol