Spinning Wheel to Label – Numbered Parts Worksheet

All 14 parts on the diagram

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The whole wheel 7

Drive wheel The big wheel, kept turning by the treadle. It turns the flyer many times for each turn of its own.
Drive band A loop of cord round the drive wheel and the whorl. It carries the turning of the wheel to the flyer.
Table The board that the wheel and the spinning parts stand on.
Legs The legs under the table. This wheel has three.
Treadle A pedal the spinner pumps with a foot. That keeps the wheel turning and leaves both hands free for the fiber.
Footman The rod connecting the treadle to the drive wheel's crank. Each push on the treadle turns the wheel.
Tension screw A screw in the end of the table. Turning it shifts the mother-of-all, which loosens or tightens the drive band.

The flyer, enlarged 7

Mother-of-all The wooden bar that holds the two maidens.
Maidens Two uprights standing on the mother-of-all. They hold the flyer between them.
Whorl A round pulley with a groove for the drive band. The band turns it, and it turns the flyer.
Hooks Small hooks along the arm of the flyer. They guide the yarn onto the bobbin.
Flyer A U-shaped, or horseshoe-shaped, piece round the bobbin. As it turns it twists the fiber into yarn.
Bobbin The spool that the finished yarn is wound onto.
Orifice The hollow end of the flyer's shaft. The yarn passes through it on its way to the hooks and the bobbin.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 and kept only where at least two of these use it. (1) Wikipedia, Spinning wheel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel : the key to its picture of a treadle wheel (wheel, drive band, flyer assembly, maiden, tension screw, treadle, footman, treadle bar, table, distaff); the treadle turns the drive wheel through a crank; the flyer is the horseshoe-shaped piece round the bobbin; the whorls are the pulleys the drive band runs on. The spinning books below are in copyright and were read as search passages on archive.org, not in full; each is given by its archive.org identifier. (2) A book on building spinning wheels (spinningwheelbui0000kron): table, legs, maidens, mother-of-all, flyer with hooks, bobbin, whorl, the orifice in the shaft. (3) A hand spinning manual (handspinning00mccu): parts of the spinning wheel: mother-of-all, maidens, flyer, hooks, orifice, bobbins; treadle, footman, wheel and drive band. (4) A beginner's spinning book (startspinningeve0000case): drive wheel, footman, flyer, orifice, bobbin, drive band, whorl. (5) A complete spinning book (completespinning0000croc): drive band, bobbin, flyer, maidens, treadle, treadle bar, footman, and the tension screw that shifts the mother-of-all to loosen or tighten the drive band. (6) A book on the care of spinning wheels (carefeedingofspi00paul): legs, flyer, treadle, bobbin, footman, hooks, orifice, tension screw, maiden, mother-of-all. (7) A craft-of-spinning book (wholecraftofspin00krol): the mother-of-all is the wooden bar that holds the maidens; drive wheel, flyer, orifice, hooks. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's tool, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

This spinning wheel to label has two drawings on one sheet. Numbers 1 to 7 are on the whole wheel, seen from the side. Numbers 8 to 14 are on the flyer, drawn large underneath.

Read the full guide

Word bank to label the spinning wheel parts

In alphabetical order, to copy onto the board: bobbin, drive band, drive wheel, flyer, footman, hooks, legs, maidens, mother-of-all, orifice, table, tension screw, treadle, whorl.

Pairs that get mixed up

Two long boards: 3 is the sloping one the wheel stands on (table), 8 the bar under the enlarged flyer (mother-of-all). 5 is the board near the floor (treadle), 6 the rod that climbs from it to the hub (footman). In the lower drawing two things sit on one shaft: 10 is the grooved pulley beside the left upright (whorl), 13 the spool (bobbin). 12 is the U-shaped piece round that spool (flyer), 11 the hooks on top of it.

When marking, also accept wheel on line 1, pedal on line 5, pulley on line 10 and spool on line 13.

Questions and answers

What is a whorl on a spinning wheel?

A round pulley that the drive band runs on. The wheel on this sheet has one, on the shaft of the flyer. A double drive wheel has a second, smaller whorl on the bobbin.

What is the difference between a single drive and a double drive spinning wheel?

A single drive wheel has one drive band, which here runs from the drive wheel to the whorl on the flyer. On a double drive wheel the band goes around the wheel twice and turns both the flyer and the bobbin.

What is a great wheel or walking wheel?

An early type of spinning wheel, also called a wool wheel. It is turned by hand, not by a treadle as the wheel on this sheet is, and the yarn spins off a spindle's tip.

What is a distaff on a spinning wheel?

The part that holds the fiber waiting to be spun. A flax wheel is used with one. This wheel is drawn without a distaff, so no number on the sheet asks for it.