Grandmother's spindle (Kyrgyzstan)

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Grandmother's spindle (Kyrgyzstan)

One can endlessly watch a grandmother’s skillful hands effortlessly turning sheep's wool into woollen yarn...The woollen yarn would be then used for making the majority of items needed for supporting life. The spindle played an important role in the household economy, especially given the deficiency of consumer goods in the Soviet period. Dowry for daughters was made by hand with a spindle. Knitting clothes, making carpets, weaving straw mats, ropes for horse gear, parts of a yurt, ribbons for fixing the yurt, etc, all started with a spindle. Thus women supported the economic foundation of the family. Everything was made by hand, and the skills were passed on from generation to generation...

Kyrgyz women kept the tradition of producing woollen yarn throughout the Soviet period and passed it onto the next generations. Spinning on a spindle serves as a symbol of life. On the one hand, the process of spinning yarn is about movement, it is a dynamic process and it is energy. On the other hand, it is about life going on: a sheep's life goes on in its wool, a grandmother's loving hands keep caring through the warm woollen clothes and socks that she made. 

Traditionally, a Kyrgyz spindle is formed of a dome shaped rock and a wooden stick. With the arrival of electricity and power lines in villages in the 1930 - 40s, people started using the parts of power lines in other household capacities. As power lines reached the distant villages, spare parts of the new infrastructure got embedded in the daily life of the Kyrgyz people. Thus, a ceramic power line insulator replaced a dome shaped rock in a spindle, which is more difficult to make.  

Wool was always part of village life and especially in the family of my grandparents. My grandfather, Meimanaly Yusubaliev, was known in the whole district as a leader and a person with a big loving heart. Soviet Kyrgyzstan exported livestock, meat, wool in the large volumes. My grandfather led a district-level procurement entity which collected wool and other agricultural products from citizens, in order to process and send products further to the centre. This spindle in the photo belonged to my grandmother, Ergeshbaeva Toktoaiym. She was born in 1935 in Aksy district, Jalal-Abad province, Kyrgyzstan.   

A powerful woman with a strong character and a sense of humour, who was able to manage a large number of demanding relatives. My grandparents raised ten children together. My grandmother cooked large meals every day for her ten children and another fifteen-twenty nephews and relatives who would come to eat at their place every day. 

Her children would play outside for the whole day. At the end of the day, the kids would return home and leave their boots and socks. My grandmother used to dry ten pairs of her childrens’ boots. She would spend many evenings making woollen yarn, by rolling the spindle on her side. She then knitted and fixed the socks of her ten children. She supported the family economy both in Soviet period and also in post- Soviet crisis. 

After my grandfather passed away, difficult times arrived. She was left alone to raise her children and smartly used the resources and skills available to her. She was a central figure, everyone was around her, her children and more than thirty grandchildren. We would all sit down around her and she would tell intriguing stories and legends in the evenings. As a child I remember that grandmother used to collect some of her numerous grandchildren around herself and clean piles of wool together with them. We helped her to clean huge amounts of wool even after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She would then sell this wool to Uighur entrepreneurs from China. Processing wool was something that my grandparents knew. And it was a way to generate income during the economic crisis. 

Some of my joyful memories include the times when I was quite small. In warm summer days we, my grandmother and several of her grandchildren, slept outside on a large and high trestle bed. So that we stayed warm at night, she wrapped each of us with a woollen headscarf. And so that we didn't fall on to the ground, she tied us with a rope around our waist and connected to the frame of the trestle bed. I am thankful to my aunt who thought that this spindle should be passed on to me and gave it to me. She thought it was me among other family members who appreciated and studied the heritage of the family. 

Rahat Yusubalieva is a Researcher, Oral History Blogger, Traveler 
MSc Management of Development Projects