Spinning thread

We weave threads into cloth. But how are threads made? Your book starts with a ball of cotton. Pull it out gently to make a strand, then twist the strand slowly with your fingers. As you twist it, it becomes stronger. You can wind the twisted strand onto a pencil, adding more cotton as you go.

This twisting of cotton fibres together to make thread or yarn is called spinning. A charkha, or spinning wheel, helps to spin thread from cotton, just as the pencil does. If you untwist a cotton strand, you get thin, hair-like threads. Each one is called a fibre.

Gandhi ji showed us how important it is to be self-sufficient — to be able to make what we need ourselves. Making our own cloth, by spinning thread from cotton and weaving it into fabric, became a symbol of the freedom struggle and of becoming atmanirbhar (self-sufficient). The cloth made this way is called khadi.