Production of the material includes several stages: silk floss is spun into yarn by hand, with patterns added by hand-tying bundles of yarn before dyeing the yarn with indigo, then the silk is woven using a back-tension loom.

UNESCO: Culture

In addition to the 5, 300 pounds of the module's contents that are destined to be spun into cotton yarn (which in turn could produce about 13, 500 T-shirts), the module also contains 9, 000 pounds of bolls, stems, leaves, and dirt that have been sucked in along with cotton by Nelson's stripper (see Figure 3.5).

NPR: Texas Cotton: 'Farmer Profits at Every Step'

In 1764, English carpenter James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, a machine that spun multiple threads of yarn at once, increasing production eight-fold.

FORBES: Autonomics Will Change The Future Of Office Work (Ask Siri)