Elizabeth is spinning flax on one of her first wheels. The wheel has a flyer--rather than a spindle. When the flax is spun, it becomes linen. Flax is dressed on a distaff which permits it to be fed nicely into the flyer. Obviously, flax fibers are considerably longer than cotton or wool fibers. The flax she is spinning has a nice straw color. Probably several years have elapsed since the seeds were planted to grow this flax. There is a lengthy process involved in processing the plant before it can be spun.

Elizabeth is shown here standing in tall cotton at Jimmy Carter's boyhood home near Plains, Georgia. She points to a large bloom ready for picking. While most commercially grown cotton is much shorter, this is truly tall cotton and certainly easier to pick if you have a bad back.