You can buy charkas on eBay for rather less than Gandhi's one
. A friend and I have a yen to try to spin the cotton grass that grows on the moss hereabouts, but better spin regular cotton first, huh.
I spin flax on an Ashford Traddy and enjoy it. Slower is better, you want very low twist for flax. I've seen a serviceable distaff made from a broom, a paper cone and some ribbon, but I've been taught to wrap the long fibres loosely in a tea towel and spin from that, no distaff required.