Interactive Activity: Niddy-Noddy

<Tool Demonstration: Winding Yarn

Wait for the file to download, then click the arrow to play the movie.

Transcript of movie: Once the spindle on a great wheel is full, the yarn needs to be taken off. I would put it on a niddy-noddy to let the twists settle in overnight and also to measure it. Once around the niddy-noddy is two yards. Then I would remove the yarn and hand twist it into what is called a skein and it stays that way until I'm ready to knit and then I would roll the skein into a ball, and could do my knitting. In the 19th century, a woman might say the following rhyme as she measures the yarn as she wraps it around the niddy-noddy: Niddy noddy, niddy noddy. Two heads, one body. ‘Tis one, ‘tain’t two, ‘Twill be two by and by. ‘Tis two, ‘tain’t three, ‘Twill be three by and by, etc.