Tuesday, April 20, 2010

ABC Wednesday


The letter this week is N, and N stands for Niddy Noddy.



Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, two heads and one body


The niddy-noddy is a spinner's good friend that enables her/him to wind wool directly from the bobbin after spinning or plying and measure the length of the wool at the same time.


Wikipedia has a very informative article here which explains the use and value of the niddy-noddy to spinners who must remove the yarn they have made from the bobbin into skeins for washing or dyeing.


I can attest to this, having had many skeins of wet wool weighted down at the bottom and hanging from shower heads or pinned to coat hangers, - practically as good as wet nylons in the business of irritating husbands.



A niddy-noddy can be quite elegant when it is made out of wood, lathed and polished, or it can be very practical if made at home from PVC - instructions can be found here in a great blog written by DoctorDirt and entitled As the Yarn Turns.


Are you a knitter?  Do you have some knitted wool you want to salvage or recycle?  A niddy-noddy is your answer.....as seen here on scarlet-zebra.com.




For more interpretations of the letter N pop over to ABC Wednesday - you never know what you will learn.....

10 comments:

Sylvia K said...

What an interesting post! Love your photos! I use to knit a lot when my kids were growing up, but haven't done it in years. Have to admit though, I hadn't heard of this! I love it! Hope your week is going well!

Sylvia

Troy said...

I would Never in Ninety Nine years come up with this word. In fact, even after I read it, I had no idea what it was until I read your post.

I love it when I can be entertained, educated and enlightened all in one post.

Nice job!

On behalf of the ABC Wednesday Team, Thanks for participating this week. Hope you can join us again next week.

Troy

jabblog said...

How very interesting! I'd never heard of a niddy-noddy before - I love the name. Fabulous post :-)

Mara said...

What a funny word. I was expecting something like a see-saw (which I think is also a funny word), but never something like this. I would probably have called it a yarn-winder or something similar!

Reader Wil said...

This is indeed a very useful instrument for knitters! I had never heard of it until I read your post! So I have learned a new word and its meaning. Thank you!

Lisa said...

I don't have a clue how to knit, so this is fascinating to me! What a fun name for such a practical tool.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I had never heard of a niddy noddy before. Very interesting post Hildred.

Joy said...

What a great name and object. My mother was a big knitter. A niddy-noddy would have saved me having to hold my arms out as a human niddy-noddy.

Roger Owen Green said...

A knitted niddy-noody. NEVER heard of it! Interesting.


ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Jay said...

Ah, so that's what it is!! What a useful device. So simple, and yet so clever!