Niddy-Noddy

I love looking at old paintings, specially of life and I was noticing something when I was looking at pictures of the home. They can tell us a lot about daily activities, customs and the tools they used. The one thing I was surprised by though was the little lack of evidence regarding, knitting, sewing, spinning and weaving in the home. Unless they are actually doing the craft there isn’t hints of it in the home. Yet if you look close, there are hints. Not always obvious ones but they’re hidden there. One of the things I have been finding a lot of is swifts, which I have talked about before, and the niddy-noddy.

Pieter Pietersz Antwerp 1540-1603 Spinner using a niddy noddy

A fun word to say, but for a useful tool for spinners. When you Spin you place all of your work onto a bobbin, the next task for a spinner to do is remove it from the bobbin and stretch it. You do this by often by winding the bobbin onto a niddy-noddy or swift. While sits vary in styles through time, the niddy-noddy changes barely. With a single shaft often varying in length depending on the measurement of skein a spinner is going for in the long run. It then has two limbs perpendicular to one another often with a curve on one or both ends to hold the yarn in place while you wind it. The adornments and carvings may vary from piece to piece but the basic shape is still the same.

Me wrapping some romney wool that I just spun around the niddy noddy.

A worker will Wind around them all creating multiple V’s as they work. The length of the center shaft can also help determine the length of the skein or at least make it easier to measure how much how many yardages you have completed. The constant motion is rhythmic, and one doesn’t start it unless they know they can do it without putting it down.

This tool I find often though, hanging on a wall, sitting on the floor. It is amazing that while there are no other hints of textiles in the house, this little device is there winking at us saying, never fear this house spun, this house knew yarn, and this house was full of art.

A detail of a painting by Marten Van Cleve of aAntwerp 1527-1581. The niddy noddy is haning on the bench next to a pole that may be a distaff. No other signs of spinning, knitting or sewing in the home.