Roundwood Niddy Noddy (I needed a niddy noddy, so I made a niddy noddy!)

I feel like this project was like a chapter in "If You Give a Mouse a Muffin"--ha! I needed a pouch to attach to my purse to hold our little car booper thing that unlocks the car doors. Of course, I didn't have matching yarn. BUT, I did have matching roving. So I spun my own yarn...only to find out I needed a niddy noddy. I was going to do one of those PVC niddy noddies...but I didn't want to spend the money and have more plastic. And I realized that niddy noddies didn't look too much more complicated than the compound mallet I'd learned to do for the Round Wood badge (thanks, PEP, for teaching me useful skills! It's really empowering!).

So, I grabbed two sticks of seasoned maple wood from our woodpile, and went out to the woods and cut off a relatively straight maple branch for the middle. I wanted to use dry wood to prevent splitting and shrinkage (I wanted my niddy noddy to be easy to take apart and swivel), and used green/fresh wood for the middle because it's a LOT easier to carve.



Carved off the bark from the middle stick



And carved off the bark from the other sticks, so it'd be smooth



Then, carved the ends down to pegs the side that fit my drill bit.



And then drilled through (I used an antique manual drill, but a normal drill would do, too!). I pre-drilled with a small bit to act as a guide for when I drilled with the big bit.



Sanded everything down (and carved shallow divets near the ends of the end pieces to help keep the yarn from falling off), and skeined my yarn!



If I'd been good, I would have made it be a specific size, but I really didn't care, as I'm not selling my yarn. Each wind on it is a little over 100 inches. This is about 160 feet of yarn! Now to figure out how to set the twist, and then on to making the pouch!


I couldn't find any tutorials on how to make a roundwood niddy noddy, so I thought I'd make my own. I love how it cost nothing!

I'm just here because I wanted to know what something with such an awesome name looked like..

Nicely done, very permie!

Awesome Job Nicole!
I came to see what a niddy noddy is!
Now I know!
In my case, I also know I'll probably never need one!  But if I ever do... I'll know where to look!

Excellent job, Nicole!

I have a woven cotton blanket that is damaged beyond being useful. I intend to harvest the yarn to reuse for another project. For ease of knowing how much yarn I have, I would like to make a niddy noddy as well, but am interested in doing it the "correct" dimensions. Can anyone tell me what those dimensions are?

That is, assuming that the tool does help with quick yardage calculations.

I don't know the correct dimensions, and I'm really tempted to make a new middle piece that's smaller, because I'm often making small amounts of yarn, and I the large niddy noddy is a bit tooo large for that!

Hmmm... It doesn't necessarily measure correct yardage, because...

When you wrap yarn on to the niddy noddy it's under tension. When you take it off the yarn relaxes, and it's going to be slightly shorter. The yarn is going to change further when you wash it. Crimp will be activated, the plying and spinning twist will balance out and skeins often shrink further.  https://www.hilltopcloud.co.uk/skein-length.html

The length of a skein is defined as one full wrap around the niddy noddy. I think. So to make a 2 yard (72") skein, the niddy noddy should be built 18" long ... Right? Then due to tension, the true measurement will be shorter.

Oh fiber mavens, what is an easy to handle skein size?