10/06/2026
Another amazing find at the same antique shop in Margaree, Cape Breton.
Two antique/primitive niddy noddy's.
From the pioneer women of Margaree.
A niddy noddy is a tool used by hand spinners to wind freshly spun yarn off a bobbin into a neat, manageable loop (called a "skein")
We spinners still use niddy noddys today... but I prefer to use the old tools rather than the new smooth, uniform, factory made ones. There is something deeply connected to the past, the lives, the sheep, the land, and the hands that held these tools for generations.
I also think of the so many years spent sitting in an old barn not being used at all!
Old wood may hold no mind, yet it remembers. I imagine when our hands hold these old tools once again and begin winding spun wool in that old familiar turning motion, warming the dry wood, adding new layers of lanolin to the old sheep lanolin from the past...the old wood wakes from its 50 year slumber to continue the exact motion it was born to make. There is something very beautiful and satisfying in that.
Being a spinner, I know it is a task that demands a steady rhythm and luls you into deep thought and relaxation. So, back in those 'olden days' although running a pioneer homestead on sheer manual labor was hard and the spinning task was demanded by necessity, I also beleive on the other hand it offered the women a break from the laborous duties giving them a time to think, reflect and pray. Yes, a quiet sanctuary, a welcomed chore.
These old niddy noddys hold a story and history that is so disconnected and known from todays way of life. It kinda makes me sad.
It's like the verse in a John Prine song "Souvenirs"
"I hate graveyards and old pawn shops, for they always bring me tears,"
