In the 18th and 19th centuries, women used niddy-noddys to measure yarn (once around was 2 yards) and to keep it from tangling. One hand held the center vertical piece while the other hand wrapped the yarn around the two horizontal members. Its design inspired the rhyme, “Niddy-noddy niddy-noddy, two heads and one body. ‘Tis one, ’tain’t two, will be two by and by.”