# Why is it called?



## nellig

Why is it called a niddy noddy? How did it get that name? Same for a diz. Why is it called a diz?


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## Irish knitter

what is a diz?


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## kaixixang

Irish knitter said:


> what is a diz?


Direct quote from a google search: What is a diz?
"A diz is used when you are combing the wool into a combed top. A combed top uses only the longest and strongest fibers and leaves the shorter fibers and noils in the comb. Combed top is best used for spinning worsted yarns. Using the diz is the last step to making a combed top after the combing is complete.
How to Use a Diz - The Joy of Handspinning"
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/how-to-use-a-diz-for-making-a-combed-top/


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## mama879

I guess no one on this topic really knows me and my sense of humor. But I have wondered for years why what things are called, spelled the same with 2 different meanings, spelled different but the same but different meanings. Spinning came around from some one taking a bit of nature and twisting in there fingers so they say. Will we ever know. How do we know they called it spinning and not winding. lol lol I do not ponder this every day but. I'm glad we are all learning here I know I am. Thanks ladies.


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## Ettenna

I didn't know what a "diz " was either-thanks for information!


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## Fluteplayer7

I got to use a diz last night for the first time. It combing and putting the fibers through the diz really did make them easier to spin.


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## Medieval Reenactor

Niddy is an old English name for head. The rhyme "Traditionally the niddy-noddy was used to the rhythm of a song, the opening line of which ran, ‘Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, two heads and one body.’" may give us a hint. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the noddy may be a nonsense phrase to go with niddy.


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## kaixixang

Fluteplayer7 said:


> I got to use a diz last night for the first time. It combing and putting the fibers through the diz really did make them easier to spin.


Can you pre-wind the fiber onto a cardboard tube ahead of time? I'm knitting just fast enough to free up 2-3 'spools' on my current project. I have a Drop Spindle... now I'm preparing myself for the future spinning effort. :sm24:


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## shepherd

Great answers! I never heard of a diz, but wondered what top was - see roving advertised as "top.....". Guess that means it has gone through a diz!
Did anyone else have trouble getting "diz" though spellcheck?


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## shepherd

Never knew about the word midd-noddy - fun. But always wondered about roving labeled "......top"
Did any one else have problems getting "diz" through spellcheck ?


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## kaixixang

shepherd said:


> Never knew about the word midd-noddy - fun. But always wondered about roving labeled "......top"
> Did any one else have problems getting "diz" through spellcheck ?


I think each KP user has to 'add' each new unknown spelled word to THEIR computers' spell-check. I'm on my wireless portable... cannot type the underline, etc text changes.


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## Irish knitter

Thank You for explainning it.....


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## run4fittness

Wow, that was educational and funny!


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## beaulynd

Thank you for explaining it.


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## nellig

Medieval Reenactor said:


> Niddy is an old English name for head. The rhyme "Traditionally the niddy-noddy was used to the rhythm of a song, the opening line of which ran, 'Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, two heads and one body.'" may give us a hint. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the noddy may be a nonsense phrase to go with niddy.


OK, then. That clears my niddy about the niddy noddy. It's funny how words get changed or not, in the case of the niddy noddy, niddy noddy, two heads and one body. Now that's going to go thru my head in a sing song all night. Ha, ha. 
Thank you for the explanation. Now if we only knew where diz came from...... What other spinning, weaving, dying terms seem to have no connection to what they are?


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## mama879

You are gonna open a big can of worms. I love it. Have to get our minds working AYE.


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## mama879

This is what I found on the Diz post;
Diz: A simple device that is usually made of a small thin piece of horn, shell or wood with one or more holes drilled into it. Combed or flicked locks of fiber can be drawn through a hole in the diz to produce roving.


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## wordancer

I xakways wonder about how the diz was used! Thanks!


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## Reba1

nellig said:


> What other spinning, weaving, dying terms seem to have no connection to what they are?


Hehehehe - I've always wondered where Lazy Kate came from...


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## nellig

Hmmmm. Good one. I tried to look it up but found nothing. Needs a more thorough search.


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## desireeross

My husband made my diz out of a sea shell. He drilled several different size holes. I diz off my carder


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## mama879

Do you need a doctor. lol lol You diz of your carder you do do ya... lol lol


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## a fool for fiber

A friend of mine heard me say niddy noddy and thought I was saying knitty knotty (or naughty) I got a chuckle out of that.


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## IndigoSpinner

mama879 said:


> I guess no one on this topic really knows me and my sense of humor. But I have wondered for years why what things are called, spelled the same with 2 different meanings, spelled different but the same but different meanings. Spinning came around from some one taking a bit of nature and twisting in there fingers so they say. Will we ever know. How do we know they called it spinning and not winding. lol lol I do not ponder this every day but. I'm glad we are all learning here I know I am. Thanks ladies.


Back in the Middle Ages, most "English" speaking people spoke Middle English. It even had a letter of the alphabet that we no longer have (the "thorn," which looks a little like a Y, and stands for a th sound, which is why you see those stupid signs put up by ignorant people that say "Ye Olde... to represent a thorn and an "E" to be the correct spelling to the). There were names for specific kinds of clothing. A lot of that clothing is no longer worn and the words have gone out of use. There are a lot of items that were in daily use then that we no longer use now, so those words have gone out of use, too.

Next week I'm going to be 73, and I've noticed that the popular names for the same things have changed even in my lifetime. When I was a kid, I wore dungarees. Now I wear jeans. They're the same thing, but the popular name for them has changed.

I suspect that a lot of the names for things connected with spinning haven't changed much since they came into use, largely because spinning has died out as an everyday craft that everyone did. Now there are people who do it for a hobby, but there was a time that everyone did it if they ever wanted to wear clothes again.

BTW, spinning wheels do _NOT_ have "spools!"

They have bobbins.

Yes, I know that someone pointed out to me that a woodworker made some spinning wheels and called the things on them "spools."

There are two kinds of people who make spinning wheels. Those who are spinners and learn woodworking so they could make great spinning wheels, and those who are woodworkers, and know the mechanics of how to make one particular kind of wheel, and are now making and selling them to make money. The later, who have learned something by rote and have no idea what they're doing call them "spools." _Real_ spinners know they're bobbins.


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## JuneB

Maybe diz meant hole in some fiber language and niddy noddy is like a waz a ma call it or a thing of a bob or how bout cursor... Such humor in slang


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## Cdambro

JuneB said:


> Maybe diz meant hole in some fiber language and niddy noddy is like a waz a ma call it or a thing of a bob or how bout cursor... Such humor in slang


There sure is humor in slang.


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## nellig

IndigoSpinner said:


> Back in the Middle Ages, most "English" speaking people spoke Middle English. It even had a letter of the alphabet that we no longer have (the "thorn," which looks a little like a Y, and stands for a th sound, which is why you see those stupid signs put up by ignorant people that say "Ye Olde... to represent a thorn and an "E" to be the correct spelling to the). There were names for specific kinds of clothing. A lot of that clothing is no longer worn and the words have gone out of use. There are a lot of items that were in daily use then that we no longer use now, so those words have gone out of use, too.
> 
> Next week I'm going to be 73, and I've noticed that the popular names for the same things have changed even in my lifetime. When I was a kid, I wore dungarees. Now I wear jeans. They're the same thing, but the popular name for them has changed.
> 
> I suspect that a lot of the names for things connected with spinning haven't changed much since they came into use, largely because spinning has died out as an everyday craft that everyone did. Now there are people who do it for a hobby, but there was a time that everyone did it if they ever wanted to wear clothes again.
> 
> BTW, spinning wheels do _NOT_ have "spools!"
> 
> They have bobbins.
> 
> Yes, I know that someone pointed out to me that a woodworker made some spinning wheels and called the things on them "spools."
> 
> There are two kinds of people who make spinning wheels. Those who are spinners and learn woodworking so they could make great spinning wheels, and those who are woodworkers, and know the mechanics of how to make one particular kind of wheel, and are now making and selling them to make money. The later, who have learned something by rote and have no idea what they're doing call them "spools." _Real_ spinners know they're bobbins.


In fifty years will bobbins be called spools and very few will have heard of a bobbin? 
Thanks for the info about the extra letter. You'd think Williamsburg, VA would have taught me that. I've been there many times and this is the first I've heard of it.


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## IndigoSpinner

desireeross said:


> My husband made my diz out of a sea shell. He drilled several different size holes. I diz off my carder


If you search on the beach, you can often find shells with a small hole in them already.


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## kaixixang

IndigoSpinner said:


> If you search on the beach, you can often find shells with a small hole in them already.


Saves on drill/drimel bits. If you don't have those tightened correctly the bit could snap or do mischief to the intended drilling object. :sm24:


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