Are you talking about spool knitting? We used to tap four and sometimes six nails (I think they called them "headless nails") into the top of a wooden spool and then put the tail of the yarn through the center of the spool, wrap the yarn around the nails, and use a small crochet hook or some other pick type thing to pull the loops over the yarn and make miles of what is called "I-cord", what I think you call the rat tail. Here is a link to some ready-made knitters on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=spool+knitters&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=28509832946&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4780436155906530765&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9mbs3qrz2s_b

And here is a YouTube video showing how the knitting is done:

Here is a link that might be useful: spool knitting

Thank you so much, Donna, for answering my posts. It seems to take forever to get any answers from this forum. Anyway, I appreciate your help. Will contact Joanns to find the wonder clips. (I just don't drive out of town any more). Went to Walmart .They had a spool and I did buy it, but it is for bulky yarn. I will have to look into some others because I want to buy my granddaughter one for Christmas. I think she would get a kick out of that. Thanks again. Barb