When I was a kid in Newfoundland, we would "thread, thread, the grandmother's needle" - everyone holding hands, with the leader going under the arch of a person next to the wall. As we continued singing the leader would go under the second set of hands, then third, etc, until everyone was turned backward with their arms crossed. Then the two open people joined to make a circle, where everyone is holding hands arms crossed. We jumped up and down singing the "Big ship sails on the alley-alley-oh, the alley-alley oh-"