A couple of years ago I made a special needle book, the last page of which was an "honourable hard work" page for retired needles.
According to Japanese tradition retired needles are stuck into a block of tofu and thanks are given for their help in the years work. I am thankful (but not to Mr John James!) for my needles but I refuse to waste tofu and instead the HD3QBEM and I are having a tofu dinner tonight.
Our local haberdashery store has relocated to another suburb so I was not able to get the very narrow ribbon to complete the Christmas Stockings but I am pleased with the way these have turned out. After experimenting on these I have decided that I like my hardanger picots to be knobs not loops and have made the 'life decision' to make knobs from now on :-)
Tonight I plan to return to my Casket stitching and build a house - well perhaps lay the foundations.
![Fabric Bomb](<center><a href="http://elizabethsquarters.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img alt="elizabethsquarters" src="http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg496/mail133/FABRICBOMBSBUTTON_zps712e564f.jpg"/></a></center>)
6 comments:
What an interesting tradition and it has opened your eyes to the make of needles you use...um and so do I. Wonder how many I get through? hope you enjoyed your tofu dinner. Ali x
I was reminded of this yesterday on plays with needles blog. Your needle book is so neat. Have you tried Piecemaker needles - I use them all the time. They're not as good as they used to be but they're the best I've found.
For some reason I miss this date every year! I have my collection of broken needles in a glas jar; it's getting so full I would need a large block of tofu! However, I'd rather eat the tofu than 'waste' it.
What a great idea. I have no idea where my old needles go. They just vanish into the ether!
Beautiful hardanger stockings!
You get the Greatest Number of Broken Needles Award Margaret!! I am beginning to think that John James must have changed the manufacturing of their needles because I've had more trouble with new packs than with old ones. I have no idea if this is true but perhaps they would like our needles to break more so we'll buy more packs??? Hope you have a new year of stitching full of blessings and bounty...and fewer broken needles!! xo Susan
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