Timeless Tips from Homemakers of the Past is an ongoing series highlighting useful and thought provoking tidbits from the generations of homemakers who have gone before us.\u00a0 Our goal at Sheep Among Wolves is to provide a forum for Good and Great literature, and to help you in your quest for godly, high-quality resources.\u00a0 It is our hope that these Timeless Tips will be an aid and encouragement to you as you strive to follow the example of Titus 2, and become a keeper of the home.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re searching for a needle in a haystack!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, in all honesty, I was.\u00a0 While my search engine was cheerfully displaying, in large type, the astounding fact that my search for sewing books had brought up 1,374 results<\/em><\/strong>, anyone looking over my shoulder would have had the right to assume I was on a hopeless search.<\/p>\n

What was I looking for in this wilderness of reference books?<\/p>\n

How to thread a needle with yarn.<\/p>\n

And anyone who has ever tried the experiment will assure you that trying to find the needle in the proverbial haystack just might prove a shorter job than getting the yarn in the needle once it\u2019s been found.<\/p>\n

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How I Came To Lose the Needle In the First Place<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Doubtless you are going to ask, why didn\u2019t I just google \u201chow to thread a needle with yarn?\u201d<\/p>\n

My answer is perfectly ridiculous.\u00a0 \u201cBecause I already knew how.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with this story is that I have started it halfway through.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, several years ago, I didn\u2019t know the secret to threading a needle with yarn.\u00a0 At that time, I lived down the road from a dear lady who had learned to knit in Holland before she was old enough to go to school.\u00a0 She had been knitting all her life, and she knew all the little tricks for making knitting and crocheting and every sort of work with yarn, quicker and easier.<\/p>\n

I learned to thread a needle from her.<\/p>\n

And as it is a very easy secret which saves a great deal of time and trouble, I thought I would share it with you.\u00a0 And I found a nice public domain sewing book which outlined the steps in detail.\u00a0 And I copied out the instructions, and added clarification wherever it needed it, and I saved my document, and closed the internet window, and went happily away, intending to finish the post when I came back.<\/p>\n

In due time, back I came, and opened my document.<\/p>\n

And Where Had My Reference Gone?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Lo and behold, there were the instructions, but not a shadow of an indication where I had gotten them from!<\/p>\n

I had not noted the name of the book.\u00a0 I had not mentioned the author.\u00a0 I had not saved the link.<\/p>\n

I had a lovely set of historic instructions, but I did not have the least idea who to credit for them.<\/p>\n

And so here I was, with a mind-boggling 1,374 books to choose from, and somewhere, buried amongst those 1,374 pieces of hay, were three short paragraphs on how to thread a needle with a piece of yarn.<\/p>\n

I can only be thankful that I did not spend the remainder of the day clicking on links, and reading through tables of contents!\u00a0 Amazingly, I was able to scan down, clicking on titles that sounded familiar, and discover the missing volume in a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Timeless Tip, as I have now reaffirmed, comes from Sewing: Handicraft For Girls<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by Idabelle McGlauflin.\u00a0 If you follow the instructions carefully, you will find threading a needle twice as easy as I found locating the instructions, both the first time and the second.<\/p>\n

How To Thread a Needle with Yarn<\/strong><\/h5>\n

What You Will Need<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
• yarn<\/li>\n
• a needle with a large eye<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Step One:\u00a0Loosen The End<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

  \u201cPrepare the yarn by loosening the end with the needle.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 I think I may have seen this described as \u201cfraying\u201d the yarn.\u00a0 Take the tip of the needle, and separate the strands that the yarn is made of.\u00a0 This will make the end of the yarn wider than it was before, but it will also make it as flat as possible.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Step Two:\u00a0Fold The Yarn Over The Needle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

  \u201cPlace the yarn over the point of the needle, and draw into a smooth loop.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 In other words, fold the yarn tightly around the end with the point.\u00a0 Once it\u2019s in place, pinch the yarn firmly just below the needle, with your left hand.\u00a0 You want your finger so close to the needle that it is hard to tell whether you are pinching the yarn or the needle.<\/p>\n

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  Step 3:\u00a0Pull The Needle Out Of The Yarn<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

  \u201cDraw the needle out . . .\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Keep your left thumb and forefinger holding the yarn tightly, and use your right hand to pull the needle out.\u00a0 You now have a crisply folded piece of yarn in one hand, and the needle in the other.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Step 4:\u00a0Thread The Needle Onto The Folded Yarn<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

  \u201c. . . thread into the loop.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 This wording is a little confusing, but it is very simple to do. Open your fingers just far enough that you can see the edge of the yarn, and put the eye of the needle down over it, as if the needle were a bead, and you were threading it onto a string.\u00a0 The key is to keep the crisp, folded edge of the yarn still, and put the needle onto<\/em> the yarn.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  And there you have it!\u00a0 A perfectly threaded needle with yarn.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Finding The Needle In The Haystack<\/strong><\/h5>\n

  When I come to think of it, these little homemaking treasures are a lot like a tiny silver needle.\u00a0 They are useful.\u00a0 They are valuable.\u00a0 They can make a difficult or laborious job easy and even pleasant.<\/p>\n

  But they are very often buried very deep amongst the surrounding hay.\u00a0 Without the help of my neighbour down the road, I wouldn\u2019t have even known<\/em> there was an easy way to put a thick strand of yarn into a tiny needle hole.\u00a0 And yet it seems to have been common knowledge, taught in American public schools, a hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

  Dear ladies, don\u2019t let the needle get lost in the first place.\u00a0 The next generation doesn\u2019t need to hunt through an intimidating haystack if we can put the needle directly into their hands.\u00a0 Today\u2019s post is for both mothers and daughters.\u00a0 It is passing on to both of you a needle which I happened to find in my neighbour\u2019s haystack.\u00a0 Or perhaps, to be less poetical, but more accurate, a needle which my neighbour put into my very hands, and I lost\u2014and then found\u2014in a digital haystack of 1,374 search results.<\/p>\n

  Either way, pass it on.<\/p>\n

  The quotations in this article were taken from Sewing: Handicraft For Girls<\/strong>,<\/a> by Idabelle McGlauflin.<\/p>\n

  To learn why teaching handwork is so helpful in teaching our daughters to be godly, virtuous women, take a look at last week\u2019s post:<\/p>\n

  <\/a>You might also enjoy:<\/p>\n

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  What supplies are necessary before you start sewing?<\/p><\/div>\n

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  A beautiful comparison on the transitiveness of life.<\/p><\/div>\n

  <\/a>

  Is there a right way to sew on a button? Does it matter?<\/p><\/div>\n

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  This post may have been shared with the following linkups: The Art of Homemaking Mondays,<\/a> Monday\u2019s Musings,<\/a> The Modest Mom,<\/a> Titus 2 Tuesday,<\/a> Tuesdays With A Twist,<\/a> Homemaking Wednesdays,<\/a> Wise Woman Linkup,<\/a> Coffee and Conversation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Timeless Tips from Homemakers of the Past is an ongoing series highlighting useful and thought provoking tidbits from the generations of homemakers who have gone before us.\u00a0 Our goal at… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-proverbs-31-woman"],"yoast_head":"\n