One of my favourite tools is my thimble. Well, actually I use two. Since I am right handed, I have one on my thumb and another on my middle finger. The job of the thimble is to protect the finger from nasty, repetitive skin pricks while controlling the needle. Thumb thimble is used to stop the needle from travelling further and it protects my thumb in the process. Finger thimble's purpose is to pivot and rock the needle through as many stitches as possible before the needle meets up with thumb thimble. Once there, the needle pushes off thumb thimble to deliver up enough of its tip to allow me to pull the rest of it through the fabric.
I am a thimble tragic. Without these two thimbles I would be lost. They are very cheap to buy but priceless to own. I have tried others but I keep coming back to these. They have a cross hatch pattern on the top that seems to hold the needle but not too much.
The thimble with the dimples on the top are vexatious. The needle slips around the concavity and pops out before it can collect any stitches on it. I wonder if there is anyone who can tame this thimble?
Here is a picture of my thimble collection:
There are 10 thimbles. Three got in there somehow, because I can't throw things away, no matter how useless. The others belong to my thimble family: some are for winter and the rest are one size bigger for summer when my fingers have swollen just so slightly due to the heat. You may notice a film canister there. It holds thimbles perfectly and prevents them from getting lost. It travels in my sewing basket along with other essential items used in the quilting trade. One day, the film canister will be considered an antique of the 20th century. Perhaps the most valuable thing in this photo is the film canister!
