Darning needle

“ The ends of the prongs meet and form a blunt point, not fastened like the eye of a common needle, but left open, that the thread or twine may pass between them, and be wound upon the needle. The prongs are brought to a point, in order that the [26] needle may pass through a small loop without interruption. Twine to form foundations. A fine long darning needle for bead work. Meshes of various, sizes from No. 1 to 11. Flat meshes, and ivory meshes; also of various sizes. The gauge is the same as that for knitting-needles.
NECESSARY IMPLEMENTS FOR CROCHET.
Ivory crochet needles of various sizes. ”

“ N is filled with darning-stitch, the lines following the direction of the curve. Darning cannot be done in a frame in the same manner as when held loose in the hand. The needle must go in with one hand and be drawn down with the other, the same as with all work done in a frame. The stitches are about a quarter of an inch long and a very little of the ground is left between each. The rows of stitches also lie close together. The shading and proportion should be done to match E, and the different shades should ‘dovetail’ into each other as in the satin-stitch. ”

“ Mending knitting.—Knitted articles are repaired by reconstructing the web with a needle and thread. When the stitches are not actually broken, they can be strengthened by new ones made over them, by means of a needle and thread.
Materials for darning stockings.—The thread used for darning a stocking should be a little finer than that of which it is made. Coton à repriser D.M.C [A] is the best, for as it consists of several strands it can be subdivided as occasion requires.
Strengthening the stitches (figs. 366 and 367) .—This can be done in two ways. In fig. ”

“ The needle, having no head like a pin to stop it, slips right into the flesh. Sometimes the patient is not certain whether it is there or not, as it may have worked out again, for the danger in these cases arises from the tendency of the needle to travel through the flesh, doing great mischief as it goes along. What is the doctor to do? If he is quite sure that it is there and can feel it, he will of course cut it out; but he has to be very cautious. A needle is so fine and slender, that sometimes, even when he thinks he can feel it with the point of a probe, he finds himself mistaken. ”

“ The preparation of the pattern, in most kinds of needlework, is a most important matter and one requiring the greatest care, but in the case of needle-made lace and pillow lace the processes are different. ”

“ Position of the hands (fig. 2) .—The stuff, fastened to a cushion, must be held with the left hand, which should neither rest on the table, nor on the cushion, the needle must be held between the thumb and forefinger, of the right hand, and the middle finger, armed with the thimble, pushes the needle far enough through the stuff, for the other fingers to take hold of it and draw it out; the thread then comes to lie between the fourth and fifth fingers in the form of a loop, which must be tightened gradually to avoid its knotting. ”

“ The needle, too, is a feature seldom absent from the man’s neck and girdle, being a sharp-pointed bit of iron or brass with which they pierce the skins and fasten them together with threads of bark; these needles are fitted into a wooden case, which the more fanciful decorate with bands of brass wire. ”

“ It is a mistake to be over-timid in attacking floss-silk. It requires a light but firm hand, and should be pulled fairly tight to get it to lie smoothly—a sort of little secondary jerk after drawing the needle through to the back. ”

“ Stitches in needlework correspond to the touches of the pencil or brush in drawing or painting, or to the strokes of the chisel in sculpture. The needle is the one implement of the craft by which endless forms of surface-work are executed. With a thread through its one eye, it blindly follows each effort of its pointed foot, urged by the intelligent or mechanical hand grouping the stitches, which, being long or short, single or mixed, slanting, upright, or crossed, are selected as the best fitted for the design and purpose in hand. ”

“ The needle is not in the least like the delicate, slender articles employed by European seamstresses. In the first place, it has no eye; and in the second, it is more like a skewer than a needle. If any of my classical readers will recall to their minds the “stylus” which the ancients used instead of a pen, he will have a very good idea of a Kaffir’s needle.
As the Kaffir likes to carry his needle about with him, he makes a sheath or case of leather. There is great variety in these cases. The simplest are merely made of strips of hide rolled round the needle, and sewed together at the edges. ”

“ Take a needleful of the palest of the three shades of blue floss and run round the traced outline of the upper portion of one of the petals. Never begin with a knot, but run a few stitches into a part that will be covered afterwards; to fasten it firmly just take a back-stitch and do not cut off the end till you have worked a few more stitches; always begin and end a needleful on the ‘right side’ of the work so as to have no loose ends at the back. Then bring the needle up from behind to the surface near the centre of the petal ”

“ Freeman and the author add to this by advocating the use of a somewhat blunt-pointed needle instead of the extremely sharply pointed knife-edged needles usually furnished with syringes intended for this purpose. ”

“ Stroking gathers (fig. 19) .—When you have run in your gathering thread, draw it up tight, and make it fast round the finger of your left hand, and then stroke down the gathers with a strong needle, so that they lie evenly side by side, pushing each gather, in stroking it, under your left thumb, whilst you support the stuff at the back with your other fingers. ”

“ Taking, therefore, a needle, armed with a double thread, we perforate the fleshy mass, pushing it through from the left canthus to the right, and then by means of the thread fastened to both of its extremities, we stretch the skin with the needle, and cut down upon it with a scalpel, removing the needle at the same time. ”

“ FLOATING NEEDLES Grease needles and let them float in a bowl of water, upon which tissue paper is laid. Each child has his, or her, own needle. It is amusing to watch the action of the needle when the paper sinks—as it does when it becomes saturated—the needles rush about. ”

“ Then thread a needle with a hair by the root, and slip it in, 2 or 3 m/m. from the one edge and back again pointed towards you, through the other, so that, neither needle nor hair, are visible on either side. The stitches should be set slightly slanting and must be quite lost in the thickness of the cloth. The needle must always be put in, exactly at the place where it came out, and the hair not be too tightly drawn. ”

“ The cotton should always be cut, as it is weakened by breaking.
Knotting the thread into the needle (fig. 1) .—When the thread becomes inconveniently short, and you do not want take a fresh one, it may be knotted into the needle, thus: bring it round the forefinger close to the needle, cross it on the inside next to the finger, hold the crossed threads fast, with the thumb draw the needle out through the loop thus formed, and tighten the loop round both ends. ”

“ Work an inch without shaping, then divide the st, putting half on to one needle for the heel, taking care that the decreasings made come in the centre of the needle.
The Heel.
Make an extra stitch, so that you have an odd number on the needle (you should then have 29 st) , and knit and purl a row alternately (always slipping the first st) until you have worked the same number of rows as you have st on the needle, ending with a purl row. ”

“ The word “stitches” does not, however, in this chapter represent merely the plural of one particular process of needle insertion, but the produce and effect of each different kind of stitch by grouping and repetition, according to its most ancient nomenclature. That which is astonishing is the endless variety of surface, of design, of hints and suggestions, of startling effects, and of lovely combinations, resulting from the direction of the needle and manipulation of the materials, and differing from each other according to the power or the caprice of the worker. ”

“ It is said that if we transfix, with a steel needle, a large nerve of a living animal, as the great ischiatic, and let it remain in that condition a suitable time, the needle becomes permanently magnetized. ”

“ Formaldehyd catgut can be used if it is desirable; its fine strands withstand absorption to a greater degree than the ordinary.
Fig. 37.—5⁄8 Circle Haagedorn Needles.
Fig. 38.—Crescent Curve Haagedorn Needles.
Needles.—Very fine, flat, round-eye needles, such as Haagedorn’s, Nos. 12 to 15, 1⁄2 or 5⁄8 circle, are the most serviceable in skin work, as they incise the skin in penetrating and leave an elongated slit, which heals readily, rarely leaving a needle scar. The selection of needles, however, must be left to the operator, many preferring the one variety to the other. ”

“ The work should proceed from left to right. The needle should be brought up in the outline, drawn out the full length of the thread, then sent down in advance and carried out on the outline again a short distance in front of the point at which it was put in. Again the needle should be sent through in advance on the line, thus forming an unbroken, partly double line on the face and a series of short backstitches on the wrong side of the fabric. The thread must be kept always on one side of the needle. It is more convenient to some workers to throw it back. See Fig. IV a.
[Pg 16] ”

“ I think everybody needs a little needling now and then."
Bilford nodded. "I know you agree with him. You're a bigger needler than he is, any day."
"Me?" Roysland looked surprised.
"Yes, you. Eckisster's needling is effective in a limited way, but yours is not only effective, but efficient. You ask the kind of questions that make people think instead of the kind that make people mad. Where Eckisster jabs in all directions and people jump, you use your needle with the deftness and precision of a physician using a hypodermic. Eckisster doesn't know what he wants and he doesn't know how to get it. ”

“ Fig. 58. Double hem-stitch.
Antique hem-stitch (figs. 59, 60, 61 and 62) . In the old, elaborate, linen needlework, we often meet two kinds of hem-stitching seldom found in modern books on needle-work. Figs. 59 to 62 are magnified representations of the same. At the necessary depth for forming a narrow hem, a thread is drawn, in the case of very fine textures where the edge is rolled, not laid; then fasten in the working thread at the left, and work the stitches from left to right. ”

“ Beads come in all sizes from the tiny ones that are no bigger than a top of a pin to the large ones the size of a marble. Sometimes you can get odd-shaped beads, flat on one side and curved on the other. A string that is pretty enough to wear on state occasions can be made of heart-shaped and round beads.
The regular bead needle is very fine and long. [279] It is better when stringing a single strand to double the thread. Use linen thread No. 100 or 150. Thread the needle with a piece of thread eight inches longer than double the length of the necklace. ”

“ One of the boys at my school had a large steel magnet—that is, steel that had been rubbed with the loadstone—and it was the funniest thing in the world to see a dozen needles sticking to it at once, like so many quills upon a porcupine.”
“But what has this to do with the compass?” inquired Lily. ”

“ I am journeying far to find a certain kind of needle. This morning I shot my arrow at a tree, but it glanced, and tore a big hole in the wizard shoemaker’s leather apron. I must mend this, or he will do me harm, and to do it I must have a certain kind of needle which neither man can give me, nor woman can give me ”

“ The inner outlines, also marked B on the sampler, are done in the same stitch, in the one case set in straight and in the other slanting. The tiny rosettes above are worked by setting the needle in at the same place at each stitch. By drawing the thread fairly tight, a small neat hole is arrived at in the [75] centre of each; if the linen is very hard and strong, the spot should be pierced with a stiletto before working. ”

“ A long needle is thrust (between the fifth and sixth ribs) into the heart, a proceeding that is not at all dangerous, provided that the needle does not enter below a certain depth. The needle must be of such length that about one half of it projects from the chest; the slightest movement of the heart will cause that part of the needle which is visible to vibrate. ”

“ I have not, in my own practice, ventured to use needles of greater length than one inch, and one inch and a half; and the instrument which I use is an ingenious adaptation of a common sewing needle to an ivory handle, constructed by Mr. Edward Jukes, Surgeon Accoucheur to the Westminster Medical Institution (see plate, fig. 1 and 2.)
Dr. Haime, and I believe the French surgeons who practice acupuncturation, use this long needle (three inches) and Mr. Demours, who appears to be a man of considerable mechanical genius, has lately invented a new apparatus for this purpose. ”

“ For the initial puncture in sensitive or inflamed tissue, it is proper to use a needle of the finest lumen so as to cause the least possible amount of pain. The ordinary needle, which comes with the usual hypodermic outfit, is about the proper length for the ordinary work already mentioned, but could be improved upon for anesthesia by being made a little finer in calibre. This length (three-quarters of an inch) will be frequently found insufficient to reach the deeper tissues and in the [Pg 239] removal of a more or less rounded growth, a longer needle must be selected at the start. ”