Well, I'd never heard of a Yubinuki either, but it's a sterling silver thimble ring. Once I realized that I could use and wear it while still having the end of my finger free, I was interested. I'm always taking my thimble off to be able to knot a thread or whatever. I'm still getting used to this ring, but it's becoming more and more natural and I really like it.
Our local Sewing Guild's first meeting of the year was Monday, and our program was Thimbles by TJ Lane. TJ's daughter, who makes thimbles along with her mother, lives in Lincoln, so it was easy to get her to come for a meeting. She's presented a delightful program, and tempted us all with her beautiful custom-fit thimbles, as well as chatelaines and all the accoutrements one could dream of.
One thing that really surprised me is that the closed end thimbles are very poor sellers for them, and so they're slowly discontinuing them. That was what I would definitely have wanted had I not seen these, but the open styles are much more decorative, and of course they allow a long nail to fit through the thimble, so I can see why they may be more popular.
Luckily I have some hand sewing to do lately in finishing a skirt, so I'm getting some practice with my new thimble, and it takes a little practice, since now I need to push from the side all the time, and usually I just push wherever.
3 comments:
Oh I love that! It always seems to me that the end of the thimble gets in the way as I usually try to push with the side, and many thimbles have smooth sides that make them difficult if you are a side-ways pusher like me. Still, I never knew there were end-less thimbles.
What a great thimble. I don't usually use one but yesterday I tried as I had hard (micro suede) fabric to hand stitch and I couldn't seem to keep the thimble on. I think the nail was too long.
Actually, a traditional yubinuki (lit. "finger brace") was made of bias fabric, washi (or leather or light cardboard), and thrums/orts. I've just made my third. Not only do they give you a better place to push against (instead of slipping off the tiny notch a lot of "finger caps" offer), but you can easily "park" the needle in it if you need both hands to untangle a problem thread or something. We're having lots of fun over in the thimble_rings Yahoo! Group. Come join us?
-Wendy
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