Hari-Kuyo Festival...

As I have shared on my blog I made a little needlebook.  I purchased the supply kit and e-course from Susan of PlaysWithNeedles blog.  I was reluctant to begin my little book as I wanted it to be perfect.  I am learning there is no perfect so I began.  With Susan's excellent videos and instructions I completed my book and I am in love with it.  Thank you Susan!  Please visit Susan for the story of Hari-Kuyo and the Festival of needles.  In short it is a ceremony in Japan to honor the broken and bent stitching needles that have served the ladies so well through the year.

Now that I have my little needlebook I am learning about needles.  Oh of course I have used all types of needles through the years but never really knew much about the types or quality of them.  Here are my latest acquisitions.  I wanted also to have something worthy to put into my little pages.  Spiral eye are very new to me and I am anxious to try them.  The old easy threading needles never really worked very well so I will give these new ones a try.

I have three of my best beading needles I use all the time on this page along with one new Spiral eye to try.

Here are my favorite butterfly pins...mostly for decoration...but they are also excellent for pinning.

These little quilting needles are brand new and have not been used...yet.  So far I do not quilt so I have never  used any quilting needles.  I see that they are very short...extremely short.  I am wondering what one does with these.  Because I wanted really good quality I bought "Black Gold Needles" which "pierce smoothly" and are "specially polished with Black plating for enhanced rust resistance".  They also tout that they do not bend easily and have the ultimate balance between hardiness and flexibility.  Whew!  That is a lot for such a tiny short needle.  I hope some of my followers will have comments on all of this.

Fortunately I do not really break my needles.  I do tend to bend them.  I also know they get dull and rusty after so many years.  I do have a really bad habit when hand stitching.  If I can't get the needle to go through all the layers easily I push the eye end on the counter or my scissors to help it along.  Yes, I have broken the eye of the needle doing this.  My bad!
This year I am not actually burying any of my needles as I did not realize how and purchase some tofu.  You really want to read Susan's post today.  She also has Linky so others like myself can share their posts.
This has been a fun project and I am learning so much.  It has refueled my desire to do more needlework.  I am in no rush however as I have other projects already in the queue.
So let the Hari-Kuyo Festival proceed...
May Winter Sunshine Warm You and may you have lots of creative time and happiness.