More broken needles!

While happily sewing my purple crepe de chine blouse on Tuesday I broke another needle -- this time while straight-stitching -- but it wasn't my Bernina's fault.

Our two little dogs were fighting and playing nearby.  They are litter-mates and they fight as loudly and as often as my kids do.  They fight until the two become one big ball of black fur that sounds like a badger fighting a bear. That's what happened yesterday -- a big ball of hissing and growling fur rolled into my leg as I sat at the machine.  I must have looked away for a split-second, and before I knew it, my left index finger followed the fabric under the needle.  The point of the needle was nowhere to be found, and I became more and more convinced it was still in my finger.


"I am SO sorry!" - Oliver

 The urgent care clinic was so busy they suggested the ER.  We decided that it wasn't worth waiting for three hours in a room full of really sick, possibly infectious people.  Steve was confident he could pull it out.  He brought out the rubbing alcohol and tweezers thinking it would be like a splinter, but we couldn't see it.  I tried a big magnet, hoping it would pull the needle close to the skin where we could see it, but that didn't work either.  I considered an exacto knife, but quickly reconsidered.

So Wednesday I visited my doctor.  I think he enjoys these sort of things.  An x-ray confirmed it was in there and it seemed very close to the surface.  "I should be able to insert a sterile needle into the entrance wound and push the fragment right out" he told me.  It seemed reasonable that it would be a quick project -- the sure mark that it won't be.  90 minutes and several x-rays later he finally found it (after cutting my finger open). He sent it home with me in a little specimen container, suggesting I make a necklace out of it. 

Even though I've slashed myself with a rotary blade here or poked myself with a needle there, I never fully respected the danger that comes with this hobby -- the shears, the hot irons, the pins and needles.  Be careful out there!