It’s winter here in Kansas.

It’s biting cold out, the heat is on, the air is dry. I don’t have a maid and I haven’t invented a magic sink, so the dishes still need washing every day! My hands just want to be rough and scratchy this time of year.

Rough and scratchy hands are a frustrating inconvenience when you’re working with fine embroidery threads – any time of year!

You know how it is: you’re stitching along pretty happily with a brand new thread, when disaster strikes! Your thread snags on, of all things, your thumb! That curséd dry scratchy patch on the side of your thumb! Grrrrr! The plies of the thread bunch up, the fibers get hairy, you have to trim the thread and start anew.

I know I’m not the only one with this problem, because inevitably, in the winter, I get a lot of inquiries about how to work with fine embroidery threads when your hands are rough.

Over the years, I’ve tried myriad solutions for this problem. Today, I’ll chat about what works for me, and then ask you to share your solutions, too. If we put our heads together, we can most likely save many people from the frustration of stitching with rough hands. After all, 30,000 heads are better than one.