Small Favors

My grandmother and my great aunt, both born in the first decade of the last century, were tireless stitcher and knitters. Their art never was passed down, and I've become the owner of their sewing boxes, left as they left them when they died in the 1970s, with a threaded needle pushed in the place they stopped for the night on their last set of socks or quilt panel, as though they'll be back later today to pick it up again.

Also in the boxes are papers of needles, each with a trademark label. These little things, no bigger than my thumb, fascinate me somehow.



And on the reverse of that is this:



Another set of needles bore this label: