From the tools department: masking tape – a solution to those annoying thread ends, snippets, bits of fluff and other textile-working nuisances!

A strip of masking tape, stuck sticky side up (with the ends tucked under) to the nearest handy flat surface – chair arm, table, wall, whatever – catches those bits of thread, offcuts, balls of fluff, stray pins, and other odds and ends that tend to wind up on the floor, stuck to one’s clothes, in the cat, or otherwise somewhere one would rather be they weren’t.

And it can keep small things like a thimble, pins, a needle – or even a small plate – anchored and handy.

(The image is of a hard-working strip of 2” wide blue masking tape – my preferred kind – stuck to the arm of my garden glider, which dates from the 1950s and needs a new coat of paint.)