Threading a Needle:  

    One often sees advice to cut the thread on a slant, or 
break it, in order to have a point to thread into the 
needle.  This works reasonably well if you also wax the end 
of the thread thoroughly enough to glue the fibers together, 
and if you snip off the very tip of a broken end.  
    (An invisible curling fiber always extends from a broken 
end -- if left alone, this fiber guides the thread around 
the eye of the needle.) 
    If you aren't forcing the thread through an eye so small 
that the thread has to be lubricated to make it through, 
it's much better to cut the end of the thread square, so 
that the fibers in the bundle are all the same length.  This 
considerably reduces the odds that some of the fibers will 
skin back as you push the thread through. 
    
    If the thread bushes out at the end, one expedient is to 
draw it over a candle stub, or a bit of paraffin, or the 
beeswax sold in sewing stores.  We all get into the filthy 
habit of licking our thread, but keep the wax handy, and 
postpone it as long as possible.  (If you must lick, it 
works better to lick your fingertip, then stroke the thread-
end between damp fingers.) 
    If you wax the tip of the thread and it still won't go 
through, try rolling it between two fingertips, to thin it 
the way you would thin a roll of clay.  
    
    A quicker expedient is to fold the thread over the 
needle, pinch the bight to keep the loop from opening up, 
and shove the folded thread through the needle.  This is 
almost the only way you can put yarn through a needle. 
    
    If things get really tough, pull a thick thread through 
with a finer thread:  put both ends of the finer thread 
through the eye of the needle, put the yarn through the loop 
of thread, and pull it through.  (It's easier to put the 
thread around the yarn before putting its ends through the 
needle, but it's easier to see what I'm talking about in 
this order.) 
    A dental-floss threader can carry strands through a 
needle's eye as easily as under your bridgework, and the 
stiff end helps you to feel your way through the eye.  
    You can buy a diamond-shaped loop of fine wire with the 
two ends secured to a handle.  This loop is pushed through 
the eye of the needle, the thread is put through the loop, 
then the loop is pulled back through the needle.  This, too, 
aids bad eyes by allowing you to feel when you have found 
the eye.  If you are feeling your way through an eye, make 
part of your grip on the threader well up on the wire loop, 
for more sensitivity. 

    Beginners usually try to poke the thread through the 
needle.  It's easier to hold the thread steady and bring the 
eye of the needle down over it.  If you pinch the end of the 
thread between forefinger and thumb, you can get tactile 
feedback as the needle's eye slides over the thread, and 
pinching the thread delays the bushing-out of the fibers. 
    When threading a sewing-machine needle, one must, of 
course, resort to poking the thread ÄÄ but don't poke a 
great, long, wobbling thread.  If the needle touches your 
finger before it has quite touched the thread, it will be 
easier to poke the thread through. 
    It's often easier to thread a needle if you turn it so 
that you can see the eye, and push the needle away from you 
insead of moving it at right angles to your line of sight.  
When threading a side-threading sewing-machine needle, lean 
to your right so that you can see the eye of the needle. 
    (Some writers say that it's "lassoing" the thread that's 
a beginner's mistake, and that poking is the preferred 
method.   You may be one of the people who work that way.)  
(Lately, I've been moving the needle and the thread both.) 

    Whatever method you are using, you need the best light 
available, whether that means going to the window or turning 
on the halogen lamp.  
    Brighter isn't always better, and light that's good for 
one purpose isn't always good for another.  Experiment, and 
find out what your eyes prefer.  
    Some people find that monchromatic light helps them to 
see fine detail, even when they get it by filtering white 
light and thereby making it dimmer.  People who prefer 
monochromatic light for close work usually favor a 
particular color.  Red filters and light sources are the 
easiest to find, since red light doesn't destroy night 
vision and photo film, but red light has the longest 
wavelength.  On the other hand, I'm not at all sure humans 
can resolve detail fine enough that it matters. 

    If you use a magnifier, be aware that making the image 
bigger makes the light dimmer -- you have the same amount of 
light stretched over a larger image.  Fresnell lenses 
aggravate this problem because substantial amounts of light 
are absorbed or deflected in the grooves.  
    The most useful needle-threading magnifier is one that 
simply allows you to hold the work closer to your face.  
(Young myopics disdain magnifiers.) 
    Beware of fresnel lenses:  they are thin and light and 
fine for reading, but they are distracting to sew by. 
    You can buy magnifiers with built-in lights.  Those with 
the lens inside a ring-shaped light are the most useful -- 
and the most expensive.      
    If fluorescent lights give you a headache, be aware that 
ring-shaped lights and "natural" lights are usually 
fluorescent.  
    Fluorescent lights are not the only lights that flicker 
at sixty hertz when operated on alternating current.  If a 
light remains visible for more than a sixtieth of a second 
after you turn it off, it probably doesn't flicker.  LEDs 
give a steady light when operated on DC, but pulse when 
operated on AC unless the current is smoothed out somehow.  
    The magnifier I use the most is just a glass lens a 
little more than four inches in diameter in a plastic frame.  
The frame hangs from a string aroung my neck with its feet 
braced on my chest.  This leaves me both hands to work with, 
it does not tie me to a piece of furniture, and I can wear 
it like a necklace, ready for instant use when I get to a 
fiddley bit.  I found it in a drug store. 
    I have smaller, more-powerful lenses for inspecting 
things.  
    Large lenses are necessarily weak, so if you need a 
powerful magnifier and the use of both hands, you need 
special eyeglasses, or a jeweler's monocle.  Check 
electronic shops and stores that sell equipment for tying 
flies.  I slip a pocket lens that once belonged to my 
grandfather behind one lens of my regular specs.  
    A linen tester is a magnifying lens mounted on a stand 
that holds it exactly the right distance from the thing it 
is standing on.  There is a precisely-measured square hole 
or other measuring device in the base, to make it easy to 
count the number of threads in an inch or a centimeter of 
the cloth you set it on.  
    There are also magnifying glasses on weighted bases that 
sit on the table, and magnifying glasses on arms or 
goosenecks that hold them over the work. 
    I have a pair of +3.5 spectacles in a slim case that is 
easy to carry in my purse or pocket; this is handy to whip 
out to deal with unexpected tangles.  (But I wonder what 
the vet thought when I practically put my nose on the 
examining table to look at the flea eggs he was showing me.)
     
     

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