The needle and thread game: find out if your child will be a boy or a girl

The game of needle and thread to know in advance the sex of your children is a lesser known variant of the more popular game of the necklace (also called pendulum test) : instead of a chain or a hair of the future dad you use but a simple thread and instead of the mother’s wedding ring a sewing needle .

The game can be played even if you are not expecting a child yet and according to tradition it is able to predict not only the sex of the children, but also:

• how many children will you have
• if you have twins

all simply based on needle movements and swing changes.

It goes without saying that this method obviously has no scientific value and is just one of the many popular legends that revolve around  pregnancy.

How does the game of needle and thread work?

To play this game, two people are needed : the one who wants to receive the prediction about their children and the one who is holding the needle and thread.

First, thread the sewing thread through the eye of the needle and grip it at the ends between the forefinger and thumb, so that the needle remains suspended. Then the right hand of the woman (who may or may not be pregnant) is taken . Her fingers should be well spaced apart.

At this point the needle is passed 3 times  between the thumb and forefinger of the interested party, from top to bottom, without touching the underlying surface.

Then, with a steady hand, suspend the needle in the center of the palm without touching it.

The needle will begin to swing:

• back and forth like a pendulum if the child is or will be a boy (direction is not important)
• in a circular motion if the baby is or will be a girl

Game of needle and thread: how many children will you have?

To know how many children you will have, you have to wait for the needle to stop swinging.

At this point, the game can be repeated several times, until there are no more oscillations and the needle will immediately stop. In this way, the number of future children will be known.

Game of needle and thread: will you have twins?

Like the game of chain and chain , this method also predicts whether  twins will be born .

In this case, it will first swing back and forth then circularly (or vice versa) .

But be careful: for twins, the sex cannot be predicted, only the number. So even if the needle swings once for a boy and once for a girl, it doesn’t mean that you will have a boy and a girl.

Does the needle and thread game really work?

As we said at the beginning, this method of discovering the sex of the unborn child has no scientific basis . However, we have collected some comments that our readers have wanted to share with us on our forum :

“I tried it on my grandmother who had my 7 uncles, now there are 6 left. She guessed them all in order from oldest to youngest counting the deceased uncle!”

“I did it to all my aunts and she didn’t miss a beat, stopping at the total number of children they had.”

“I tried it on my father, who certainly can’t get pregnant, and he doesn’t swing at all.”

“If it were for the needle, I’d have to buy a 9-seater minivan… no, he didn’t take it”.

“I have three boys and that needle keeps going round and round!”.

“Test result? I pierced my finger…”

Well, if you’ve tried this method, you’ll have at least another dozen left to try and  guess if it’s going to be a boy or a girl .

To confirm the sex , however , you will have to wait for the morphological ultrasound , which is performed around the twentieth week of pregnancy , unless you have decided to perform prenatal diagnostic tests such as CVS , amniocentesis or fetal DNA testing .