Some time back someone wrote about a sewing kit that they had recently acquired that had a strange little gizmo in it that looked like a tiny spoon. There was much puzzlement about what it was for and I believe someone mentioned that it was an "ear spoon" or some such thing and then the puzzlement was about why that would be in a sewing kit. I learned the answer today and I was going to share the post with you, but I've gone back through my browser history and I still can't find it. The purpose was apparently to collect wax in order to wax one's thread to make sewing easier. I suppose beeswax was not so easy to come by in the past? Anyway, mystery solved.