After the first time I pushed the needle end in my finger. I certainly didn't want a callous or the pain so I put on a thimble and left it on the whole time I was sewing. I kept trying to use the other finger that didn't have the thimble but when the needle started to hurt I switched to the thimble finger. That worked for me. The thimble goes on the middle finger not the index finger to get the best control.