I'm not sure of the "hows" of a longer needle helping but I too have some small needle issues. Have good and bad days with gripping and pulling the needle. It seems that I can't grip the needle tight enough to make it do what I want on the down days. Putting finger cots on my thumb and pointer seems to make the needle behave better and makes it more doable. But thanks for all the info on slippery needles -- will be checking them out -- hopefully will extend my sewing days by leaps and bounds.