Finding a needle in a haystack (or the lounge room)

The other night I was undoing the wrong stitching on my new embroidery piece. I was using a tapestry needle to lift the stitches and pull them out. All was going well (as well as *undoing* can go) until I accidentally let the needle flick out of my fingers as I un-pulled a stitch.

It went up… and in some direction… and down until I heard it quietly land.

Oh NO.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH DIRECTION IT WENT OR WHERE IT LANDED.

Me to The Husband: “It was so quiet in here, you could hear a pin drop.”
The Husband to Me: “And finding it will be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

(We speak in cliche. Yes, you can groan now. 🙂 )

It might have gone backward, behind me, and down behind the lounge or into the curtains. However, if it landed in the curtains, I don’t think I would have heard it land.

It might have gone forward, and over towards the fireplace, bookcase, stack of jigsaw puzzles in the corner, onto the coffee table (which is currently covered in Stuff)… anywhere. Quite frankly, I don’t think I have a hope of finding it, unless someone walks on it and discovers it in their foot!

I posted this little disaster on the Vetty Creations Facebook page, and received lots of tips for locating my needle. Most of them really involved having some idea of where it went, though! If I had some idea, I’d be happy to get out a magnet on a stick and drag it across the likely area to pick up the needle, but under the current circumstances, I’d be dragging that magnet over *everything* in the room!

What tips do you have for finding needles and pins when you drop them or flick them across the room? How do you do it?