Why do you prick the whole pattern all at once? I start pricking a few
centimeters, then I work until the pricked holes are finished, prick again a
few centimeters, continue working... This makes the whole process more
relaxing.
I've often been tempted to do it the same way; pricking and winding bobbins are *not* on my list of "favourite activities related to lacemaking", so it would be nice to "thin it out" and fit in some of the favourite bits (like moving bobbins) in-between the less favourite ones.
But.
1) You don't view yor pricking from the same angle when you prick on a corkboard set flat on a table and when you prick on a pillow; you're less likely to be *accurate* when pricking on a pillow. Might not matter much if your pins are spaced widely apart but, in a floral Bucks piece (as had been mentioned), where pins are very close together (and lots of them), it's a different story.
2) A well-made pillow is likely to be a good deal harder than a corkboard; depending on the kind of pricker you use, pricking on a pillow might mean more wear and tear on your pricking hand. Also, you can put the layers of waxed paper (to make your pricking needle slide in and out easily, without getting a wax build-up) under a pricking and over a corkboard more easily than under a pricking that's on a pillow.
3) The covering fabric and the pillow itself (especially those made from different foams) take enough "beating" from having the the pins stuck in and pulled out during lacemaking; it's unkind to treat them as pricking boards in addition to that :)
So. Every time I'm tempted to prick on the pillow, I think about the above, go fix myself a cup of tea, go smoke a cigarette, read a few pages from a book, wind a few pairs of bobbins... And go back to the corkboard :)
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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