Another newbie question for you all. I am looking at starting to order my equipment and was wondering what people prefered for a pillow shape and which is considered most versatile.
Therein lies the dog, buried... there isn't *one* :) I'm one of the most self-restrained lacemakers on this side of "the pond", and I have two roller pillows, two cookie pillows (and a third half-finished), two (different) block pillows, an (unfinished) travel pillow, and I'm *still* pursuing the dream of "*total* perfection"... :)
A lot depends on what kind of lace sings the sweetest siren song to you but, in general, a 24" "cookie" is an excellent *first* pillow (IM -- very personal -- O)
My own first one -- home made, stuffed with excelsior (wood shavings used for packing china and fruit) -- was an 18" cookie and I "outgrew" it within the first 3 months. It was too small to accomodate the -- ever growing (I started with a Torchon book and spent as much time carving my bobbins for the next pattern as I did lacemaking <g>) -- number of bobbin pairs. It was too small to make anything other than a bookmark (and that with some trouble) without going through the (very scary) process of *moving the lace up*...
So I ripped it apart, got a bigger base, and remade it (using the rest of my dowry-packing material; God bless pack-rats <g>) -- as a 22". That one lasted me (as the single one I owned) for several years, until I got some more excelsior, and made a 24". 24" was as far as I could reach, even bending at the hip-joint (instead of the waist), since I'm only 5'2". The 22" "went", to some Arachne disaster or other...
The "downslope" got steeper with years; I've been accumulating -- and getting rid of -- various pillows faster since I joined Arachne, then I had been when "howling alone in the wilderness"...
If I were forced to pick *just one*... I think I'd choose a 24" "cookie", as flat as possible, and filled with some kind of natural fiber (not styrofoam and not ehtafoam, both of which I hate wih a passion <g>). But that's because I make -- mostly -- relatively small pieces, mostly in techniques which require constant turning of the pillow *in small increments*. Anything else (big project, yardage, large hankie or mat edgings with corners), and a cookie is likely to prove more of a pain in the butt than buying/making a new pillow, more suited to the task. IM -- P -- O
And, on the matter of the many pillows... I hope Alice will forgive me for forwarding her private message, but it's priceless (and ever soooo typical of us all)... :)
.... different things before you commit yourself to one (or four <g>)
Greetings, you optimistic person!
My brain said -- that should be Four - TEEN. Then I did the foolish thing of going to my corner and COUNTING. I came up with 20. I guess I have to admit to a pillow collection along with my bobbin collection. Other than a few foam cookie pillows that are similar, the pillows cover a broad range of styles and sizes. Admittedly, some of the cookie pillows are about due for the trash can, but most of the pillows are usable. A couple are just 'interesting' but not really usable.
We're going to have a pillow display at our conference in 2006, so I guess I'll hang on to all of mine until after that. <G>
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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