I haven't seen the Lace Guild magazine yet, but as to your other questions:
I'd like your ideas on the question "Do I need the right equipment?" I know that if I take to this particular style of lace I would, but until I know I wouldn't want to buy another pillow and a set of new bobbins.
Traditional Honiton uses very fine threads, and involves many sewings. You therefore need very lightweight bobbins that are smooth so they don't snag & break the threads when you do the sewings. They do not have to be traditional Honiton bobbins. I have made fine Honiton successfully with Binche bobbins and some very lightweight Swiss bobbins I happen to have, as well as unspangled Midlands bobbins, though if they're unfinished you'll have to be careful not to snag them.
As for pillows: I learned on a straw-filled pillow, and they're nice if you can easily get one cheap. I still have my first, all-too-ambitious Honiton project sitting on that straw-filled pillow (it's been 23 years, now), so I use my standard cookie pillows for my newer (and less ambitious) projects.
When I did my first attempts at Milanese braids I enlarged the prickings
and used a thicker thread. What would the pitfalls of doing this as a
complete Honiton beginner?
Because Honiton uses such fine threads, it uses techniques that can be unsightly with thicker threads. For example, you may be directed to finish off 6 pairs of threads by bunching them together, tying threads around the bundle several times, and cutting off. That's pretty well invisible if you're using 170/2 thread - if you're using Pearl Cotton #8 it makes a really big bump! Probably you'd use some thread in between these two extremes, but I'd say that you may well do better to use a 100/2 or 80/2 for your first attempts, so you get something nice without having much of a problem with your thread breaking.
Hope this helps.
Adele North Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada)
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