In message <f5f027df281a4fdeae3d325541857...@winxp>, Delores Miller
<[email protected]> writes
Tess, could you give us dimensions of the pillow and the dowel? Is the
dowel what we use for closet poles in the USA? TIA
The purpose of the dowel is simply to put a curved surface under the bit
that you are working on, much as you would use your finger if you were
holding the work in your hand. It doesn't have to be a dowel - I
normally use a pencil! (It goes between the pillow and the cloth pad
which is under your work, so the lead is unlikely to come into contact
with your work.) Then again, I only need to use it when working the
cordonette (the final outlining of closely worked buttonhole stitches
over two or more new threads laid along the cordonnet) - at this point
because you are trying to get the needle under several taut threads it
is easier if the section is raised slightly. The rest of the time I pin
the "pad" to the pillow and work with it "flat" against the curve of
the pillow. The cordonnet (the foundation of two parallel threads which
are couched down along the pattern outlines before you start working the
fillings) is worked before the work is pinned to the pillow.
I have one of the SMP polystyrene pillows (covered), but tend now to use
the foam packaging tube that contained the free puppy in a pack of
Andrex toilet paper some years ago - it is about 6 inches diameter, the
foam being about an inch thick - perfect for clipping my clip on
magnifier to! This tube is probably about 14 inches long, but as long
as it is big enough to hold the work you are doing the length doesn't
really matter. The useful bit about using a tube is that you can store
things inside it - my magnifier lives inside the tube when I'm not
working.
Because you start with the pattern tacked to a slightly larger pad of
cloth, I haven't found it necessary to cover the foam tube - the work
and thread don't come into contact with it. Do have a cloth to pin over
your work when you leave it, though, as you would for bobbin lace.
--
Jane Partridge
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