I donât know all the names a ghost pillow is called, but it is a very useful device, used especially in more complicated laces where repeats donât really happen. You have your pricking on your pillow. Then usually you have a diagram or at least another, enlarged pricking on a piece of cork, or other board which will take pins. When you put a pin in a pinhole on your pillow, you put a pin into the corresponding pinhole on your ghost pillow. This really helps, especially in those patterns which have lots of pinholes and thin thread. I use it extensively in Binche, and sometimes in the confusing areas of Flanders and even Tonder. The best results of using a ghost pillow is that you know where you are on your pillow, so you have an excellent idea of what to do next. This is especially helpful on those occasions where you have to leave your pillow. Happens to everyone. Then when you come back, you can look at your ghost pillow and figure out what to do next. This may be common knowledge, but I have two other things I do on a ghost pillow to help. I use ordinary glass head sewing pins, cheap and distinctive, for the pinholes. But then I also use a brass pin on the line of a pair to show where that pair stopped connecting with other threads. I donât do this all the time, but at certain places where Iâm leaving the work, and that particular area is subject to extra confusion. The other thing I do is when there is a problem, too many or too few pairs in a certain area, BIG MESS, and Iâm leaving, I put a big glass head pin, that is different from the ones usually used on the ghost pillow, in the middle of the mess, so I can sit down and immediately locate where I have to work on the problem. In other cases, either with or without a ghost pillow, I put 2 pins on either side of the pair that needs to be worked next when I think that might not be readily apparent.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where we are having a gentle rain, the last remnants of Hurricane Irma, nothing significant. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
