Bobbins
One of the most important part of the equipment are the bobbins. Bobbin lace is worked with pairs, so always an multitude of 2 is needed. For the first 12 lessons you need a maximum of 16 pairs.
It is also possible to make your own bobbins of dowels and beads. The opening of the bead should be wide enough for the dowel to go through. Glue a bead at one side of the dowel. Glue approximately 2 or 2,5 cm below that another bead. Glue at the other side of the dowel a few beads, as much as you like. It should be easy for you to pick up the bobbin from the pillow. Furthermore the bobbin should not become too heavy.
Pillows
There are pillows available in several forms and sizes. In Holland round cookie pillows are used in the sizes of 40, 50 or 60 cm. They are filled with organic or artificial material. This is important for the weight of the pillow. Artificial material is light of weight, but it is important that the pins are put easily in.
There are also pillows with blocks. These are always made of artificial material. They are easy to make longer or bigger laces. The blocks with the patern on it can be moved up and down.
Pillows can also be homemade. Good stuff for this is "blue board, an insulating material. This is not easily worn out when pins are inserted. To avoid much noise glue a felt tile to the topside and a piece of plywood or wood to the bottom to add weight before covering it with cotton.
Threads
An other important piece of the equipment, maybe the most important one are the threads. Without threads you can not make lace.
Linnen, cotton, silk, polyester and whatever fibers or threads you can find is used to make lace with. Of course cotton, linnen and silks are mostly used. Is you start to learn bobbin lacc, you can use for instance cotton perlé nbr. 8. This can be bought in craftstores. Lateron the threads are going to be finer; for instance Altin Basak nbr. 50 or equivalent. At the end of the first 12 lessons you are using cotton Venus nbr. 70 or DMC nbr. 80.
Other necessities:
Pins
Normal thin pins are the best. Furtheron you can use long, thick pins to hold the bobbins to a side of the pillow. For this you can also use pearl headed pins.
Siccors
Hook
Soon you will need a hook. Which number depends on the thickness of the thread used. Mostly used is nbr. 1, 0,75 and 0,60. A higher number than 1 will be too thick.
Adhesive foil
Adhesive foil is used to cover the prikking. This strengthens the pirkking and in addition, the ink of the prikking will not make stains on the threads. Although the ink today does not stain anymore, the adhesive foil is still being used. The best ones to use are matted, colloured foil (light blue, light green or gray). It is rather pricey, but it does not shine and the visibility of the threads is good. If colloured threads are used, it is also possible to use simple transparent adhesive foil, provided it does not shine in the light. When it does, you can mat it the a special sponge.
Cover cloth
A dishcloth or handkerchief can be used perfectly as cover cloth. A handkerchief van be used beneath the bobbins over the pins at the bottom of the prikking. It protects the threads to get stuck around the pins at the bottom of the prikking and your pillow for getting dirty.
Crochet tape or other options to storage the bobbins
If your pillow with bobbins should be transported for instance to or from the lessons, the bobbins should be secured. This can be done using a crochet tape, in which the bobbins can be inserted. The tape with bobbins can be secured to the pillows with pins. The tape can be crocheted of a wool leftover: first crochet a chain and the next row should be double crochet stitches with 1 or 2 chain stitches in between. The amount of chain stitches or the use of double or triple crochet stitches depends on the thickness of the wool and the bobbins, which should be insertered in the tape.
Today also other equipment to storage the bobbins on the pillow are sold, such as wooden stickes or flexible pieces of nylon or metal with a elastic band to put the bobbins in.