Cuddle Party

[ysabetwordsmith]

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes.  Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime.  So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace.  Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket.  It has a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs.  A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper.  The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone.  There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity.  Come snuggle up!

Comments

[alatefeline]

Oh, heck yes.

*strolling calmly around a corner: a purple-furred feline, of approximately housecat size and shape but with a longer tail, tuftier ears, and with feathered wings on their back*

*manifesting with a soft 'pop' on a handy table in the kitchen: oranges, homemade shortbread cookies, quinoa pilaf, and fresh veggies cut in crunchy little shapes, with recipe cards*

*appearing mysteriously in crafting space: lots of soft, chunky, easy-to-use yarn in balls or skeins, and lots of large beads made from natural materials, all organized by material, texture-type, and color*

*the alate feline knocks a soccer-ball-sized ball of purple T-shirt yarn out of the box, and chases it into the main cuddlespace room*

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

<3 shortbread!

*adds some Buddha's hand shortbread*

[technoshaman]

Mmmm, seconded on the shortbread! *takes one of each*

[technoshaman]

t-shirt yarn? Very fine?

[alatefeline]

nah, it's literally cut strips of stretchy cotton-blend cloth like would be in a t-shirt, but verrrrrry long so it can be rolled into a yarn ball;

can be homemade by cutting old clothes, T-shirts can even be cut into one continuous long piece, or purchased as a convenient Thing;

used for projects where gaps and stretches and general largeness & looseness of the pattern are okay, rag rugs and chunky crocheting and so on

http://www.instructables.com/id/t-shirt-yarn/

you could ask an actual fiber artist for more detail, this is just what I have picked up being around them, and could be incorrect in some details

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

The same idea as the loops you could buy by the bag for the potholder looms. By the time I came in someone had forgotten that you have to use 100% natural fiber on anything like that (at least NOT polyester/nylon. Those MELT.)

Things that I could see varying grades of t-shirt yarn being good for are woobies, beach/pool cover ups, out of the shower bath mats, dishrags, insulating mats, lap-rugs.


*Offers skritches to those seeking them.* Pass a Cel-ray?

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's when I dropped out, the first baggie of synthetics. No point buying the stuff if I couldn't make what it was supposed to be, and I was actually weaving potholders.

Re: Yes ...

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I've noticed a trend that is all too suggestive of a plan to make people believe that they cannot make things. The tools are more expensive and hardly well-enough made for the moniker let alone the money. It's a bit too spot on to fulfill "never blame on malfeasance what stupid is sufficient for"

I've got rag rug 'tube-ers', who wants to braid?

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Oh, it goes beyond that. In some cases it's stupidity. But in others, it's active malice for purpose of power or money. Rules and even laws are being passed which ban people from doing things for themselves or others.

Farmers are banned from repairing their own equipment because of proprietary parts and software; they're fighting back because the lock on proprietary repairmen makes it impossible to farm. It's too expensive and the time lag is too long. I don't know why nobody's pounced on the opportunity; if I were making farm equipment, I put out a line like "Fix-it Felix Tractors: designed for the handy farmer, you can fix it!"

Locally, the frankly psychotic health board banned potlucks. If you want to have an event that's open to the public, with food, you have to pay someone to cater it. So now someone else controls what people are permitted to eat at those events, and I ran into a problem with servers not letting me have what I needed. Not to mention my inner Indian running in circles going "AAAAA they're banning potlatch again AAAAAAAAAA!" >_< That really undermines the human bonding potential.

People have been arrested in other places for feeding the homeless. The state won't do it, and now wants to make sure nobody else does it either.

For most products, if you try to repair them, it voids the warranty. Often they're designed so they can't be repaired.

It's infantilization. It's appalling. It's causing problems. And it's getting rapidly worse.

Re: Yes ...

[alexseanchai]

You seen the ifixit manifesto?

Re: Yes ...

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I was specifically concerned with crafting supplies that seem to teach "you can't be good at this, the results are ugly"

But yes, there are people torenting from the Ukraine patch codes.

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have not seen that trend in craft supplies.

*horrified shudder*

No, no, listen to Master Van Gogh! "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

Besides, some crafts are supposed to be ugly. One summer in ceramics, I made a whole bunch of pig heads and tiki faces, because that's what the clay was good for. It was a red clay that year, and if you pressed it, would fray awesomely. As opposed to gray clay, which won't fray very well but blends much better. Everyone thought those things were "so ugly they're cute." :D

Re: Yes ...

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

It's especially true in crafting kits meant for kids to fleece their parents. At least, I can't see any good of the 'bottle sand art' that couldn't be achieved while putting the dried bean away, and for the number of resulting objects I see at the thrift remaindering, neither can the parents.

But it's also just availability. Like if you want crochet thread smaller than 30 it's white or ivory and Michael's I don't think even carries 80. In a store that's nothing but crafting supplies. Joanne's isn't better in this regard. Neither carry even things that were standard in a five and dime. Admittedly, a ball of thread is not the 'change' of an order anymore, and most people are not going to steel hook themselves something nice in stolen moments.

They now make those 'pot-holder' looms in plastic. It's not a strong plastic (nothing like a flower loom).

[manglefox]

*Has picked up a ball of yarn in one wing, and knitting needles, and is knitting a plush of a cupcake. *Tosses to whomever looks like they might need a plush cupcake when she's finished*

Making t-shirt yarn, and a project

[dialecticdreamer]

First, cutting the yarn into loops takes time if you want to be accurate (or are borderline OCD about such things, as per moi). The sleeves can be used, but it puts seam bumps in the yarn, and you can also just cut a long spiral instead of loops. For another scrubber, I'd spiral cut and use all but the neckband ribbing.

Then, one tee shirt made a ball roughly the size of an orange, so the options were either to make something very loose or something very small.

I used needles the diameter of a pencil, or a little smaller, and it naturally knit TIGHTLY. I mean, it pulled together like a rubber band, and made a pot scrubber. It was small, about the same area as a three by five card, but when I say dense, I mean DENSE. I had to pull at it with both hands, as hard as I could, to see the center of any loops in the knitting.

Plain poly-cotton tee shirt fabric, smooth to the touch, ended up able to SCOUR burned crap stuck on my cast irons, and lasted months. A tip, plan to pour boiling water over the scrubber at least once a week to cut down on the buildup of bacteria (just like with any other cloth, sponge, or scrubber). For those who have dishwashers, the top rack is a safe spot for them.

It was a good experiment, and upcycled a tee shirt with a couple of wear holes on it.

Re: Making t-shirt yarn, and a project

[ysabetwordsmith]

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

[redsixwing]

Oh, oranges and shortbread! *acquires snacks*

Wingkitty, would you like to play chase with some of that yarn? If you would, I'll drag it and flick it for you.

[alatefeline]

*is a presently a puddle of purr being petted*

*mrrrrrprrrrrs lazily at your and yawns delicately at the yarnball as if to say 'maybe later, too comfy to move menow'*

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have seen cats do that. :D

[redsixwing]

*grins at the melted cat*

Sounds good. Enjoy!

[alexseanchai]

*nabs a lil plateful of shortbread*

*snags some blue T-shirt yarn, biiiig wooden beads, and a bigass crochet hook*

*balances all that with left hand/arm; reaches out hesitantly with right as if to scritch kitty head*

[alatefeline]

*rearranges from couchspot to shove head under hand for pettins*

[alexseanchai]

*scritchscritch*