Cuddle Party
Feb. 20th, 2019 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithEveryone 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. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is 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!
We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is 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!
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-21 04:56 am (UTC)My knitting bag has leftover yarn that I want to make squares with. My grandma gave me a book titked "440 More Knitting Stitches". It shows you how to do things like knit stripes and diamonds, cable knitting, stars, and even lace. I'm thinking of picking different patterns to try, making one square of each, and eventually making it into a blanket. I'm going to have to see if I can find patterns that will work together, or at least not clash though. And I might need to make sure my yarn is the right thickness for the patterns. I feel like thick yarn would be to clunky for some of them.
Your projects sound cool, though also far above my skill level. I hope they turn out well for you :)
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-21 05:54 am (UTC)Wow!
>> I'm thinking of picking different patterns to try, making one square of each, and eventually making it into a blanket.<<
What a great idea! You can also make a vest or sweater that way.
>> I'm going to have to see if I can find patterns that will work together, or at least not clash though. And I might need to make sure my yarn is the right thickness for the patterns. I feel like thick yarn would be to clunky for some of them.<<
Check the pattern. They often tell you what weight of yarn to use, especially in knitting. You can also consult a general yarn guide.
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-21 10:58 am (UTC)Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-21 11:15 am (UTC)To get a feel for how the weights work, buy a skein of each weight you want to try using. Doesn't have to be fancy yarn. Then knit up samples of different types of pattern -- a lace one, a cableknit, shaped ones like stars, and so on -- using each weight so you can feel which ones work or don't. These don't have to be big enough to make a blanket, a hand-sized piece will do. You could even keep them as a pattern book by running a snap ring through the corners.
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-21 11:22 am (UTC)Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-22 12:40 am (UTC):curls up next to and watches knitting:
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-22 08:22 am (UTC)Me too. That's why I signed up for the class. It's Saturday afternoon. I can share what the class was like, if you're interested.
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-23 09:05 am (UTC)Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-24 04:58 am (UTC)Double-knitting is a way of knitting two pieces of fabric that lie purl sides back-to-back -- on the same needles, at the same time. How one handles the yarn determines how and where the two pieces of fabric are connected. The simplest form of double-knitting connects the pieces at the edges, and nowhere else.
The important thing that makes double-knitting work is that whatever is done to one "layer" (piece of fabric) must be done on both layers. So if you do a stitch manipulation on one layer, you must immediately do a corresponding stitch manipulation on the other layer. And in this context, all lace is is a sequence of stitch manipulations that make patterns.
Now with two layers, if you are going to make holes in one layer, something is going to show through. Depending on what you want to accomplish, that might be a hole in the other layer or the purl side of the other layer. So now you get to decide how to handle the yarn when you make a hole. You can create a hole in the other layer or not; you can connect the pieces of fabric so the manipulations, be they holes or other fabric changes, line up better, or you can just let them be. In the end, you can get fabric that looks pretty much the same on both sides, or something that looks a little different, or something where one side is just a solid color with some patterning to match the lace.
The master trick, if you will, was understanding how to separate the layers of fabric so one could manipulate each layer independently. When one works double-knit, the stitches alternate layers every stitch: one from the top layer, then one from the bottom layer, top, bottom, ... In order to combine stitches or create new stitches, one must undo that, put all the stitches from each layer together, then work each layer independently and come up with the new stitches for each layer: first the top, then the bottom, one after the other. And that's what I learned how to do today.
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-24 05:37 am (UTC)One, a really good concept of spatial orientation.
Two, a computer. :)
Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-24 05:58 am (UTC)Re: Cuddles!
Date: 2019-02-24 08:18 am (UTC)Well, some of the manipulations can be a bit tricky. But I got the hang of it by understanding it as practice related to the two fundamental theoretical principles:
1. You must separate the layers before changing the stitch count;
2. Stitch count must change in both layers simultaneously.
Each manipulation concentrates on one thing or the other, and putting them together into yarn moves create the fundamental building blocks.
>> I am in awe. <<
Me too. What the instructor worked out is a long way away from where I am as a knitter right now.