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. 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!

Comments

[greghousesgf]

puts on bathing suit and gets in hot tub

[arthur_p_dent]

*sits alongside the hot tub with a glass of wine*

Hey there ghgf - nice to see you here again. =]

[greghousesgf]

hi, nice to see you here too (also gets glass of wine)

[a_natural_beauty]

I love this idea! I will happily join the cuddle party! :-3

Thank you!

Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

We have couches, fuzzy blankets, throw pillows, the works.

Someone usually brings food. I'll put out a hot chocolate bar (with a vegan option) and assorted cookies.

Re: Welcome!

[a_natural_beauty]

This sounds like a lovely time, thank you :)

[fuzzyred]

*Fuzzy J wanders in with tuna salad, roasted veggies, and some chocolate chip cookies. After putting the food down, she wanders over to one of the couches to work on her socks.*

"I'm more than happy to pause the knitting, if anyone wants cuddles."

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Ooo, tuna. I brought hot chocolate and assorted cookies.

What do these socks look like?

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

Yum, hot chocolate!

The socks are a self-patterning yarn that alternates stripes of different thickness and solid patches with speckles in them. The colours are a white-ish cream, copper, brown, taupe, and a greenish grey colour. The pattern itself so far consists of the ribbing for the top of the sock, and just knit stitch for the shaft of the sock. The next step is to attempt making the heel.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>The socks are a self-patterning yarn that alternates stripes of different thickness and solid patches with speckles in them. The colours are a white-ish cream, copper, brown, taupe, and a greenish grey colour. The pattern itself so far consists of the ribbing for the top of the sock, and just knit stitch for the shaft of the sock.<<

That sounds pretty. Self-striping yarn is clever.

>> The next step is to attempt making the heel. <<

Tricky, but doable. Does your pattern have replaceable heel and toe sections?

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

>>That sounds pretty. Self-striping yarn is clever.<<

I really like the colours, and I find it fascinating how much can be done with the designs for self-striping yarn.

>>Tricky, but doable. Does your pattern have replaceable heel and toe sections?<<

The heel and toe are non-replaceable in this pattern.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I really like the colours, and I find it fascinating how much can be done with the designs for self-striping yarn.<<

It can be very interesting to experiment with things like knitting a row of flowers.

>> The heel and toe are non-replaceable in this pattern.<<

Bother. That seems like a lot of work for something that gets heavy wear like socks. Though I suppose you could always cut out the the worn sections and knit in a patch when it becomes necessary.

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

>>It can be very interesting to experiment with things like knitting a row of flowers.<<

That does sound interesting. I haven't played around much with self-striping yarn yet.

>>Bother. That seems like a lot of work for something that gets heavy wear like socks. Though I suppose you could always cut out the the worn sections and knit in a patch when it becomes necessary.<<

Having those parts be replaceable does sound convenient, but since this is my first try at socks, I'm going to stick with the pattern that came with the yarn. Perhaps I'll try making replaceable pieces on the next pair. As it is, I almost feel like my heel is going to be "backwards" from the rest of the sock (i.e. the wrong side of the parts won't all be on the same side).

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> That does sound interesting. I haven't played around much with self-striping yarn yet. <<

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/self-striping-yarn-978575

https://doradoes.co.uk/2023/04/21/how-to-crochet-with-variegated-and-self-striping-yarn/

https://marlybird.com/blog/free-self-striping-patterns-crochet-and-knit/

https://www.facebook.com/AllFreeCrochet/posts/self-striping-yarn-worked-into-granny-squares-is-the-secret-behind-this-woven-lo/10154376814059429/

https://julieyeagerdesigns.com/modern-blanket-of-flowers-cal/

Oh hey, people are actually making things that are designed to produce prints rather than stripes:

https://www.premieryarns.com/products/blmchunky


>>Having those parts be replaceable does sound convenient, but since this is my first try at socks, I'm going to stick with the pattern that came with the yarn. Perhaps I'll try making replaceable pieces on the next pair. <<

Sensible.

https://freevintageknitting.com/socks-patterns/patons127/wear-forever-with-replacement-toe-and-heel-pattern

https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/afterthought-peasant-sock-heels/

http://evinok.com/?p=10226

Replace entire sole!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ctz_WagOHrxr99ebRrxr3qv-ZQ8SJc8y/view

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

Those are really cool yarns! I've used a lot of variegated yarn before, and I like how it usually works up. I've used less self-striping yarn, but it's cool to see the stripes form; I have a floor cushion I made with white to light blue self-striping yarn.

My sock yarn actually looks a lot like some of those floral yarns; some stripes, then a white background with coloured speckles on it.

I will keep those pattern links in mind for my next pair of socks; having replaceable pieces sounds very handy and sensible.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Those are really cool yarns! I've used a lot of variegated yarn before, and I like how it usually works up. I've used less self-striping yarn, but it's cool to see the stripes form; I have a floor cushion I made with white to light blue self-striping yarn.<<

If it looks like floral yarn, then it will probably do similar tricks.

Another option is scrumming, or freeform knit/crochet. Say you have one of those skeins that's mostly one color with an accent on the end. When you unwrap that, it has long stretches of background and short stretches of accent color(s). So you work plain stitches until you reach an accent, then make a flower, then go back to plain. You'll wind up with some flowers floating randomly on the background.

>>I will keep those pattern links in mind for my next pair of socks; having replaceable pieces sounds very handy and sensible.<<

One of them mentioned that as a solution for when you want to make socks from a yarn that won't stand up to heavy traffic. Use it for the tube and top, then put something more hard-wearing on the sole. My grandmother just used to double the soles on crocheted house shoes.

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

>> So you work plain stitches until you reach an accent, then make a flower, then go back to plain. You'll wind up with some flowers floating randomly on the background.<<

Oh, that sounds really cool!

>>One of them mentioned that as a solution for when you want to make socks from a yarn that won't stand up to heavy traffic. Use it for the tube and top, then put something more hard-wearing on the sole. My grandmother just used to double the soles on crocheted house shoes.<<

That's a good idea. My grandma used to use special yarn when knitting slippers, but she'd also knit with two strands instead of one; extra durability and extra cushioning.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

The two-yarn method works well if you have two similar yarns of no more than medium thickness. It is slightly trickier with a thicker and thinner yarn together. It works well with catchy yarns (cotton, wool, etc.) but is a blighted nuisance with slippery ones (silk, some nylon, etc.).

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

That makes sense. I believe I had two strands of medium weight, catchy yarn, and it was on the difficult side for me. I don't think it would have worked if my yarn had been any thicker. I could see slippery yarns being harder to use to knit two strands at once. Then again, I have a feeling the slippery stuff might just be harder to work in general.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Slippery yarn is more challenging in general, but it has its uses in patterns where you do a lot of dragging the yarn past itself, because it's less prone to snagging and won't felt at all.

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

Huh, I never thought of that. That does make sense though. I typically make simple items and simple patterns, so I haven't really had much experience with different challenges or figuring out which yarns work best for which projects.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I've read some articles on which yarn to choose for which project, and what to do with fancier yarns. The general rule is simple projects for fancy yarn, but with simple yarn, you can do more complex stitch patterns.

Slippery yarn relates to a factor called "catch" -- how the fibers do or do not cling to each other. Nylon cord has almost no catch, while mohair has so much that it's a favorite for making corespun yarn by wrapping other fibers around it.

https://littleworldofwhimsy.com/how-to-choose-the-right-yarn-for-a-crochet-project/

https://nimble-needles.com/wool-and-tools/how-to-choose-yarn-for-knitting/

https://yarnandknitting.com/understanding-yarn-choosing-the-right-yarn-for-your-project/

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

I did know the general rule of thumb for fancy yarns and simple patterns, though I haven't delved into that too much.

Oh, I've experienced "catch" while knitting! The different yarns definitely feel different on the needles.

Thanks for the links! They had a lot of helpful hints on how to choose yarn. Some factors are things I've already noticed, but didn't think about in concrete terms. The extra explanation helped a lot. :) One of the articles also mentioned linen under the types of plant yarns for knitting. I didn't know you could do that with linen! I'm really tempted now to see if I can find some linen yarn and see how that works up.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Thanks for the links! They had a lot of helpful hints on how to choose yarn. Some factors are things I've already noticed, but didn't think about in concrete terms. The extra explanation helped a lot. :)

Sometimes details make all the difference.

>> One of the articles also mentioned linen under the types of plant yarns for knitting. I didn't know you could do that with linen! I'm really tempted now to see if I can find some linen yarn and see how that works up.<<

Go for it! Linen is the go-to fiber for summer wear. Think like a shawl or cardigan for cool evenings, rainy days, or air conditioned spaces. Bamboo and hemp are also good.

Re: Thoughts

[fuzzyred]

>>Sometimes details make all the difference.<<

They really do. Sometimes I find myself surprised by what will make the biggest difference; I find it's also usually something that looks obvious in retrospect.

>>Go for it! Linen is the go-to fiber for summer wear. Think like a shawl or cardigan for cool evenings, rainy days, or air conditioned spaces. Bamboo and hemp are also good.<<

Ooo, those sound like fun ideas!

[arthur_p_dent]

Cuddles sound great, but for the love of all that is good in this world, do NOT stop working on those socks! XD

*Curls up on the couch next to Fuzzy J, staying clear of elbows and yarn so she can keep knitting*

*Gradually drifts off to sleep to the soft sound of knitting needles clicking*

[fuzzyred]

*cackles madly* Knitting and cuddles it is, lol. The socks definitely need the work.

[silverink]

Omggg I love this so much!! I'm so down for a cuddle party. I'm wearing cozy onesie pj's & bringing my manicure kit for whoever wants one! Definitely getting in the hot tub first (with a fun fruity wine) and doing some sleepover spa activities like hair braiding and nails <3

Welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Omggg I love this so much!! I'm so down for a cuddle party. <<

Every third Wednesday here, and a few other folks have duplicated this or something very similar. :D

>> I'm wearing cozy onesie pj's & bringing my manicure kit for whoever wants one! Definitely getting in the hot tub first (with a fun fruity wine) and doing some sleepover spa activities like hair braiding and nails <3

There's a basket of hair brushes around here somewhere.