So I know we confirmed seeds and ruled out mugs. Has anyone got conclusive data regarding socks or similar items yet? Because, yeah. I like using seeds for farming, personally.
ok, well, thread has a volume of 20 vs the volume of 10 for seeds. so far as i can tell, the density of silk or yarn is 500, but there is no indication of the density of seeds that i can see so far... if they count as ordinary wood, they'd be density 500 as well.
alternate possibilities include earrings (volume 3) and rings (volume 5), especially made of willow (390 density), candlenut (140) or feather tree (100). there is presumably also an unspecified other kind of tree between willow and candlenut; the table i found indicates willow is the 4th densest kind of wood. ordinary wood (whatever that means) would be density 500 and also should work.
however, i think the easiest to mass produce would be leaves. leaves are volume 5. digging through the raws, they are likely density 1200 however (the density of structural plants by default, apparently), but still... that should be 6,000 and the seeds (checking the raws) are likely density 600 for a total of 6,000 there as well, so quarry bush leaves (so far the only kind of leaves) would make an acceptable substitute afaict.
on closer inspection of the raws, plant thread is likely 1520 density, and therefore unsuitable. i suspect most plant fabric clothes will be likewise unsuitable, though their increased mass may be adequately counterbalanced by what is likely a very poor armour penetration ability. however, socks and gloves are listed as size 10, so silk or yarn (surprisingly) should work... i think. plus, they should probably have absolutely terrible attributes for armour penetration (see the ongoing science thread elsewhere on projectile vs armor science), which i expect would help nicely.
if you're feeling particularly cruel - and who isn't on these boards - loincloths and thongs are also size 10. although that's probably only dwarven ones... the good news is, goblins should be making smaller ones, which should therefore be lighter
(oh, and leather is also density 500 by default... should be even lighter than seeds, oddly enough?).
hmmm... now i'm stuck wondering about how dense soap would be, and whether or not you could dump some soap and water into the mix and call it a dwarven laundry machine...
so... it looks like various forms of dirty (goblinite) laundry are useful in the armor training popcorn machine. although, on the other side of things, putting seeds into the popcorn machine just feels right.