Month: November 2025

Small(er) Businesses I Love

by CZeitler

With Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I wanted to spotlight some more small(er) businesses that I have purchased from and had very positive experiences. I am not sponsored by anyone, nor am I receiving any commission. I want to shout out some great store.

There are some businesses that, within the craft industry, are quite large, but I wanted to mention them anyway. Missouri Star Quilt Co. has some amazing sales, they offer a ‘bundle’ that you can add to throughout 7 days, that way you only have to pay the $6 shipping (in the US) once. Fat Quarter Shop has 24 hour flash deals every day and some lovely specials for this weekend.

Mirrix Looms are absolutely spectacular looms if you are looking to do bead weaving, tapestry weaving, or even bracelet making. The all metal construction makes for a very lasting loom, and the quality is simply remarkable. At present they are having a 20% or more off sale, well worth looking into if you are planning to get into tapestry or bead weaving.

Snuggly Monkey, which I had mentioned before, is having a buy more get more off sale. They are well worth looking into for high quality sewing, quilting, embroidery, and more.

Brooklyn Haberdashery is a great shop, they have a bit of everything from paper crafts, textiles, and some random things as well. I will admit they are a bit expensive however the quality is certainly there.

If you like to crochet then it is well worth investing in some Furls crochet hooks. Their quality is amazing and they tend to reduce hand fatigue for longer crochet sessions. Some are 15% off up to 30% off. I would look as soon as you can, these deals tend to go quickly.

I had not heard of Sue Spargo until I attended H&H Americas earlier in 2025, however now I’m not sure how I missed her. She works mostly with felt and the quilts she creates are simply spectacular. I will admit that I have been very inspired by her work. This store has sales through the 11th of December.

I have also always been impressed by Kelly Cassanova’s Work, she is a weaver that experiments a lot. There are amazing video courses that she has released as well as videos on YouTube.

There are many more stores that I love to shop from, but these are my favorites right now. I do want to shout out four of the stores that I always get good prices and service from: ParadiseFibers, TheWoolery, Yarn.com, and Living Felt.

I Hope that your Thanksgiving weekend is going well. Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Thankful

by CZeitler

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA. Yes, I know about the problematic nature of this holiday, colonization, wholesale slaughter, attempted genocide, and all of the problems brought to the Indigenous Population. I could go on a rant about this, however I am trying to focus on the spirit of the holiday not the history, however difficult. This is a good time to reflect on the past year and what we have to be thankful for. Due to politics and other considerations the US is in turmoil. Over the past year I have lost three members of my family. Along with these losses the realization that I have not seen so many members of my extended family for a decade or more. While I do not go to a church, I do believe in God and His blessings.

I am blessed that this realization has come in time for me to see my family more before it is too late. I am now in a full-time job with decent vacation time and many family members only a few hours away by car. There are challenges and difficulties in my life, as with everyone. I have found that if I try not to stress too hard, a solution comes to me no matter the difficulties.

Over the next month I have so many joys to celebrate. The first weekend in December I will be making wrapping paper at the library for work, as well as watching the Sorted Food livestream. If it was not the first Saturday in December I would have taken the time off so that I can watch this, however, I am happy to bring some fun to people at work. Since Sorted Food is in London, it will start at 7 am for me so I will be able to see a couple hours before I have to go to work. Then on Sunday I will be able to see the entire stream live. I have taken Monday and Tuesday of the second week off, mostly to start to use up my vacation time.

I still have to make the presents for my family, I hope to work on that this weekend so that I am able to relax and enjoy my time off later in December. If not then the time that I am taking the second week in December should be good to finish the presents up and see if I can get them sent off. I am also taking off three more days in December, again to make sure I am only rolling over the number of days I am allowed to, and I hope to use that time to concentrate on reading.

I am very lucky and blessed. I am able to pay my bills, have food on the table, and send out some presents to family. I have not been able to see family for years, now I have the opportunity and time to rectify that. Despite my relatively minor health difficulties I am in decent enough health to be able to do things that I want to and enjoy doing. My transgendered sister has not been cut off from her medication, and seems to be in a decent job right now. Should anything occur I am in a place to offer my home and support should she need it.

I hope that everyone has an amazing weekend, Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract.

Black Friday Sales (Pre-)

by CZeitler

Before I received the bill to get my sewer pipe cleared out I took advantage of some of the Pre-Black Friday sales from smaller retailers. I do not know if the service I used upped their prices or if I misremembered how much the service was last year, but ouch!

One of the first places that I purchased from is Snuggly Monkey. I absolutely adore this small business, they are so friendly, reactive, and always have neat tools. I knew that I wanted to buy something and I am trying to flesh out a set of needles so I have something to reach for no matter what project I am working on. To that end I purchased Sashiko Needles, Beading Needles, Bullion Knot Needles, Ribbon Embroidery Needles and some plastic embroidery thread bobbins (to try a 3-d printed file I will talk about in another post). They came within a week, are packaged beautifully, and I appreciate obtaining more tools at a very good price. Highly Recommend.

I have been looking at Felt Right for a couple of years. I would like to start up a podcast or some streaming however I know that my rooms echo too much to try. The library that I work at had a recent renovation and they used Living Felt, it looks amazing! To that end I purchased a 6 tile sample pack in colors I wanted as well as 4 small diamonds to test out how they will work and look in my area. The 20% off coupon was a great incentive, making these very reasonable if you are trying to get a few at a time.

I did not order the Craftease pillow when I ordered the rest of my ergo friendly items, so I lucked into a sale. I managed to get the pillow that I wanted, gloves to help my circulation, an extension clip and their black friday gift box for under what the pillow alone would have cost me. I checked and the gift box will include another extension, an extra pillow cover, as well as lotion. Since my hands are already starting to dry out, crack, and bleed a bit so the lotion will help.

The yarn I ordered from Crochet.com and knitpicks.com has already arrived, great prices, I love the quality and cannot wait to use it!

I had purchased a couple of things from bigger stores when they had insanely low prices. There are plenty of great deals out there, I am trying to stick to what I need to make my crafting life easier and more productive.

If you are looking for another small business to buy from I highly recommend: https://www.thecraftivist.com/ I purchased a punch needle kit from them years ago, the packaging, owner, and quality of the goods are unparalleled.

Pin Loom Woven Vest, Sort of

by CZeitler

I have been on a bit of a journey this year to try to make my own clothing in a style that I enjoy. After some financial and emotional difficulties, I have also been trying to regain my passion for the crafts that I love and enjoy. To fulfill both of these, and not have to cut into any hand woven cloth, I have decided that I want to weave a vest. I did not want to purchase one of the vest templates out of wood, however. I am a larger woman and know that they do not come in my size. I printed out the free vest pattern from Purl Soho and added on an inch around all edges to size up the Large size to fit my dimensions. Originally I had planned to use only pins, about 16 per inch, to create the warp. Upon looking at the vest loom available at Woolery I decided to add in slits to create a more supportive base for the warp. I can see pins flicking out and ruining the entire thing. I did add another 1/2 inch with blue tape so that I can mark out where the slits need to be made for the warp threads. This will also let me know how far down I need to cut the slits to keep them even. I also plan on putting tape on top of the warp thread edges so that they do not pop off and mess up everything.

Since this is more of a loom I plan on having the warp threads going horizontally on the finished piece so that the longer weft threads, since I will likely have color changes, will be going vertically on the finished piece. As I said earlier I am on the larger size so I do not need anything that will emphasize that. I also plan on making a bog jacket, which I believe I mentioned in an earlier post. This will be updated as I make progress winding the warp and warping the loom.

My aunt’s quilt is down to the last 3 flowers for me to reinforce the applique by hand, then I get to finish the machine quilting using my embroidery machine. After that I need to make the tag, bind the quilt, wash the quilt, and get it sent off.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Wrist Concerns

by CZeitler

I like to pretend, most days, that my left wrist is just fine. I don’t twist it too much, make sure I don’t lean on it or carry anything super heavy with it, but the truth is that I had Ligament repair surgery in 2020. 90-95% of the time my wrist does not bother me, if I fall and try to catch myself then I go to the hospital for an x-ray, if I pinch with my left hand too much then it becomes sore or the joint locks up. Fortunately I do not fall that often, winter in the north east can be problematic, and I am aware of my limitations and try to keep to them. The last time I fell the x-ray showed a concern that the orthopedic surgeon explained to me. The little bones in my wrist are dissolving. Again, the vast majority of the time my wrist does not bother me, however this morning I woke up to a sore wrist. I cannot think of what I did to exacerbate the situation, so I decided I need to look into items that can assist me by decreasing the strain placed on my wrist, and other joints, while I am crafting.

The two closest parallels I can find would be crafting with arthritis or carpel tunnel syndrome. I highly recommend getting any surgeries or medications prescribed by a doctor as they have extended my healing and ability to craft for at least five years. I am not giving any sort of medical advice. The first step in ensuring that you are not causing lasting damage is to listen to your body. All too often I hear people saying, I crocheted/knitted until my hands hurt so much I could not hold the hook/needles. Please do not do this, if your wrists and shoulders are getting tight while you are crafting then take a break, stretch, do something else for 15-30 minutes, and see if your joints are feeling better. Again, this is not medical advice.

The rest of this post is just an FYI of what items I am going to be purchasing to assist my comfort and health while crafting. I am not in any way affiliated with any of the brands and I plan on giving a complete and honest review a week after purchase and then (hopefully) a month or so after purchase.

First I have purchased Furls size-G Crochet hooks. I can tell you right now, I love these hooks. I have purchased them in the past, and passed them onto a cousin that is crocheting more than I am. These are hard hooks, made from metal, acrylic, or wood. If gripping something softer would be more of an aid I would look into getting some pencil grips for arthritis.

Second, there is a website called Crafteaze.com where they sell pillows to offer support while engaging in crafting activities. While you are seated the pillow wraps around your torso so that you are able to rest your elbows and forearms on the pillow as well as allowing the pillow to take some of the weight of your project. This greatly decreases the strain on your shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints. I have tried a couple of other methods to make crafting on my chair more comfortable, hopefully this one will work. The pillow is currently on sale for $100, the crafting variety is about $109. This is going to be the most expensive of my ‘ergonomic’ purchases, hopefully it will make the greatest difference.

A pair of electric scissors. For little things like snipping off stray threads my regular scissors work just fine. When it comes to cutting out patterns, designs, etc. every step is more difficult. I realized writing this article that I do not sew as much as I would like because I need to lean on the ruler with my left and and use the rotary cutter with my right. However I am not supposed to be leaning on my left hand so it becomes very sore very quickly. Isn’t it fascinating how often we just work around problems without thinking them through? I am going to mark my pattern/fabric with chalk or erasable pen and use my new electric scissors to cut the pieces out. Hopefully this will help. The pair I will order are $18. If they work and hold up I will add a link if not I will keep trying until I find a pair that do work.

Stainless steel hemming clips. Yes, I am discussing my wrist pain, no that is not stopping me from trying to expand my crafting. I have been working on making my own Victorian Dress, since I am plus sized and don’t want to wear polyester unless I cannot help it. This means that I have been doing more long hems than I am used to. I can, and do, pin them then fight with the pins because I have inevitably placed the pin heads on the side of the fabric facing down on my sewing machine. I will be getting 40 for $12 and hope that this prevents my having to hold the entire piece in the air while I desperately pinch the hem in place trying to get the pin in.

Tube turner, these are a great way to turn long narrow pieces, like straps, inside right. Essentially they are a straw with a dowel of the correct size to push the fabric through. I am hoping that these are sturdier than the average straw but for $9 I do not know.

Magnetic Helping Hands Soldering Station for $24. This device is about 9″ long and 6″ wide with 4 magnetic alligator clips with rubberized tips. I am hoping that this will be able to hold some of my stitching in the air so that I can do the stitching hands free without worrying about the bulk of a hoop. I have a floor quilting frame out of PVC, however it is too big for me to use it to stitch smaller projects.

Finally, I am purchasing a High torque electric jar opener. Normally for $20 I would not risk this being junk, however Sorted Food (a YouTube Channel I love) reviewed a similar device a few years ago and they were shocked at how well it worked.

I already have a couple of wrist braces as well as similar devices that provide ergonomic support to my wrist and hand. I am considering ordering a pair of compression gloves as well to assist when I am not in active pain.

At present this is a minor inconvenience to me, however, it has given me a much greater appreciation for those that have constant pain, or very limited mobility. It is my fondest wish to find methods/aids that I can utilize to aid individuals with mobility concerns to discover/rediscover crafting.

Until next time please remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract and listen to your body.

Emotional Reset

by CZeitler

Yesterday at work proved to me why having three team leads available on Saturdays is very important. There were no major disasters, however constant small problems add up to a very stressful day at work. I was technically the team lead in charge so I had ‘final say’ on what was going on, fortunately I work and communicate with the other two leads very well so I felt supported. This did not stop the stress from happening so I decided that I was going to do a complete emotional reset Saturday night to rid myself of the day. I started by going to Burger King, I had a 4 free. nuggets with $1 purchased so I bought an ice cream cone and the 4 nuggets for under $2. I ate the cone in the parking lot while watching the Snake Discovery Halloween special because the lizard dressed as a taco gives me such a belly laugh every time. I then bought 1/2 dozen Tim Hortons Donuts for $4.5 to take home. Once I got home I completely changed out of everything I was wearing and put it immediately in the washer. Finally I roasted the turkey I had thawing in my fridge, and made my final bag of chicken soup from the roasted carcass. This gave me a chance to freeze the last batch into .7 liter bags.

While things were boiling and roasting I continued to clear off and organize the bookshelves I currently have to make room for my new shelves. This has been great for me, I am working hard on consolidating my supplies according to their usage, weaving with weaving, spinning, etc. An unexpected benefit is that I am also getting everything off of the floor, and those are getting swept up as well. At present I have book cases at a right angle against the corner, however I firmly believe I am going to have to drastically change that. I dislike the idea of ‘losing’ space by having a bookcase at a 45 degree angle in the corner, however I am finding out that I absolutely cannot have stuff stuck in the corner. I forget that the items exist, tend to put items in front of the cases since I cannot easily access them anyway making them even harder to access. One of my main goals of purchasing these last bookcases is to ensure that everything is off of the floor. Another main goal is to make some of the items that I do not want to get rid of, but that are taking up considerable space. Admittedly some of this is procrastination crafting.

Last week I had decided I wanted to make a Celtic themed lap blanket for one of my dad’s cousins that was in the hospital for a form of Brain cancer. The hospital happened to be in the same city that my Sister lives in, so I had her reach out to see if we could take their daughter, our cousin after a fashion, out to lunch with whomever she wished. We did not hear back, and I found out yesterday that we did not hear back because dad’s cousin was taking a turn for the worse. Instead of making a lap blanket I am going to embroider a memorial hanging. She did not want a funeral or viewing so later we will find out when the celebration of life will be.

This is another reminder to see family when you can, that no day is promised, and that reaching out is never wasted effort.

Live Life a Little Abstract.

Always Learning

by CZeitler

At the most recent Weaver’s Guild meeting I attended we had an amazing instructor that showed us (and provided kits) how to create Huck Embroidery or Swedish Weaving. The techniques are very simple and I sort of fell in love with another craft, oops. Spruce Crafts has a great explanation of what this craft entails and how to get started.

I have been working on some other projects as well, a friend of mine is going to have their second mastectomy, their brother had one last year, and they asked me to provide knitted knockers. I crochet better than I knit so I am doing those, however I was able to quickly create some heart shaped pillows to relieve pressure on the stitches…though they are also being used as neck pillows.

I am still working on the invisible tacking of my aunts embroidery on the quilt top she asked me to quilt. I feel like I am on the home stretch for that, though once I have the last of the embroidery done I still need to hand bind it…what fun! Another aunt, my dad’s cousin technically, is not doing too great so I am trying to get a quick quilt made for her as well.

I finished the skirt for my Victorian psychic costume….I like how it looks for the most part. It is made from Linen, however I was treated to a glimpse of my colleagues costumes and I realized I need to just buy one. If I wear my amazing linen I’ll look like the country cousin…not the look I was going for. I get paid soon so I will order a costume that fits the bill and will arrive on time. I did figure out that I can make a beautiful skirt on my own, and if I rip off the Tulle that I hate I can add the linen ruffle and have a beautiful finished skirt out of linen.

I did have a gigantic positive come out of everything! I had been saving up to purchase some Billy BookCases from Ikea. I finally had enough to get their corner unit that consists of three of their narrower units connected at the top for about $160. The weekend I planned to go to Pittsburgh to see my sister, and try to take our cousin (dad’s cousins daughter) out to lunch to give her a break, Ikea decided to have a sale on their Billy Bookcases. Instead of the smaller corner units I was able to get 3 of their full sized units for less than the corner unit would have been. They are currently living in my trunk until I A. Make room for them, B. Finish up some of my projects so I can clear the room up, or C. A&B Plus I need to make sure I have the space to assemble them.

With the weather starting to change, and a lot of things sucking right now, I need to find the joy and blessings so that I can remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!