Adversity

Everything for a Reason

by CZeitler

Talk about being blessed by my family and friends. Friday after the library closed I dropped a colleague off at home, it was an ice storm, and went home. While curling up for bed I was surprised I did not hear my very loud heater, I checked the temperature of the house…it was 10 degrees below where it was set to. I called in a company for emergency service, they were very nice. It turns out I need a new heater, the current one is over 20 years old and they will not fix it. I had just been denied a credit consolidation loan on Friday, and I do not meet the age requirements for HERR or HEAP heating assistance. I put up a go fund me, and within an hour one of my family members had donated and another used their credit card to pay for my new heater. Since I used the last of my money to pay for the emergency visit my sister forwarded me the money to pay for a small space heater, 1500 watts does not heat very far so it is helping by keeping my house at about 50 degrees. I have had several family members checking on me, making sure I have the water running so my pipes don’t freeze, and I am so blessed by the support I have around me. It is fascinating that in the spring 50 is toasty, in December it is too cold to do much around the house. I turn my stove on a couple of times a day to add some extra heat to the house, and my heater is supposed to be installed Monday or Tuesday. I have to get through today and tonight, mostly curled up and napping truthfully to stay warm, then Monday I either stay home to get my furnace installed or bring the space heater upstairs while I shower for work.

I am very blessed, while I am not starting 2026 how I thought, I will have a new heater, ability to pay off a couple of my cards, catch up on bills, and tangible knowledge that I have people and deities looking out for me. His plans might not be what I desire, however they are always what I need. I wanted to get more presents ready to go this weekend, instead I am napping and appreciating the family and friends I have around me.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract, and count on Him and His Blessings.

A Little Rain Must Fall

by CZeitler

Sometimes I feel so good about myself, I make plans to get so many things done, help people, and just get my life under control. Then the world laughs, and laughs. There are some gross things mentioned in this post, so if that bothers you just skip this and I will do some organizing and hopefully crafting next post.

Luckily I have a job that gives me over 20 vacation days each year, the first year I was hesitant to take any days off so I rolled over the maximum number of days, 22. That means that there are a certain number of vacation days that I ‘have’ to take each years since I can only roll over 22 days. I believe I was under the threshold anyway, however I decided to take 3 days this week, the week before Christmas, anyway. Since I will be working on Saturday I was also given Friday off as a ‘comp day’. I Proctored an exam on Monday, hopefully they passed I know they were concerned. My cousin in Jersey called me while she was heading home from a funeral and expressed that she was behind on things and needed a breather to catch up. She does live 6 hours away, I calculated my plans and offered to head her way on Tuesday.

I left my house about 3:30am, I planned on leaving at 2 however I did not get to sleep early enough for that to be reasonable. The drive down was lovely, I had caffeine, a free breakfast sandwich using points from Burger King, and I arrived about 11 am. I helped out with her laundry, she fed me a lovely beef wrap with Tzatziki Sauce on it for lunch, I was only able to eat about 1/2. She and her husband took a nap while I entertained one of her daughters, the dog, and worked on folding more laundry. I don’t feel like I helped a lot, however they were very appreciative. We went over to her parents for dinner and to see them, I had an amazing sesame wheat noodle dish that I really enjoyed. She thought it was the last embroidery class for her other daughter, I turns out that is next week. We had ice cream at the store across the way, which tasted amazing. I was a bit queazy at this point, partially because I get motion sickness anyway and she did not know how to turn the heat down in her rental car. After dropping her back home, I decided that it was time to head out. This was about 6pm, so with pitstops I thought I would get home about 2am.

Less than an hour into my drive home I realized I needed to either find a pitstop or get some anti-nausea medication ASAP. Fortunately there was a Dollar General that I immediately stopped at. I purchased the medication, had a pit stop, and asked the manager if I could stay in their lot for an hour to get the medication a chance to kick in. She said I just had to be out of the lot for their delivery in the morning. I set a timer for 1 hour, put my audiobook on (knowing that my phone was going to die out because the charging cable was being stupid), pulled my jacket over my head to block out the light and keep heat in, and actually fell asleep. 40 minutes later, I know because of the alarm on my phone, I woke to a knocking sound on my window. Two officers were there to check that I wasn’t drunk, drugged up, having a medical emergency or…you know…dead. I had a lovely, awkward, conversation with them letting them know I had spoken to the manager, giving details about why I was out that way, that I didn’t want to Technicolor Yawn on the road, etc. They accepted my explanation, wished me a safe drive, after running my license of course, and I tried to get back to my rest since I still wasn’t feeling well.

I laid back down until my timer went off, saw that according to my car’s navigation I had less than 18 miles until the next rest area. I put my seat back up, buckled in, and merged onto the 3 lane highway going about 55 MPH. Then I, for the third time, proved that you can get sick while driving a car. Yay. I made it to the next rest stop, washed my shirt in the sink, and began my evening of catching 1-2 hour naps at various rest stops along the way. After I got on route 86 which is the highway I like the most since it is a straight shot home from there….though still another 3+ hours away, I stopped at the nearest rest stop and actually wound up sleeping/dozing for about 4 hours. This brought me to about 8 am. There was a Walmart about 30 minutes away and my paycheck dropped at 8:30am. Surprisingly I did not smell that bad so I went in, bought wipes for my steering wheel and dashboard, and myself, an outfit to wear home, a couple of treats (because damned if I didn’t deserve them), and the fabric I needed to bind my aunt’s quilt. I felt actually human after that stop, and got home abut 12:30pm. Yes I had about an 18 hour trip home. I might have been better off staying at my cousin’s like she offered, however I realized (after sleeping the rest of the day an most of Thursday) that my stomach has not been acting really great this week anyway so I might have just been sick there. Either way, for a rough trip this could have been so much worse. No one was hurt, I was able to get some rest, I got a new outfit and some kicking MukLucks slippers that I am never taking off, and I funny story to tell…as long as I figure out a better way to put the Technicolor Yawn part.

Wednesday I was supposed to finish the ornaments I made with the 2025 metal beads I ordered…but I didn’t feel well and Amazon doesn’t know where those beads got to…yay. This did give me a chance to message one of my other cousins wives to see if their oldest daughter was into a book series I enjoyed when I was younger, she assured me that she and my cousin don’t have their shopping done for their kids yet…and that the books hasn’t been read yet so I will get to ordering that ASAP.

Today is Thursday, I did manage to get to my libraries holiday party, lovely food that I could not finish because my stomach is still iffy, as well as a lovely present from the library board and director. Hopefully there will be some leftovers on Saturday so I don’t have to worry about lunch that day. Tomorrow is Friday and I still have the day off, right now I plan on trying to bind my Aunt’s Quilt, make Chapstick holders for random cousin’s kids, put together an email from myself and my sister with brief highlights about our year (and an apology that presents will be in 2026), and hopefully get the beads to finish up the ornaments.

All in all, I have a full fridge and freezer, vacation time to relax and hopefully feel better, and the grace to have everything completely mess up but nothing major that I have to panic about. Maybe I will get my last bookcase picked up, finish the epilogue on the book I am reading, get the binding on my aunt’s quilt, make ornaments and chapstick holders. Maybe I’ll sleep the day away, get over whatever is going on with my stomach and doom scroll through some cute pet videos. Either way I have so much to be thankful for, and most of all I can be thankful that my horrible trip back had no lasting consequences….though I wonder if my name/license is in the NJ database as ‘really weird, but mostly harmless’. LOL.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract, the cops are just doing their jobs…mostly, and always have an audio book about “Early American Sex Scandals” playing while sleeping off your motion sickness in the Dollar General Parking Lot. Happy Holidays no matter what you celebrate!

Assistive Tools

by CZeitler

Yes, I am only in my early 40s. It could be commonly thought that I should not need any type of assistive tools since I do not have any major disabilities. However, I have been crafting ever since I was about 5 years old, so my joints see a lot of stress. Due to an incident at work, a previous job, I had to have ligament repair surgery in my left wrist…and according to the orthopedic surgeon my bones in that wrist are dissolving. Horrible things that the human body can do for 800 please Alex.

All of this means that if I want to keep crafting and maintain a good quality of life for myself I need to take care of the joints as best I can. In addition to physical concerns, I also have ADHD which means that organization is very difficult for me. I can put things ‘away’ and have a logic to my organization, however, I then forget where I put everything and cannot remember if I have something or not. The one that drives me insane is ‘I just saw that five times in the past week, but where did I see that?’

Due to these circumstances my assistive tools mostly revolve around keeping my joints supported and healthy, as well as basic organization, or advanced organization if you prefer. I will be mentioning some basic devices that work for overall maintenance of joint health and organization, but most of what I will be talking about is specific toward crafting.

Starting with organization, my favorite tool is this label maker. I can customize the size, font, tape, and even add some symbols to the labels using a simple and free app from my phone. The labels are not huge, however I can easily get two lines of text while still having them legible. I use these to label the clear boxes that I prefer to use for storage. I have also begun using what is sold as a photo storage container, that has smaller containers inside, for storing a wide variety of items. Each individual mini box is labelled inside of the larger container. To keep things in order I have set up a system where each item in the box is labelled on a sleeve, and the item name on the sleeve corresponds with the box label. I currently have 3 of these boxes, though they are not all full, so I have a sheet that corresponds to each box. It sounds complicated, however it is easier for me to pull the sheets, check which box has what I am looking for, then pull the box. Previously I had been pulling the boxes out, opening them, looking at what was in each compartment, and then putting things back willy-nilly. For me, organizing is often a trial-and-error method which is why I seem to be constantly rotating through different types of organizing supplies.

I also enjoy putting labels on several sides as well as the top of a box, that way no matter how I choose to store it I have an easily seen label. While I prefer clear containers, sometimes it is not possible such as in my Kallax Units. This is another way that my labelling system comes in handy. Not to mention my unfortunate tendency to put things on top of other things, labels come in handy then, though I hope that my final bookcase will help prevent that tendency by forcing a place for everything. This will probably mean a spate of attempting to use things up and de-stashing items, however I hope that the result is a productive workspace in 2026. Enough about organization, how about getting to items that help my hands, joints, and more?

The first three items are for holding items so I do not have to pinch things quite as often or tightly. The first and third pictures are items that are intended for people working on circuit boards, soldering, or similar. I can easily use them to hold a piece of embroidery I am working on, some fabric that I plan on stitching, wire for a piece of jewelry I am working on, or similar. The top middle is a clamp intended for woodworking. Since it is very adjustable I can use it with an embroidery hoop to hold things steady while I try to stitch. The larger picture on the bottom is of some ‘bead stoppers’ intended to be placed on wire/string/filament that you are putting beads on so they do not fall off of the end. I have not been beading much recently, though I have a couple of projects that might change that in the near future.

Just today I have been working with my embroidery machine, and so had to discover a new assistive device. I have a small flat head screwdriver that I use to tighten up the hoop so that my fabric does not slide around while the machine is running, this has happened a couple of times. I was very productive this morning and managed to get five motifs embroidered on the quilt this morning…and now I have to wear my wrist brace because my thumb joint is protesting. Of course, I have to wear the brace on my ‘good’ hand because that is the one that I have been using, lol. This caused me to see if there is any kind of screwdriver that I can use without having to create a pinching motion, there is! I T-Handled Screwdriver! I will order it when I next get paid.

There are a few more tools, such as the ones I mentioned in an earlier post, however I will have to get to those later. I did discover that the Crafteaze pillow by Valari is manufactured in India and their supportive gloves ship from China. I have not had an opportunity to test them yet, though each finger in the gloves is finished with a serger so they seem to be good quality.

Until next time 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.

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.

Plans Derailed

by CZeitler

On Thursday I went to work with a slightly scratchy throat. I had been moving books an dusting shelves so I thought that was it. One of my supervisors let me know that there were throat problems going around, so after the meeting I decided to go home early sick. I’m so happy I did. I then slept through with few waking moments until Saturday. My throat was feeling better by then, I had ordered Walmart delivery of garlic pills, oregano pills, immune support pills, diet soda, and oatmeal. These purchases took up most of my cousin visit fund, but oh well. On Saturday I was feeling much better, I was able to get some dishes done and a quick shower so I could stink a little less.

On Sunday I was able to get a few projects worked on. I finished the beaded bracelet, made a kumihimo piece and finished another. I was planning on using this weekend to make progress on the big quilt project I was working on, however I do not want to get my germs on it. I hope that I am not coughing in the morning so I can make progress on that.

The final thing that I am working on is some small weavings for holiday cards. I’m not sure if it will happen or not, I’m just happy I made progress on this.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract.

Time Flies

by CZeitler

I took the bottom off of my sewing machine since I was having trouble with the bobbin thread catching and the top thread shredding. This took me quite a bit to clean out using an eyelash brush, it worked amazingly well. My machine is sewing like new. I also did a clean of my embroidery machine which has decided that it will not work about 50% of the time unless the hoop is slightly elevated on the side it is not anchored to, so it probably needs to go to the shop to be fixed. Since we are over half way through the library being closed to the public I brought my embroidery machine in for my colleagues to personalize whatever they would like, a few people have taken advantage of my offer which makes me feel good about bringing it in.

It is so hard for me to believe that we will be reopening to the public in two weeks. I have not completed many of the projects I intended to get done. My area is clean which is one of my main goals, I have a rhythm to my weeding and inventory project so I am pretty happy about my progress there, now that I have my ADHD medications I’m better able to concentrate and will make significant progress this week if I do not finish it.

I am trying to destash products that I do not use and have had some success in that endeavor, this will leave me with just the items that I actually use for storage and surfaces. There have been some projects that I have been meaning to get to so I am working on getting some of those completed and out the door. There is a decent amount of fleece I purchased on clearance that I planned to use for blankets. Then when I asked many of my family members stated that they preferred real backing rather than fleece on a quilt. Because of this I have cut it into a size that can be used for sensory mats and I will donate the fleece to my library for future use on the new ‘kindness cart’.

It has been my plan to create my own dress for our ‘Haunted Library’ murder mystery thing that we have going on in November when we are fully reopened. I have the pieces cut out for an initial sample so I hope to get that sewn in the next two weeks so when I go to a clearance sale with my cousin in October I know what kind of fabric might work and whether I can stand the pattern or not.

I have been working on getting some spinning done, though the fiber I first started with is a bit stickier than I thought it would be, I’m considering pitching it to spin something I enjoy. I also warped up my table loom with a fun pattern that I am doing in reds and greens for my Weaving Guild’s holiday cards, no one else is volunteering so I think I will end up doing it. I am also trying to get my Saori Loom re-warped with the cotton warp in a way that the threads may actually stay on and not slip or snap.

All of this in addition to being about a month later than when I told my aunt I would have her Quilt done, oops.

I also decided that I wanted to try to make a fall cloak with felt leaves, so I cut them out and laid them on another piece of felt. This led me to discover that I do not have enough leaves, and that unless I have some veins sewn into the leaves they look really stupid. I did manage to sew in the center vein in these leaves though I still do not have enough, and I think I want to use something other than felt for the base.

I think that’s enough for right now, I hope to get back to you in less than a Month! LOL. Until next, remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

A Little Crafting

by CZeitler

My library, where I work, is closing our doors for a month while new doors are being installed. This will really only effect the presence of the public in our building, we will still be working however patrons will not be allowed in. This is going to be a great time for me to get my personal space organized, and a lot of work done on projects that tend to fall by the wayside while focusing on patrons and other things. I just came off of a vacation where I mostly spent my time trying to rest and recharge my social batteries. This worked out really well. Prepping for the closure is going to take a ton of time, energy, and social battery next week. Next Saturday I will also be holding a spinning class, this again is going to take a ton of my social battery.

The second to last day of my vacation was spent with the Weaver’s Guild I belong to making cord wraps with handwoven fabric, these will be given out during a fiber conference in October. I found out that the type of buttons I have been buying, with the little teeth, is not going to work with any of my presses (despite the fact that some came with one of my presses.)

I also found out that I needed to add some extra width to my shirt pieces, I cut out a triangle of fabric to add to the seams on the sides. I have them pinned together and hope to finish sewing them soon.

These small crafting projects have been great for me to dip my toe back in. I have also been doing a lot of cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of items that I do not need/use.

I hope that the weather continues to be good, and that you remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!