Weaving

Back on Track (For Now)

by CZeitler

On the mend and on the go once more. I was able to visit my cousin, though I managed to forget all of my medications at home. It was a good way for me to better notice how much of an effect the anti-depressant is having on me (a lot of good effect!). I only cut my trip short by a few hours, so things went very well. I took my pills Sunday night and by work on Monday I could already tell the difference. When I spoke to my Psychologist he mentioned that I was likely going through some form of withdrawal as well.

I was feeling better, though not at 100%, last week so I took it easy until I felt that I was mostly regulated. While I was giving myself the grace and rest I needed some organizing and cleaning up did occur. Since we are heading into winter I am going to keep up with the oregano and garlic oil supplements until they run out, though I might cut back to twice a week.

This week I have found myself diving headfirst into crafting again, though some of them seem a little more like procrastinating crafts, I have gotten quite a bit accomplished! I had a large piece of faux fur left over from when I tried to make a sensory quilt, it was just the right size to be a cushion for my weaving bench. It is about 5 foot long and very puffy so I hope it will work. My house is a little too messy for me to take a picture of the enormous pillow. I have decided that this winter I wanted to weave a ‘bog jacket’. This is a lovely piece of clothing made from whole cloth with minimal cutting and seams. It is my plan to weave about 9 yards of cloth on my rigid heddle loom that can make 31 inch pieces. I am going to use Knitpicks dishie cotton for the warp and likely the weft as well since I have a 7.5 dent reed. I already have 2 inches of warp wound off, when I have a little extra in pay I will buy the rest of the yarn I need. Fortunately Dishie is very standard and I don’t need to worry about dye lots. I am currently debating about whether I want to buy all white to dye myself or buy some colored yarn.

In the middle of November I am going to be a part of a murder mystery show and I need to make progress on the dress I wanted to sew for it. One of the items that I have started is the tulle petticoat, photo below. Honestly I’m not sure it’s going to work out but this is so much fun. I pinned the tulle in and did a rough basting stitch for the first batch. I plan on pinning and sewing in the elastic today, followed by sewing down the waist band and then putting in a hem for my pull on elastic petticoat. the library had a lot of tulle left over from other projects and I am supposed to be a flamboyant medium so I chose my favorite color purple.

There was an amazing sale on cotton muslin so I have 10 yards of natural cotton muslin that I need to cut apart to dye for a dress. I need to make the first try with the pieces I cut out of a tablecloth I purchased at good will. I did wash the muslin however it is going to need a good iron before I do anything else.

My library was getting rid of a ton of receipt tape while we were doing construction and no longer have the right machines to use this tape. I have been wanting to try spinning paper for some time and I did spin a large piece of this paper tape, it turned out amazing but it is such a pain to create with my wheel. When I am feeling creative and bored again I will try a spindle to see if that is any easier. If that is not possible I can use it for some sewing projects or coloring projects. Maybe even just writing lists out.

The last project is working with watercolors on fabric. My library purchased a circuit maker 4 and one of my co workers found a great price on a light board so I bought one for myself. I was then inspired by a picture of a shape painted onto a linen cross stitch fabric then stitched over with sequins and beads as accent. That picture was of a dragon, amazing, and I decided to do the same with a crow outline I had. I taped down the paper to the light board and then taped the fabric over top. I started with blue, then red, the black over all of it in an attempt to add some depth. I took the fabric off of the light board after I had the outline completed to avoid any bleedthrough onto the board, it is a good thing I did so. I hope to do some stitching over top of this then add embellishments like sequins and beads. I have not painted over the crow with fabric medium yet since I am afraid I will blur the image and I love how it turned out. I plan on getting my guts up and putting the fabric medium on today before I start stitching.

I am making strides to keep my productivity up this weekend, here’s hoping I can keep it up. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More 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!

So Much Fun at H&H Americas

by CZeitler

Before I get started with this post, I’m going to put two very important caveats in here: 1. I am not sponsored by any of these organizations and any freebies that I received were welcome to everyone that was attending. 2. While attending this show, I made every effort possible to ensure that I did not distract attention of the vendors from their actual retail customers, not doing the ‘I am an influencer’ thing or anything of the sort. If someone is tempted to go to this or volunteer in the future, please make sure that you are being respectful because many of these individuals are basing their livelihood on getting customers from this event.

I drove to Chicago on Tuesday, May 6th so that I could attend H&H, Americas, Wednesday and Thursday. I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer at the HGA HandWeavers Guild of America booth. As a volunteer, I brought my ladybug spinning wheel by Schacht, which I so cleverly named Lady. Lady was an absolute hit, people just loved her stickers which was validating because in the past some guild members (not HGA) have been not as thrilled with the stickers.

For my first “shift” volunteering I was loaned out to the Louet booth. David was just lovely and setting me up with their E spinner because most of their wheels had not arrived. He was wonderful about answering all of the questions and in case you didn’t know, Louet just acquired Schacht and David will become the president or company head, CEO of Schacht. This spinning wheel was just a delight to spin on, they have a wonderful feature where the leader thread actually gets nestled inside the bobbin so you don’t have to worry about it just spinning around, usually on an E spinner I have to tape down the leader thread. Also, oh my goodness, the new Harmony loom! The beater is on a track so that you get an even beat every single time! Totally mind blowing. If I had anywhere near a budget, I would be getting that immediately because having an uneven beat is a reason that I don’t weave a lot because I always angle to the right when I’m beating. Louet also purchased the yarn line Venne which comes in a huge variety of colors as well as some very fine weights. The one that sticks out in my mind that was mentioned to me was 32/2 however, I can’t even dream of what kind of a set that would be I do plan on researching and exploring these more in the future as they seem like an amazing yarn to work with.

It was so much fun to be surrounded by weaving and spinning related booths, and everyone was so friendly. The Ashford and Schacht booths were a little kitty corner so I did not get to spend as much time ogling their merchandise. However, the Kromski booth was right across from me. The woman running the booth was absolutely delightful and I had so much fun chatting with her. The products were amazing. I am so jealous that they are coming out with a purple wheel! And I mean a royal purple wheel. Their looms were amazing and I loved how they had their drop spindles displayed in so many different colors. Their entire booth looked like a candy store.


Speaking of candy stores, the other booth across from the HGA booth was a silk producer, Spun Silk World, They not only produce silk yarns, but they also produce silk fiber for spinning. They were generous enough to offer me samples, both days, as well as samples of their Mulberry and Eri silk to take home to run an experiment on. Each set of samples came with three little puffs of fiber, and I was able to spin them so much faster than I’ve ever been able to spin silk before. I am so excited to ply those up and I will be showing those skeins off in the near future.

I will have more posts in the near future until then remember to live life a little more abstract.

Word Switch = Mind Shift

by CZeitler

As I wrote in my last post, I’ve been hustling to make earrings, necklaces, and other items, to stock up my Etsy shop, thinking of ways to improve my jewelry game to generate more (any) sales, etc. Then as I was looking at what tools I need to start getting serious about jewelry, soldering, etc., and pushing off whittling again, I came to a realization. In my mind I had switched around a few words of what I had created my etsy store for. I was working toward: “Crafting to sell”. My Original intention was: “Selling my Crafts”. I know, some of you are looking at that like, what’s the difference? The difference is intention.

For the first, “Crafting to sell”, changed the motivation of my work. I was not focusing on creating what I wanted or learning new skills to be able to teach my patrons at work, I was thinking about: “Will this appeal, does this go with the brand I am trying to build up, how can I market this?.”

For my original intention: “Selling my Crafts”, I was using up materials I already owned, learning new skills without worrying about putting something new out each day, and having the crafts I lovingly created going to new homes instead of just sitting around my house or being given as gifts to friends and family that didn’t really want them. I think that it is time for me to get back to my original intention, and allow the universe to generate sales from my lovingly crafted goods.

That is not to say that I am not going to post updates and new items onto my Etsy store. As one maker said, “Don’t wait until your crafts are perfect, put them out there and see if they appeal, then work on getting better.”

I have some loom beaded pieces that I am going to learn how to back, some cabochons that I am going to learn how to create beaded bezels around, and a secret project that I am working on perfecting before I, potentially, launch a kickstarter. Along with all of that I am trying to learn how to cut a straight line on my wood, or plane down to a straight line, without a power saw (Since I don’t own one). This is with the intention of making my own jewelry display, and possibly some of the projects I’ve seen on YouTube. There is one more thing, the next time I have some extra funds, I’m buying the whittling kit.

Remember to slow down, make sure you are working toward your actual goal, and Live Life A Little More Abstract!

End of Summer Reading

by CZeitler

Yay! This past week was the last week of our summer reading program. We will be having a finale and prize drawing this upcoming Saturday. I’m teaching a needle tatting class to a guild that day so I will not be available. For the end of our summer reading program I ran my usual classes and two extra events. Due to this I’ve been really busy and not able to get a lot of crafting done.

I have been working on hiding the threads for my big quilt, I’m done tying the top and bottom threads together and just need to thread each one into a needle and slide that needle between the top and bottom quilt pieces and then snip any extra thread off. This will help the threads stay together better and not allow the quilting to unravel. I did wash the quilt and it has amazing crinkle. I’ll post photos next week when I’m ready to put it in my Etsy store.

I haven’t managed to make much progress on my second Tunisian crochet square but I’m having fun with it. I have managed to make progress on a couple of projects. I put some wood filler into the cracks I’ve found on my back porch railing.

I am certainly going to have to do more sanding and possibly more filling. I cannot wait to get this ready for the winter. Speaking of prep for the winter, I’m still working on my garage. I’m going to show you the shame of my garage window and the hole I need to fill in.


As stated in my earlier post about how to repair the window, get the right sized glass. It makes all the difference unless you are good at cutting glass…which I am obviously not good at.

My handyman left a bunch of stuff behind that I need to figure out what to do with. I’m more concerned about getting the hole covered so that I can store my garden stuff in there for the winter. I did spray the place with all natural cat repellent as well as a bug spray to make sure I can get in there without any real problems. I’m on vacation in two weeks so I plan on doing more work at my home then, while wearing some very durable gloves.

I also managed to finish a garment which is one of the few garments where you would ask your significant other ‘Does this make my butt look big enough?’ I am going to be playing the part of a mother from 1880s who is in mourning. I’m trying to put together a costume with minimal purchasing so I used an old pillowcase that I stuffed with fabric scraps and sewed in a semi circle. I then sewed a few lines to roughly keep the stuffing in place before adding in some twill tape to use as ties. This is not how you should make this garment if you want it to last and look really authentic. For a quick job this is an alright result. It will cover my entire backside and give my hips a little more padding. I’m going to try to put together my rough costume this upcoming week to see if it all works.

The final bit of news I have is that my local government is going to release a new grant this week for an opportunity to get home repairs completed. My last application contained a bunch of small things I would like to get done and my application was denied. This time I’m asking them why my last application was denied as well as asking for a list of contractors that will do repairs on my roof. I did see an article released about someone that obtained the initial 10k grant toward a roof replacement and their roof was actually leaking. I’m trying to get this repaired before it leaks, so here’s hoping.

That is it for this week. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract

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Crafting Bug

by CZeitler

*I managed to update the photos so they should all show up, sorry about that.*
I’m really not sure what got into me this past week, I finished so many projects and started some more. I’ll start with my quilt that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. I did finish all six types of blocks then I spent some time before work sashing the pieces and putting rows together…then once I was almost late to work (just one more row), I finished putting the top together.

This quilt is on a queen sized bed, so the entire quilt would fit on a queen sized bed without any overhang. I managed to get the quilt sandwich made, I pieced the back together and I love how that turned out. I’ve started to do the actual free motion quilting on the quilt, I’m considering the quilting something like ‘entropic chaos’. Okay, now that I’m looking at it through a camera lens it doesn’t look as bad as I thought, maybe once I wash it the quilt crinkle will hide things.

I can only do a bit of quilting at any time because of several circumstances, my hands cannot move against the natural movement of the quilt for very long and the top thread is giving me trouble by fraying often. Of course this is not enough for me. There is a new free tutorial on how to turn corners when you are sewing, those sort of internal corners that cause so many problems. This worked really well….okay so it would have worked well if I had ironed the pieces down and squared the two halves before connecting them. The new instructions were created as a masterclass be Plains and Pine, I highly recommend this! It is so simple how they have written it out!

As you can tell from my Lemoyne Star quilt I love all things spooky, so I’m playing with coffin shapes.

I also managed another kitchen towel and finger towel on my 16 shaft loom.

I did some weaving on my saori loom, two pieces have clasped weft and the rest is yardage I hope to eventually use to make a shirt.

So five projects in a week, that’s it right? No, not really. I also found a Tunisian crochet challenge, it’s supposed to be weekly but I finished the first in less than two days, it was the Tunisian Simple stitch. I had a minor problem with counting after the first row, I managed to correct it and I’m hoping to ease the extra into a seam when I put it together. I’ve started the second square which is the Tunisian Knit Stitch.

I cannot wait to see what this next week will bring me. I have 4 classes I’m teaching plus makerspace this week so I don’t know if I will have any energy for crafting, but if the rain holds off I should be able to sand my back porch some more. Until next time remember to live life A Little More Abstract!

Weaving Adventures

by CZeitler

So yesterday I taught my last planned scissor fob class, and it went very well. I had seven people take part and they all made beautiful scissor fobs. Someone did ask if I would be willing to teach another class for another organization that they belong to so if that goes through, that would be lovely. I organized and brought a lot of materials that I had created out of resin because we were going to be having a sort of garage sale event, however, no one was interested in my creations. They were mostly seconds that I had priced just for the cost of the resin and slight cost of the molds. However, since they did not, so at this point, I am probably going to either offer them through Facebook marketplace as seconds, or try to gift them to someone. Onto the very exciting parts of this post, the crafting.

so over the past couple of weeks, I have managed to get my loom, completely warped, and I have completed two towels, one of which was finished and washed. I am currently working on weaving the third towel and I love how the pattern is turning out. I’m not going to post a picture of the first towel because the warp was not accurate and there are a bunch of weird floats. I swear it took me almost halfway through the second towel to get the warps completely correct but I love how it looks now.

Yesterday I had a lovely phone call from a friend of mine that is on a very long drive back home, so we spent a wonderful six hours chatting. Since I am in capable of keeping my hands, still while talking on the phone, I managed to begin weaving, a beaded weaving project. That is something that I’ve been telling myself that I would do this entire week that I was on staycation, but it never wound up happening until yesterday. This was woven on my mirrix loom, and I spent another three hours this morning, working on it because I had another phone call from a different friend who was having trouble. It did take me about another hour or two to get a completely finished finish off the warp ends, glue everything down and put a back on it. So this less than 10 inch woven piece took me about 11 hours. That means that if I were to put this for sale just at my time at around minimum wage, I would have to sell this less than 10 inch piece for $165. That would not be taking into account the price of the loom, the thread, and the beads. I think that it’s beautiful but I don’t actually see somebody paying 165 for it.

Well, I have not just spent my entire staycation crafting. I did manage to get some things done around the house. I finally managed to get the thorn bush cut down from my side yard so I’m now working on figuring out how to get rid of the stumps so that it does not come back again. I am so excited by how much I managed to accomplish during my staycation and well I will not have another one until early September. I think that I am prepped and ready to get through August.

I hope that everyone has a great week and remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract.

We Are Warped

by CZeitler

I now have my 16 shaft table loom warped up completely and I have been weaving on it this week. A couple of threads snapped and a couple are floating rather than separating so I have to figure out what is going on with them. After I finished weaving the first towel, I decided to take each shaft off of its rail and take off the extra heddles that I had on the end. This was going very well until I reached shaft 14 and then the shaft decided to snap on me, essentially the bottom came off before the top was out of the rail, and it snapped. I was able to glue it back together using gorilla glue, however, that happened just this morning so I will not be able to put it back on until tomorrow morning.

I know that the gorilla wood glue worked because after half an hour the shaft stayed together without the clamp on. I did manage to get all of the extra heddle off and shifted where the last shaft is going to be by adding the pieces onto the other heddle. Essentially now only the 16th shaft is missing the part that keeps the heddle rods in place. Do I regret doing all of this, while the loom is completely warped up, not really. Considering how much time and effort it takes to warp up the loom, loosening the warp from the back beam and allowing the heddles to shift in place seems to be the best way to do this. That being said, I have not found out where the sticky warps are nor whether anything is shifted or twisted, so wait and see if this actually works or not. Since I am having a Weaving Guild meeting on Saturday and they asked us to bring our own place setting, I’m going to wash the towel now that I’ve hemmed it and see how it works.

There is one more aspect to this saga and that is the paper that I used to wind the back warp. Since it was not exactly the same size as the back warp beam, it wound up crinkling and wrinkling. Those crinkles and wrinkles cause the warped be held at a different tension which completely messed up my front tension. I should’ve seen this coming however, I did not. I am still debating different ways to potentially resolve this issue. The back warp reel is actually quite wide, though it isn’t 36 inches wide which is what I think the paper is.

I believe taking off the extra heddles will give me room to figure out which of my warps are crossing or doing other things that cause me to not get a clean shed. I also believe that if I can find some way to wind the warp on with even tension I will solve my loose warp problem, though I do not look forward to unrolling the entire warp just to try to roll it back on the back beam with even tension. Perhaps unrolling the back beam and pulling it through the front reed and heddles will help me figure out my threading problems, then I can concentrate on the tension problems. I hope to get both of those problems solved this week, though again it will all have to wait until tomorrow morning when I can get the last shaft fixed.

As you can probably tell, this has been my all consuming project this past week. The quilt as you go project went well, not everyone finished since I had between 16-18 (I lost count) people wanting to do the project. As a result, even though Wednesday-Sunday I’m supposed to be off, I will be coming in to work for 2 hours to set up and help everyone finish their potholders. Each person will be making 1 and I have enough supplies for 12. I’m also teaching Scissor Fobs on Saturday, so I will really have Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday off. That is alright, I will use the ‘on days’ to run other errands and take care of other chores around the house.

I think that is it for this week, so until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Severely Sidetracked

by CZeitler

Crafting content will begin after the ******.

I went outside this morning to get my 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, also known as using my old fashion lawnmower to mow my lawn. I love my old fashion mower because it is not nearly as harsh on the grass as an electric mower, or a gas powered mower, it also is very environmentally safe, and the blades do not need sharpening. I had mowed my front lawn on Thursday because I had a little bit of time and I knew that since it was forward facing I wanted the front of my house that everybody could see to look nice. I had decided to leave the backyard that nobody except one neighbor can see alone until I had time on Sunday. Imagine my surprise, when my beautiful, plush lawn was scalped. I know that someone thinks they were helping me and giving me a hand, however, all I feel is devastated and violated. My lush green grass is now almost down to the dirt and it looks horrible. Somebody came into my yard without my permission and did what they thought was best without consulting me or talking to me or anything. I know that the short way of thinking of this is that somebody mowed my lawn for me, however, all I really feel is violated. If they think it’s OK to mow my lawn without permission what else do they think it’s OK to do without my permission on my property? I’ve been trying to slowly do some landscaping, last weekend I put out some new, stepping stones for my pots and other things.
because of this, I wound up going to my local hardware store to buy a blank sign. I put the sign out after I wrote down something to the effect of ‘Thank you for mowing my lawn. Please ask permission.’ I plan on keeping it up for a week. While I was there, They had bushes half price so I did get a bush for an area that I was planning on putting in the back and a nice lilac bush that I put in a pot out front. In total, I spent all of what I earned teaching yesterday on some of the yard work as opposed to saving it as I had planned to do. I also think that I might need to put out some cameras on the backyard so that I can keep track of what’s going on. I didn’t want to be that kind of paranoid person, however, I don’t want people thinking that they can do whatever they want on my property.

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due to circumstances beyond my control, I have not gotten around to creating the organization post that I intended to. Since it is mirrix, weave every day month I have managed to get some weaving done almost every day. The most exciting achievement that I’ve managed is that the reed on my 16 shaft loom is completely threaded, and I have almost half of the heddles threaded as well.

I did have to take a break in the middle of my project to create my own lease stick so that I could attach it to the back roller of my loom. For the life of me, I do not know what happened to the original, however, with some para cord, an impact driver, and some ingenuity, I did manage to get the lease sticks for the front and back of the loom finished. I have been having some trouble with the lease stick on my rigid heddle loom as well so I am not sure if I’m going to just use para cord to attach it to the front and back beams or if I am going to use the slightly thicker wood that I purchased to create my own lease sticks.

I did manage to get all of the pieces cut out that I need for the quilt as you go potholder class I am on Thursday, that did take quite a bit of time and playing around with the machines to make sure that they were going to work. I also had to remind myself that fold over binding is just fine because I am not going to try to teach 13 people on the fly how to do regular binding. I am not that much of a masochist.

I know that this is not the post that I promised you, I do hope to get to that before the 11th. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and remember to live life a little more abstract.