Happy Easter if you celebrate, and Trans Visibility too which happens to coincide this year

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate. My own celebration will happen Wednesday when Handsome Son is free to come and make a dinner with me.

Here's my Easter display of my hand painted eggs, porcelain, cats, tiny cup and saucer with painted cockatiel eggs. Every year when I bring the tray down from its storage place, an egg gets broken. I've replaced the main part on the tray, so you won't notice. Spot the little wooden duckling!

 

Bottom left corner, little duckie by cast iron cat.

I hadn't intended this as a puzzle! But anyway running it by you again, after plaintive comments.

Meanwhile, the mourning doves did it again, made a sort of nest of grasses chucked around, on the ground, laid two eggs and abandoned the enterprise. Some predator, probably a bluejay, then attacked one egg.

Outside my daffodils are in full bloom everywhere, no idea why the pictured suddenly elongated like that.  Clowning around.

And at home I've been trying a pinloom idea, using whatever pins I could find, none available locally, to my surprise. The cardboard is the divider from the misfits box

 

and here's the result. I've put it here with the earlier weaving. Then I started another square with no particular object in mind, just the pleasure of weaving while I listened to pods and the current audio book

 Current ebook is this 

by an online friend, a headlong rush of a book, loads of fun, as is she

And a shoutout for Trans Visibility Day, which happens this year to fall on Easter, which seems like a hopeful omen.

Happy day everyone, enjoy whatever today is for you.

More visiting, Easter cactus

Yesterday's plans changed when I had a sudden spontaneous visit from an old friend I  hadn't seen for ages, got caught up with news of family and mutual friends. 

She tends to be the confidante of her friends in their troubles, classic youngest daughter situation, familiar to me, and she asks me for input. So we did some of that, too.

These friends' visits tend to change the course of the day, so yesterday was not a day of making, nor of writing as planned about the politics of making art. But she did accept an artwork off the wall! The winnowing continues.

I asked her to send a picture when it's installed in her home, which I'll share.

And there was a huge, seismic shift in NJ politics yesterday, speaking of politics, when a federal judge struck down the County Line on the primary ballot design,and ordered a redesign for our June primary.

This wipes away a lot of power from the  Democratic party power brokers. This is a couple of white men, one North Jersey, one South, who've been using the ballot design to give total prominence to their chosen candidates. 

This consigned all other candidates, however popular, to what Rep Kim, who's running for Senate, calls ballot Siberia. The design has been estimated to give a 38% advantage to their handpicked candidate.  

The power brokers, were shoving in the governor's totally inexperienced wife, never ran for anything before, as the replacement for indicted Senator Menendez. 

This brought about a  rebellion from voters, with whom Kim is popular and a tested legislator.  He won by huge margins those county party votes where clerks opened the voting or allowed secret ballots at the recent county meetings, held for the purpose of endorsing candidates in an election year.

He's the guy,you probably saw him, who was pictured doing cleanup at the Capitol after the January 6 insurrection. He gained deep personal respect there, walks the walk. 

His popularity showed up starkly how the power brokers' choice was a nonstarter, and winning his court case against the Line has been a huge victory. 

Now we're in the process of pressing the County Clerks to get on with the new ballot design ready for our June primary, and not waste time and tax dollars on appealing the decision. I've already written to my County Clerk to this effect. 

And we have to press our local county party to do great checking on future candidates, now that it's opened up. We don't want people running and winning as Democrats then, in office, turning out to be Republican after all. 

One thing and another, a busy social and civic day!

And the Easter cactus is  getting with the program.

Happy day, everyone, note what's your own program of the day, and try to get with it!

Crafting, living, and Misfits

 This arrived in the mail yesterday, a catalog raisonne of the 2019  exhibit in Boston of protest art after T***p was elected, and other artworks of political and feminist protest. It's a wonderful reminder and very timely again, sadly, since fascism is again threatening to take over.

Gnarly old  hand, that's made many things, ready to open this surprise

I was going to write more about this, but need to postpone that since my day was upended by getting terrible news from a friend about her health. That drove everything else

 out of my thoughts.

Meanwhile, I did finish the experimental weaving and it seems to work as hoped.  The yarn was a gift from the same friend who sent the catalog.

And Misfits delivered

that cardboard division you see in the box will become several pinlooms

some of the plantbased spicy sausage went with a spaghetti Alfredo for lunch. I've got yogurt working, to go with the blueberries.  The squash will join a bag of carrots waiting in the freezer, along with veggie scraps for stock, to make soup.

Please spare good thoughts for my friend as she deals with yet another health setback. In better days she and I were fixit buddies and knitting friends and cooking tipsters and gardening exchangers. Great fun.

Here's another way to honor Ukraine, by honoring Ukrainian art and artists.

If you're in or around Chicago, or the Bay area, check this out

Happy day, everyone, let's make our own art, whatever form that comes in for us today. 

Interlude for small looms, and summerizing

Rain is back, days of it, possibly. And I may have had a hand in it.

I summerized. Winter bag to summer bag, which involves turning out the bag to find out all the interesting things I've been carrying around for months, editing, then filling up the summer bag. Oh look, a little hand mirror! A comb! Another comb! A shoehorn!

Left, winter bag, a public radio pledge drive tote which I painted, right, summer bag from the thriftie. This bag change usually causes storms. I didn't know how much power I had.

The Easter cactus is on the brink of busting out on time

Then Tuesday's Textiles and Tea rekindled my interest in small looms. I looked up the price of a pinloom and decided to settle for making one, once I find enough pins. Meanwhile I set to finding my trusty old pot holder loom. And my Crone Findlay to remind me how to proceed.

Everyone seems to have had one as a kid and will tell you at length, if you're not careful, all about making pot holders for their mom, using stretchy loops. I got mine late in life, but did make the statutorily required loop pot holders, to get caught up. Then I went on to various experiments in scarves and purses. 

One big advantage about the pinloom is that it creates a stable piece of fabric with four selvages, just lift it off the loom, no finishing required. Other forms have fringes or loops which need finishing. The potholder loom has loops you chain off, crochet move, to stabilize the edges so they don't fray.

Anyway yesterday's adventure was to see if I could figure out a way of creating a four-selvage edge on my little ph loom. Which I think I have. After several tries which didn't work.

I'm needleweaving the margins to fill the loops right up to the pegs. So far it's looking very much like the four selvage work I've done in other ways. The picture shows one edge done.  One more edge to do yet, then we'll know.  

This will leave an unworked place at each corner, which I'll weave across in contrasting color, when I make something out of the square, or several squares. C. do you recognize the yarn?

Misfits box arrives today, so I'll use part of it to create a pinloom, as shown in my Useful Book.  It's good when your raw materials come to your doorstep.

And I'm sure this has been an exciting post to read.. worth the price of admission.

Happy day, everyone, try making something even if it's only a mess.  Or a fuss.

What a cool day!

Tuesday was all good. I got a few errands done without losing energy, then made it to the Tuesday Knitting Group, three familiar knitting friends, two new ones.

Here's some action

New member tackling an unfinished project from her deceased mother, trying to remember how, not having done any crochet for years.

Regular member, the other dpn user in the group, with a sock in progress. She loves all the textile arts and is now, having seen my little basket,  planning on making cordage. She brought in some daffodil and iris leaves to ask about drying them. I hesitate to mention Textiles and Tea in case I'm an enabler.

And a regular member helping a new member get going in crochet. I belatedly realized that the regular member D., on the left, is the person who freecycled me the supply of bright yarn I used for the Izzy dolls.

There's a lovely atmosphere in this group. Chat ranged over building houses personally by hand (!), inheriting a yarn stash, the LIRR, the lack of public transportation locally, the library history, neighbors, common local names, the new Library of Things (borrow all kinds of devices and tools). 

Then home to one of the most fun Textiles and Tea evah. Meg Stump and pinloom weaving. Debra, there's something for you, read on.

She's a pinloom expert and wants to be the Johnny Appleseed of pinlooms!  She makes all kinds of clothing, bags, teacosies, animals, gnomes (!) The flat rat bookmarks are the beginning of her Roadkill Series! Yes, she's a pistol. 

I've already ordered one of her books from the library, and may make a pinloom..

Meanwhile, in addition to the current fiction, I've started this

Tattered old library copy 

He's very entertaining here. One of my knitting buds tells me he married a dancer and hung out in Bloomsbury or something. I never knew anything about his life, just his political positions.

Happy day, everyone, enjoy whatever comes at you! And here's a new take on supporting Ukraine.