Green When You Turn On the Light...

...Well, mostly anyway :)

The time has come...seeing as there are only a couple more hours until May officially ends on the West coast.

See this?
I've always been a sucker for maps, especially the "there be dragons" variety. So when I ran across this fabric, on sale no less at "big-name fabric store," I got it, no questions asked. You know, especially those hard ones like, ummm what exactly are you planning on doing with it? Did you buy enough? Are you just enamored of all the ships and the "antiquey map feel" and aren't listening to me? Hello?!? Bueller? This isn't going to be like the Winnie the Pooh fabric you bought back when you were 13 is it? IS IT?

Tee hee, MAP!

But I did decide to prove the voices in my head wrong by actually making something with it, in honor of Project Spectrum's Green month too! So in your face Space Coyote! Ugh, sorry, channeling in Homer Simpson again.

What better fabric to house my most "traveled" knitting needles¹:
Yes, a needle case, for my sock needles! See:
A quickie "experimental" project. I was super curious about how the fabric would react under my machine's needle. Would the weave pull? Would the print "crack?" No, no, no, no, no. :) It's a "texture" fabric, you can feel as well as see the weave, which makes it kinda feel like it's even more "olde-y/antique-y" beyond just the pattern printed on it. I lined it with your basic, or not so basic, Egyptian Cotton. I tried, really I did, but I could not bring myself to use the super el-cheap-o solid color green they had on sale. Not with this fabric. Now when it's soooo very cool to work with on my poor petering out sewing machine.

I've got enough fabric for a medium/small tote (or maybe just a "sockyarn skein" bag to match the dpn case) and maybe a zip/velcro (I don't own a zipper foot and investing in one this late in the game might not be worth it) pouch for notions. I'd thought about making a matching "roll" for my straight needles and larger/non-sock dpns but, umm, well, that's far too much like having matching luggage or something. I don't think I'm ready for that kind of lifestyle, yet. But oh wow, this fabric would make a GREAT luggage print...well, for goofie people like me. It's nowhere near sturdy enough for such an undertaking unless massive amounts of that interfacing stuff was used...and that tends to change the feel of the fabric a bit much for me.

Did you notice all the colors though? I looked super close...not a speck of purple to be seen. But all that water? Blue. Accents on the sailing ships? Blue. Compass Roses? Blue. So if I get bits and chances throughout June to play with this fabric? It's still good :). Besides, Lolly said I could! :)

Yey Green!

Oh, ummm my, sock? Yep, still working on it. But as you'all guessed from the title of my last post? I's a workin' stiff now...and hopefully for the next many weeks. I've started a temporary office position. I'm ROWS away from the toe decreases, but it's just not gonna happen today, I tired. I give myself about 10 minutes before I fall asleep in my chair. Since this is a "dress-up" kinda job, this would be bad as I have a little mending to do so i can, you know, keep up the dressing-nice-ability :).

I go now...

¹ Actually, my official "most traveled" needles? Those are a pair of unspecified METAL US4s I began a sweater onback in 1987. They were given to me by my mom in Los Angeles, CA; moved up to Santa Cruz, CA; spent a year in Stanford, CA; back to Santa Cruz; down to Moss Landing, CA. Then accompanied me in my sailboat up into the Sacramento Delta; back down the entire coast of CA (from SF bay all the way to 4 miles north of the Tijuana, Mexico border when I was in San Diego. Of course they then went down and around Baja CA and then all the way South to Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mex. on the same sailboat. But wait, there's more, we hopped across the Pacific Ocean...well, a little segment, from Mexico to Hilo, HI. Yup, there they were. When I packed my life away and mailed it to my mom's house? Right, in the box back to LA where they'd begun their journey...only for me to pick the sticks back up again with a fevered passion and take them with me to North Lake Tahoe, CA, and now they're by my feet in their cute plastic container 800 miles further North in Seattle. Mile for mile? About 14,000 miles of traveling.