Dutch House Bookends

So as promised quite while ago some functional houses. ... I made these Dutch House bookends as a Christmas gift, so although they have been complete and the pattern written up for a little while, I have been keeping them secret. I also had a bit of a job getting photos, because of dark, overcast days. I'm still not completely happy with these ones, but am just having to go with it, as the houses are now with their new owner.

Although these houses are bookends, I think a single house would be very useful as a doorstop. They would also make a lovely toy. I fancy making some more so I could just have a little row of colourful houses along side an imaginary canal

The bookends are filled with rice, which make them very weighty. You could also use something like lentils or dry beans. Hubby says that they could also be cracked open in an emergency. 

They are knitted with doubleknit wool, and although there is some sewing up of seams, perhaps not as much as you would imagine. The front is a separate piece, but the back, sides and roof are all knitted in one. The pattern contains a diagram to help with the sewing up.

I have made the two houses different in roof shape and colour, but with enough similarities in style so that they look like a pair. The finished bookend are approximately 17cm by 9 cm by 9cm.

The pattern for them contains instructions for both houses. It has taken me a while to write up, as it also contains illustrations to help with the wool embroidery. I think some folk might be a bit scared by the idea of sewing on the doors and windows, but I find this the most relaxing part. You just plod away putting the needle in and out, and although it takes a while, at the end you have made something rather unique.

The pattern also contains a single pattern piece to make an inner lining from calico to contain the filling. This also caused me a bit of grief, as the pattern piece is bigger than A4 paper size, but I did not want to split it over two pages. The solution that I chose was shrink it from A3 to A4. So anyone using it will need to find a photocopier that enlarges it back to the correct size, A4 to A3. I think these are fairly readily available these days, although if anyone can't get to one I will email the shape split over two pages, and you would just need to join it together to make the pattern piece. Please contact me if you would prefer this.
 

I specially picked what I thought were my most photogenic books. What books would you put between your?