Double Dutch

Last week a raveller from Canada, Cat Beattie, posted some pictures of a Dutch Pencil Case that she had made from one of my patterns. She made it for her father-in-law, who is about to make a trip to Amsterdam. Hasn't she done a great job. I love seeing my patterns made up. This is one of my free ones. It has been downloaded 90 times, but this is the first time I have seen it made up by someone who isn't me. Here is a link to the pattern - Dutch Pencil Case.

Cat really kindly said I could post her pictures, and in our chat we have found we have quite a lot in common - black cats, knitting, love of nature ... I do love how crafting (and the internet) brings people together. Perhaps international relations should just be left to us crafters.  (I do hope my next paragraph is not going to ruin this.)

In trying to think of a title for this post I typed in "expressions containing the word Dutch". What a lot of them there are! "Double Dutch", "Dutch courage", "to go Dutch", "a Dutch uncle", and a few others that I had not heard, "take Dutch leave", "a Dutch wife", and "a Dutch agreement". I found a site which explains some of these, if you haven't heard them before. So it led me to wonder if these expressions are peculiarly English or are they known in other parts of the world. As I know quite a few Dutch people look at my blog, I wonder if you have any expressions about the English? I would love to hear if you use any colloquial expressions, the more unusual the better, but not any that would cause offense ...

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

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?