Goodbye - Our House

A few years ago, acutally quite a few years ago, I wrote a post called Our House. I had knitted a version of the house where I live, and thought I would now show that knitted house, with the real house. 

I mentioned that we were moving and I would not have much chance for knitting, and have just had the phone call to say the sale is complete. I think we left the house cleaner than it has ever been, which I felt I was doing both for the new people and the house itself. I know that sounds a bit mad. I have loved this house, which I have lived in for 21 years, and would say they have been the happiest years of my life (so far ...)  

But life moves on, and new adventures ahead.

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for August. 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.

The Town House and Country House

I was having a tidy up, and found the beginnings of this house in a box of half finished items. It is knitted from my own pattern, Little Woollie House. I love the James C. Brett wool I used, which with its variations gives it a natural look. So I thought it was time to finish off this house - which is actually my favourite part.

I just like the whole process of just plodding along with my stitches, thinking "What colour should I use for the door?", "What shall I put at the ends of the house?"  Very gradually I add doors and windows, and then other bits, until it is complete. So when I began I had not planned to make one side of the house represent the country, and the other the town, that was just the way it turned out.  This house is for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for October. 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.

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 Wallet or Pencil Case

After our visit to Bruges this summer the beautiful houses that we photographed from the canal gave me the idea to knit a house with a step gable roof. I have called this a Dutch House, so apologies to the Belgium houses that were actually my inspiration. 

I started with the idea to make a model house, a bit like my Little Woollie House Pattern. Somewhere along the way I changed my mind, and decided it could become pencil case or wallet. But then thinking of our visit to the Chocolate Museum in Bruges, decided it would make a really nice gift wallet for a bar of chocolate. (You may have noticed that the chocolate is Swiss, and from my local supermarket, but I hope it gives the idea. The chocolate we bought in Bruges has long since been eaten.)

The house is knitted in red, cream and brown double knit wool. Some of the details like the black window frames and railings were embroidered on afterwards. I do enjoy stitching on knitting, which I find much easier that embroidery on cloth. 

The construction is very easy. The front and back are just sewn together. I made a black felt lining, which is just oversewn in at the mouth. This is not absolutely essential, but I thought if anyone were to use it as a pencil case, it would stop anything getting caught up in the loops of wool on the inside.

My wallet has a simple button and loop fastener. A different fastener (perhaps Velcro) would be better if it were a container for pencils. My wallet is 9cm by 30cm, and the pattern is simply the chart I used for the front section, and some instructions for the back section, and making up.

I am already working on an idea for another Dutch house which will be 3-D, and a functional object. Are you intrigued? So I have decided to put the pattern for this one on as a free pattern. It is available on ravelry, Craftsy and Loveknitting.

The Village Shop

I knitted several houses from my Little Woollie House pattern in the spring, with the plan to make them into shops rather than just houses. As usual other projects got in the way, but I have been thinking I should try and stock up my Etsy Shop a bit for Christmas, and have managed to finish the first shop.

This shop is the village greengrocers. Can you see the bunches of bananas hung up, as well as strings of onions? At the back of the shop is a little cart, piled up with a delivery of potatoes.

It was great fun to stitch. I love hand-stitching on my knitting, and although it may look complicated it is just made from a few basic stitches. There are some tutorials in Embroidery Corner in my sidebar if you fancied making your own shop.

So this shop is off to my own little shop. I am now working on a village post office, so if you keep watching my blog that will appear quite soon.

New Croft

Another Scottish croft.  

A small bird nestles at the side of the chimney.

... and around the back of the croft some white sheep are grazing. 

While at the side of the cottage is the black sheep of the family.

Knitted from my Little Woollie House pattern using James Brett Marble DK, 
and Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran wool, 
and for sale in my Etsy shop.

New House

I've been house knitting again. 

It is Spring, as this time the tree at the side has a carpet of bluebells underneath. One of my favourite flowers. And difficult to photograph, but at the other side of the house a naughty little fox has tipped over the dustbin.

At the back of the house grows a rambling yellow rose, and the gardener who has just gone in for a cup of tea, has left his shovel propped up against the wall next to a small pile of earth. On the roof sits a white dove.

This house is also off to Ginx Craft on Etsy, and the pattern is still available on ravelry, and Etsy. There may be a few more on the way, as hubby has suggested that I make him his own little pub.

Architecture

I had such a positive response to my Our House, that I decided to have a go at designing a house pattern.  So my new interest is architecture. You may see me wandering around my local neighbourhood, gazing upwards at the angle of a roof, or pondering the shape of a window. Or perhaps peering down the side of your house to see what interesting objects you have stored there.

I have come up with the Little Woollie House Pattern. I was keen to have chimneys, and a dormer window, but have made the pattern fairly flexible. You can vary the number of storeys, and whether you have one, two or no dormer windows.

The main walls of Little Woollie House are knitted in the round on five doublepoints. For the roof and gable ends you knit on two needles. There is very little sewing up, which I hope will please some people.

Compared to my Our House, I have taken more care with the doors and windows, and the pattern contains a chart to help you with their size and position, although again you may not want to stick to this. The pattern also includes knitting instructions on how to make a little bird for the roof.

I think the fun with making a Little Woollie House is adding the details. These are embroidered on once the basic house is completed, and use nothing more complicated than backstitch, stem stitch, french knots, and blanket stitch. You can find permanent phototutorials for these stitches on my blog in the righthand sidebar. The pattern does not contain detailed instructions for everything I have added to my houses, but I hope that the photos will give people a good starting point. I have a few mores ideas, and particularly like mixing the traditional and modern. Perhaps a knocked over dustbin at the side of the house, with a fox looking guilty!

I have gone a bit to town (pun intended) on my samples houses.

The single storey Croft has slightly smaller windows and a sheep grazing round the back, and a satellite dish for those long Scottish evenings.

On my two storey Town Houses I have experimented with the windows: window boxes below, or brickwork above. One house has is a bicycle parked at the side, a ladder, and a little white cat. The other one has large tree at the side, a dove on the roof, and a little black cat.

The wool I used for these two houses and the croft are both James C. Brett - Marble. I found this wool in a small hardware shop, in a rack between various buckets and brushes. I have not seen it for sale in other shops, but I really love how the colour changes to give a natural weathered look, and with a bit of research you can find this wool online. Although any doubleknit wool will work.

And finally what I call the Grand House has a blackbird on the roof, and large tree with squirrel and swing at the back. Hubby, ever practical, says that it worries him as the tree is much too close to the foundations.

I have enjoyed making these house so much, and hope that anyone who has a go at making a house from my pattern will link their project back to the pattern or me, as I would love to see them. My sample houses are off to Etsy, and the Little Woollie House pattern is available on ravelry and Etsy.

Our House ...

Inbetween all the Christmas festivities I have been knitting and embroidering away on a project which is really just for the fun of it. This is Our House ... In the Middle of Our Street. (Is that song is known outside the UK?) 

I really love the house where I live. Nearly all the best bits of my life have happened while living in this house. Despite its age, over a hundred years, it is cosy in winter, and lovely and cool in the summer. 

When my husband and I moved in, our elderly neighbours who had lived next door for many, many years, told us that this house had always been a lucky house (especially for babies, wink, wink!). And that proved true.

I was mainly inspired by the grey/pink flecked wool, which I have been using for another project and had a little left over, and thought would be perfect for the brickwork.

 
This is a slightly simplified, and idealised version of my house. Although I have tried to stick fairly strictly to reality, our house does not always have window boxes in full bloom, or a pink rose climbing up the back. It does have a spike on the front, whereas a lot of the other houses in the street have lost their spikes over the years. And the front bay window and door are pretty true to life. Also there is often a little black cat skulking around and a pigeon on the roof. 

The sizes of the windows also went a bit wrong, but I sort of like the wonkiness, which reminds me of the crooked house in the nursery rhyme.

My family kept coming up with other ideas. A satellite dish on top would be funny, or a bicycle parked at the side. So I may have a go at another house. I hope you like this project, which is going to sit for a while on the mantlepiece in the real house.