FELTED CITRUS TEA COZIES

Just got this darling pattern as a pdf from Dawn Brocco. I think it is just adorable. She knit it with Oasis Aussi Wool . I will look for the yarn at Stitches this Saturday. Also on my list of things I want to look for Dream in Color's Tulip Baby Sweater pattern.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee went on on a knitting jag and made about a dozen of them I think and frankly I don't blame her. This is a really nice use of color and any baby would look great in one!
I also just picked up some interesting books by a woman named Sarah Susanka about the "not so big house."

Here's what Publishers Weekly said:

Acclaimed architect Susanka, who spawned a virtual cottage industry of home books favoring quality over quantity (The Not So Big House; Not So Big Solutions for Your Home; etc.), now turns her eye to 30 key design principles that produce a home. Seeking to capture the "elusive quality of home," Susanka uses beautiful photographs and helpful floor plans to discuss how "the interrelationships between spaces, walls and ceilings, and windows... shape our experience." It isn't the external architecture that matters, she says, but the interior.

All homes provide shelter and footage; the goal is to enhance the quality of living. To do that, Susanka employs important tricks of her trade, explaining the rationale behind everything from window positioning and reflective ceilings to achieving symmetry, keeping in mind the overarching themes of space, light and order.

Blessedly free of complex jargon, the book stresses that size doesn't matter, but construction does. Susanka's philosophy is simple: good architectural design is as important as good nutrition, and a savvy understanding of your surroundings lets you craft a better place to live.

Susanka's generosity with tips (e.g., a bold use of color can add depth and solidity; aligning a doorway with a window directly across brightens the area) will be a boon to readers, who will wind up getting an architectural education in the process.
If nothing else the pictures are really wonderful!

I picked up Home by Design: Transforming Your House into Home, Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life, and Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home.

All the ideas I have read so far really make sense in my home. I won't be moving soon, if ever so it makes sense to make the most graceful use of the space I have.Trying to make a house a home is really a full time job!

Well off to Madison tomorrwo with Michele P. and then Stitches on Saturday with the bus from Loose Ends Yarn Shop. Both fun trips...Talk to you later,

Lynda

Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.
The Dhammapada