A Gift for Me and a Gift for You

I have had rather an interesting week.  It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride but I think everything is going to be ok.  Basically my new nephew, who was due at the end of May, was delivered rather unexpectedly on Wednesday morning in the very early hours.  As you probably know, I live about a hundred miles away from my family and it was very hard sitting on my own, a long way from my brother and his wife while they were going through scary things, especially as my other half was on another Continent with work.

However, my nephew, though tiny, seems to be doing well and his mother also seems to be recovering well too.  As you can imagine, the gift of my post title is a new nephew who is small but determined.  With a much earlier arrival comes the requirement for much smaller baby gifts.  I have, of course, been knitting like fury on teeny hats, that can be either used by my nephew or for other babies in NICU, if they don't fit him.

You may be wondering how this all ties into a gift for you?  Well, the nice people at The Aurum Publishing Group have offered up a chance for a reader of my blog to win a copy of one of their latest book releases; The Knitted Home: Creative and Contemporary Projects for Interiors, by Ruth Cross.

I haven't been given a copy for review, so I can only tell you what the blurb, I received, says about this book, which is:

Ruth Cross draws on her experience of designing organic and freeform collections to guide you through the process of making and creating your own items. Taking an experimental approach, Ruth combines traditional stitches with new stitches she has devised herself. She creates desirable fabrics that can adorn many different items around the home, from easy chairs to footstools, a doorstop to a table runner, vase covers to wall hangings. 

Throughout the book there are complete patterns for you to create these beautiful projects. But Ruth also encourages and gives advice on how to experiment for yourself to produce your own designs. Starting with the very basics – simple knitting and purling – and progressing to add further texture and embellishment she guides you through a range of different stitch patterns and techniques. As she goes through she shows how you can adapt these patterns to different sizes, scales and shapes so that they can be widely applied around the home to create completely personal pieces.

I am afraid that this competition is only open to UK Residents, as the prize will be sent directly from the publisher, rather than by me.  However, the publisher has arranged a discount on this hardback book, which normally retails at £20.

To order The Knitted Home (9781906417727) for £16.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS188. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS188 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

In order to win a copy of this book, click on the +1 button on the Rafflecopter box and enter a suggestion for making a baby gift for either the baby or the parents, after logging in to Rafflecopter.  Quick projects are the ones I'm searching for!  The winner will be drawn randomly from the eligible entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The competition closes at midnight on Tuesday night, UK time, so that I can do the draw on Wednesday morning and announce the winner in my regular Wednesday post.  Plus I want to get cracking on any suggestions you can make.  I am sorry that not all my readers can join in with this contest, but I didn't set the rules this time.

I'm hoping that next week will be a little more normal as my other half will be back home and everything starts to settle into a new routine up North.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and that the snow due to hit the UK this weekend, doesn't inconvenience too many people.