Win A Jane Thornley Pattern

Congratulations to our two winners!

MaggieBelize won the Knit Me a River Evocative Guide.

And Suburban Prep won the Watergarden & Shorelines Shrugs pattern.

Thank you to everyone who entered!

I've had the pleasure of working with Canadian knitwear artist Jane Thornley since early 2006! Her ethereal collections of garments and accessories drew my interest the moment I discovered them and she's one of the first independent knitwear artists whose work I added to my website. I've enjoyed watching her creativity and endeavors grow, besides developing new patterns each season multi talented Jane is also a novelist, crafts her own line of jewelry, writes articles for Ravelry's online newsletter "This Week in Ravelry" and organizes knitting tours & retreats to exotic locals.

Jane Thornley in Morocco

Jane has the unique ability to inspire creativity and a love of knitting in those who work her projects. Inspired by nature each of her designs focuses on a central theme and often includes free range knitting and other interesting techniques. Through each step she guides the knitter to find their own path and make her pattern, theirs. She discusses yarn selection and combining textures & colors in great detail to ensure a finished garment which will not only flatter and please the knitter but suit their personal taste and style.

For this Blog Giveaway Jane has generously donated TWO Patterns, her newest book, the Knit Me a River Evocative Guide and one of her most popular patterns, the Watergarden & Shoreline Shrugs, this means there will be TWO winners, the first name randomly drawn will receive the Evocative Guide and the second will win Watergarden. Winners will be announced on March 15th, learn how to enter below. Now lets meet Jane!

Watergarden Shrug

Jane Thornley: Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I began my knitting life at twenty-one years old with my first project – a trunk warmer for an elephant. Supposedly a sweater sleeve by intent, the fact that my hands had created this miraculous piece of slubbed, apricot-colored, textile overrode niggles of disappointment. My passion for yarn had begun.

I took extension courses through the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design but, with the help of my mother and so many wonderful books and magazines, taught myself most of the beading, embroidery, sewing, painting and drawing techniques that have since embellished the otherwise plain surfaces of my life. Give me detail to austerity any day. Something to catch the eye, draw the attention deeper into the subject, is my preferred aesthetic. My early multi-colored sweaters (pictured on this site in my first exhibition at the Mary Black Gallery) contained as many as 50 different colors of yarn. For me, color and texture rule and most of the inspiration feeding my imagination comes from the natural world. I see knitting as art, as viable as any other, and no matter what the tool or preferred palette, in human hands, magic happens.

Creating jewelry is a relatively new passion, though a natural extension of my love for color and texture. My bead drawers brim with semi-precious stones, pearls and metals from all over the world which lure me to compose talismans of adornment for otherwise bare necks and wrists. Wherever I travel, I find inspiration and more beads to weave into something to celebrate the rich global trove in which we live.

Besides jewelry creation and knitting, the latter of which has sustained me on the parameters of many demanding executive careers in public education, I also write women’s fiction. Seven novels, a few agents, and a tendency to focus more on writing than the business end of becoming published, and I’m still authoring at least one novel a year. Once upon a time, I was listed as one of the most popular authors in fiction and mystery on the now defunct Time-Warner website, I-Write. I am currently also working on a book for knitter’s tentatively entitled ‘Adventure Knitting’ which takes the knitter on a ride through the textural landscape of novelty yarns. Check my journal for more on current writing projects.

Besides a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English and a Bachelor of Education, I hold a Masters of Library Service and spent many years as the passionate advocate of school libraries. Like so much of human experience, after a certain steam burns away, what is left hardens to the core. Adhered to mine, then, is the love for books, learning, and the celebration of the human voice through words or art. Only recently have I come to fully live what I believe.

My wonderful, supportive husband, John --a talented stone mason, painter and cabinet maker in his own right--and I live on the edge of the Partridge River, in a place that has become a sanctuary and an inspiration for us both.

Rio Grande

Jane's latest pattern is the Knit Me a River Evocative Guide and it features two wrap patterns. Think of a sinuous river curling deep into the heart of a forest or through a desert canyon, sparkling like a jeweled ribbon of light. Now think how wonderful it would it feel to wear a river undulating over your shoulders or wrapped about your neck in an earth-mother hug!

This Evocative Guide features two wrap designs in two different shapes, Northern Woods is designed to flow across your shoulders or around your neck in a diagonal motion. While the Rio Grande flows in a longer shape, perfect for fastening with a pin or button. Both wraps are worked in free-range intarsia using simple stitches. In such a free-flow design it hardly matters whether you make one 20 garter stitches or 10. Mix color and texture to create a river of your own. Charts are provided but you may not need them.

All of Jane's patterns are offered as PDFs with no shipping charges, though I do offer the option to have them printed and mailed to you for a fee. Visit all her collections.

Books

Jane's Books include 2 or more patterns centered around a theme and provide all the information you need to create each pattern!

Leaf Lights Evocative

It’s a jungle out there so why not go green, really green, by celebrating all things leafy? Three designs make up this evocative guide: a Giant Frond wrap, A Blade scarf and a Leaf Lights Kimono.

Feather & Fan Club

Join Jane's Feather & Fan club with three distinct designs. Her exuberant nature is released in the popular Organic Wrap design (updated with a few extras), is touched with a wee bit of Highland glory in the Ripenings Wrapped Shrug, and slips into something richly evocative in the Roving Moss cardigan. In every one, she challenges you to take risks, blend colors, experiment with textures and learn how to turn knitting into magic.

Knitaly

Knitaly: A Voyage to Tuscan Inspired Knitting features 8 patterns, 4 new (Painter's Vest, Florentinian Scarf-Lace, Grotto Scarf & Tuscan Olive Wrap) & 4 former offerings (Blue Skies Over Siena, Field Of Dreams, Medici Coat & Amber Onyx Wrap) with variations.

Into The Garden

Here’s a pattern threesome designed as a homage to our gardens – a drapey shrug, a fitted top and a loose, flowing, over-top, a little something for you to grow from favorite yarns. Pick up your needles and watch them bloom.

Knit A Beach

The water's warm so let's knit a beach! If you can dream it, you can knit it. Learn how to knit with a guide rather than a pattern with this evocative knitting workshop/pattern that takes you to the beach of your dreams. Combined with a knitalong and online tips, you can have your own private virtual beach.

Capelets

Surround yourself with beauty in one of Jane's capelet designs.

Seagrass

Cowled

Falling Leaves & Winter Frost Capelets

Tops

Arrive in style with one of these unique designs.

Paua Shell Topper

Lapis Asymetrical

Field of Dreams

Vests

The perfect garment for every occasion.

Riverstone

Road to Indigo: A Traveler's Vest

Sunset Bolero

Cardigans & Jackets

Each of Jane's cardigan & jacket designs are a statement piece.

Autumn Grasses

Medici Jacket

Blue Skies Over Sienna

Berber

Wraps

Wrap yourself up in love with one of these free range knitting projects.

Golden Blossoms

Pralines and Cream

Four Winds

Culture Fusion

Amber Onyx

Make sure to stop by each collection to see everything!

Enter this Giveaway:
The more ways you enter, the more chances you have to win and make sure to leave a comment telling exactly what you did to enter. And please make sure to include your contact information. Winner will be announced March 15th and the patterns will emailed to the two winners as PDFs.

1. Leave a comment about your favorite Jane Thornley pattern, under this blogpost.
2. Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and link it, leave a comment under this blogpost with the link back to your blogpost.
3. Join my Ravelry group Sandrasingh.com and introduce yourself in the "Welcome Tell us About Yourself..." thread.
4. Announce this Giveaway in your Ravelry group or in another Ravelry group that allows you to announce Blog Giveaways.
5. Friend me on Facebook: Sandra Singh and say you "Like" my post about this Giveaway.
6. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Facebook
7. Follow me on Twitter: Sandrasingh
8. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Twitter.
9. Sign up for my Newsletter on my Home Page.
10. Sign up to "Follow my Blog."