Favorite Pink Designs:
The Ripenings Shrug in
raspberry and orange
from the Feather & Fan Club
Guide here:
Feather & Fan Club
And also from the same booklet,
The Feather & Fan Organic Wrap (rated 4 out of 4 stars on Ravelry):
  The Cowled Capelet here: COWLED CAPELETNow available in a kit. Click here for kit details: Berry Cowled Capelet Kit
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 Dear Knitters, This month I'm embracing pink for multiple reasons. First, it's as a gesture of solidarity to my sisters everywhere affected by breast cancer. These days, pink is a fist in the face of this ravaging disease and simultaneously the power color of survival. She may look soft but she means strength. Win the battle, my friends. And, secondly, pink is a shot of pure, life-giving, color in a world presently deep in the freeze of winter. Is there anyone in the northern hemisphere who doesn't crave the sight of growing things? I'm so in need of a color bath that I often plunge into my stash and roll around in the pinks, reds, yellows...well, figuratively speaking. Certainly, I'm hankering after bright knitting projects. Magenta is a favorite right now. In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm offering a two-for-one pattern purchase starting today up until and including February 14th on all patterns ordered directly from my site. Just email me after purchase with your pattern choice. The offer applies to back issues of the Inspired Knitters CLub and all evocative booklets, too. Also, no shipping will be charged on kit orders within North America this month.
Flower Market Florence, Italy
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SANTA FE STARTER KIT
Here's a new kit perfect for anyone loving terracotta, teals and blue-greens. I've been collecting these colors for ages and often ask Fleece Artist and Hand Maiden yarns to dye me up a brew.
A starter kit, by the way, is a gathering of perfectly compatible yarns, enough for a scarf and many small wrap patterns but to which you can add your own yarns to fill out for larger projects. The idea is that I provide the divas, the key players, from which to build your colorscape.For those who find compiling colors a challenge or who can't acquire luxe yarns easily, a starter kit provides the necessary elements. Just add a plain yarn and stir.
Each kit includes over 500+ yards of mixed yarn including silks, boucles, tapes, and diva yarns. Directly below the shawl pin in the above photo, you'll see a yarn I created by mixing Colinette silk mohair with Blue Heron Rayon Metallic. This combo induced such swooning that my husband (aka Hairy-Legged Swift) removed the hank from my fondling hands to better preserve its pristine state. Sigh.
The Santa Fe kit is $175. Just click the link below to order. For February only, all orders include free shipping. I'll send you the PDF pattern of your choice. Just email me with the pattern's name after placing your order.
Also, I have four coordinating shawl pins left, two with a caramel background, two with blue-green, available for $35 each. Pins are lightweight and made of clay by the artist, Carol Parsons. If interested, please email me at jane@janethornley.com.
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THE MIXED BERRIES COWLED CAPELET KIT
Here's a pattern and kit designed to cosy up your neck and shoulders in delicious hues of deep plums, raspberries, strawberries and citrus punch. Each kit includes Fleece Artist Wool/silk blends, pure silk and diva texture yarns. Think yummy and soft.
Each kit includes sufficient yarn to knit the design pictured above. Pattern is included and will be sent by PDF to your email address.
The Mixed Berries kit is $165. Just click the link below to order. For February only, all orders include free shipping.
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STRONG AND SWEET SCARF KIT
In honor of soft and powerful women everywhere, the Strong and Sweet scarf kit includes vivid pink and magenta yarns with just a touch of plum. Each kit includes at least one silk, 1 textured diva, 1 Fleece Artist Angora and either a tape or a special silk/mohair combo yarn. A free-range scarf kit pattern is included in print form along with something sweet.
Price $95. Free shipping.
Purchase here:
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THE TAPESTRY WRAP
The shawl/scarf above is described by knitters as a relaxing and satisfying knit. It does have its own magic when knitters allow themselves to slip into the free-range, no-mistake, zone. See the piece above? Nothing lines up. No stitch is perfect. Can you tell? Do you even care? Exactly. Unless you're working complex lace or a fitted design, mistakes are all in the eye of the knitter with this knitting approach. The Inspired Knitters issue, Interior Realms, dives into the concept of knitting as your private sanctuary far away from demands, especially those you place on yourself. We are our own worst critics. This pattern is featured in the last issue of the 2010 Inspired Knitters Club which can now be purchased individually for $15 here: INSPIRED KNITTERS CLUB ISSUE 6
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 SILK ROAD TURKEY
No place surprised, fascinated and delighted me the way Turkey did. Being a passionate textile lover, I had expected Morocco to be my hotspot of pattern and color until I experienced Turkey. Incredible!
Thousands of years and multiple civilizations have created an intricate and sophisticated textile culture with fine workmanship and excellent value the norm. The silk and cashmere pashimas purchased in the Grand Bazaar adorn my neck every week and those not on my person slip in waves of color over my chairs. And the exquisite jewelry bears witness to an active, creative, population questing after new forms of expression beyond the traditional. I had no idea, for instance, that Turkish gold is purer and so much less expensive than Italian.
And speaking of Italian, the food in Turkey is every bit as fabulous. It's true! The Turks hold fine food exquisitely prepared in the same high esteem as do the Italians only with the addition of many multicultural infusions. One visit to the Spice market can send you home with enough taste treats to keep your heart stirring for months afterwards. You've heard of 'Turkish Delight'? Come experience 45 varieties of the real thing! A cooking class is included in our tour.
So, the Silk Road Turkey is one of the excursions offered this year and it's filling up quickly. Imagine strolling through the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul exploring stall after stall, shop after shop, of exquisite textiles like those in the photo? Oh, and beads. Our hotel is right across the street. Imagine visiting the Haggia Sophia, the Belladrome, Takapi Palace? Ancient Rome and the Ottoman empire will be at your feet.
But we won't be stopping at just Istanbul. How can we go to Turkey without exploring Capadoccia, the natural wonder that housed underground cities sheltering Christians in Roman days? And, since that region is also renown for vineries, pottery, textiles, and cuisine, of course we'll be sampling all. And then comes Epheseus, the ancient Greek site on the Mediterranean graced by the temple of Artemis. Our hotel is in a little seaside town, again renown for scenery and wonder.
For more information on this excursion and others, click on the links in the box below.
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