Join us for stitching together. If you need help with the Melt the Ice hat, come on by! If you’d like to try dyeing some red yarn, maybe we can do that too. If you absolutely need a tool or yarn to keep you going through the weekend, we can provide that, but all proceeds will be donated to our local immigrants’ rights group, CIMA. (Click the link to donate directly.)

With another winter storm predicted Friday night, we don’t know what Saturday will bring, but we’ll let you know when we know.

We have plenty of choices, and when we run out we’ll dye more!

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/melt-the-ice-hat

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/melt-the-ice-crochet-version

We’re closed today due to the weather, and also mourning the murder of Alex Pretti (along with Renee Good). We keep each other safe.

Stay warm and keep crafting.

With the winter storm predicted, we are following the National Weather Service guidance and going home after lunch today (Saturday, January 24) to stay off the roads. If conditions are bad, we’ll be closed tomorrow. If we have power and internet, we’ll hold Nerd Night on Zoom. We are always closed Monday and Tuesday. Everyone stay safe and warm out there, and if you need help, contact us on Discord or by text, and we’ll do what we can.

Got a shipment yesterday from peace_fleece, our personal favorite yarn for both its story/meaning as well as its long-wearing quality and gorgeous colors. They are still limited in what colors available but we scoop up what we can when we can.

This sweater is now 14 years old and there’s still no pilling, even under the arms!

Just got a big shipment of Jody Long Colourspun: an easy-care wool/acrylic blend. One or two balls in enough for a project, $19 apiece. Let the yarn change color for you and keep warm through the weekend!

The Malabrigo racks are full again, and I’ve got two big cartons of Brown Sheep to crack into. So the time for self-reflection is over. Back to work!

Okay, this isn’t yarn related at all, sorry. Some of us were chatting on Discord about Rent and the weirdness of 1990s media. But that conversation, as well as listening to an episode of the “You’re Wrong About” podcast (Phones Are Good, Actually) got me thinking about growing up enmeshed in a national culture of conservatism and nationalism. I was born in 1972, so my childhood and teen years were all during the Reagan/Bush era. Then in mid-college, Clinton was elected, and my twenties were during a time of increasing openness and acceptance of new ideas and diversity. A lot of those early tiptoe steps look pretty cringeworthy now. And it all came to a crashing halt with the election of W and 9/11.

But it made me think about a couple of my good friends who’ve recently entered their 40s. They grew up in those latter Bush years and entered adulthood with the Obama election. And then hit the disaster of Trump at about the same time in their life as 9/11 hit me. They say everything happens in cycles, that there’s nothing ever truly new. That history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. So for those of you born around 1986-88, I see you. I feel you.

I hope that the current crop of kids growing up in this garbage-fire era gets their own chance to spread their wings and have hope for awhile, even if it inevitably gets snuffed out somewhere down the line. Be good to each other, y’all. Enjoy your problematic faves and make friends across generations. We can learn a lot from each other.

At the outset of yet another illegal Republican war fought for oil companies (why do people never learn? the patterns are not camouflaged!), I keep thinking of how to engage with the world. On the one hand, our system seems so broken and entrenched that I have a strong desire to retreat. Some of us in our community have bandied about the idea of co-housing, or a communal farm, or some other kind of space to build safety and covenant and new structures of togetherness. That’s a really appealing dream, and in order to beat capitalism, we definitely have to test-run other models of ownership and survival. But in some ways it feels like putting our heads in the sand and abandoning people who we could be helping.

Watch this space more as we develop the idea of the Craft Underground (aka Purl’s After Dark). We want to make it an ongoing retreat and space of safety. But we also want to engage with the wider community, to collaborate with other like-minded groups, to foster survival skills and mutual aid networks. We have lots of ideas. But it’s not going to be Elizabeth and I making it all happen: we truly want this to be a collaborative project that can grow beyond our wildest dreams. We need a place to draw back to, our own little blanket fort. But there are so many people who need to be invited in with us.

It’s strange on this third day of the year to be filled with so much anger and desperation, but also to have these hopes and dreams developing. Over and over in my life I have felt the darkness overshadowing me, from nuclear fears to the ashes of the World Trade Center, to loved ones with cancer, and more, and more. But we are not alone, none of us. We are not going to solve the big problems of the world, but we can do a lot more than nothing. It makes me happy that we are doing them together. Elizabeth and I love you all. If you ever need a hug or a friendly voice, come on by.

As mass-market digital platforms devolve into AI slop, we are still promoting and supporting real creativity and craft. Sometimes it’s a months-long magnum opus, and sometimes just a quick sketch, but true inspiration only comes from the human mind.

Let’s make 2026 full of wonderful handmade things!