We want to connect with you, but we’ve come to the conclusion that “social media” is built to be antisocial. So we’ve built our own feed here (or as they used to be called, “blog,” lol). We’ll try to post most days that we’re open. If you want to be part of the conversation, join our Discord!
We include everyone at Purl’s, except people who are intolerant or hateful.
For information about our brick-and-mortar shop in Asheville, including address, hours, map, etc.
Info about our shop
Online Store
For information about our stitch groups and community activities, our class schedule, and other events
There’s a spot above our window where wasps keep trying to build a nest. I knock down what they’ve built every morning, but they are persistent! We had this problem at home and I looked up things to do, and one suggestion was to crochet a decoy nest. Wasps are territorial, and will avoid an area that seems to be claimed already. It worked at home, so hopefully it will take care of the issue here without violence or chemicals.
I made a sign so that humans will no not to be afraid. Wasp stings suck! But fake wasps are fine.
It always makes me sad when someone tells me they came to the store and we were closed. Doubly sad when we’re closed for more than a week at a time. But Elizabeth and I need time off like anyone else, and the numbers don’t really work for hiring enough staff that we could stay open while being away. I’m sorry that means disappointing people, but we try to limit ourselves to Mondays and Tuesdays, one big trip in the summer, and a few long weekends here and there. I get cranky when I don’t get enough time off, and I don’t provide good customer service when I am cranky.
We’ll be closed Friday July 17 through Tuesday July 21. We will be back on July 22, and we’ll fill any online orders we get during this vacation on that day.
You might be curious about where we’re going. In the summer of 2010 we went to SUUSI for the first time. It’s a multigenerational progressive gathering associated with Unitarian Universalism (although not everyone who goes is a “practicing” member). There are workshops and nature trips and music and worship and fun times. We’ve met and befriended lots of people we look forward to seeing every summer. Anyway, that first SUUSI, Elizabeth and I talked over whether buying Purl’s was a doable thing, and she taught me to knit. So SUUSI and Purl’s are intertwined in a way. If it sounds interesting and you can get a week free in the summer, we’d love for you to come along and give it a shot sometime!
Lace always looks like total crap while you’re knitting it. Tune in again in a month or so when I block the holy hell out of it and it will suddenly look great!
Really happy to have finally found a wool/silk lace weight blend (Symfonie Diva). I was about to resort to dyeing one myself.
Spending time with our community of stitchers is always so much fun and so rewarding. It can be tricky to mix business and friendship, but we are lucky enough to have been successful with both, and The Craft Underground is a project that will put the community in the driver’s seat and help our groups to grow in size, but also grow in depth
Because there’s no better feeling than finding your people, and then feeling like they want you to keep coming back.
Purl’s is open today (July 3) but will be closed tomorrow (July 4) – not as an act of patriotism, but as a form of resistance and desire to focus on our Craft Underground Space (we’ll be working on some renovations, having an organizing meeting of our Craft Underground core team, and a potluck/cookout for stitch group folks.
The image here is from Welcome Blanket because I wanted to highlight their work. They sent out a July 4 message that begins: “We the People is not just a phrase in a document. It is who we are. This country has always been shaped by ordinary people. Their arrivals. Their decisions to stay, to contribute, to make something for a neighbor they had never met. The stories we learned in school are only part of the picture. It took, and still takes, countless people, across every community, to shape who we are. And it’s also ‘We,’ all of us together. Welcome Blanket exists because of that belief.”
When we are able to open our expanded space downstairs, the Craft Underground, one of the first groups I’d like us to add is a Welcome Blanket crafting group.
Listening to R.E.M. this morning, it irks me to think is album is 39 years old. To put that in perspective, an album that came out 39 years before Document would have been released in 1948, predating rock n’ roll entirely.
And yet this album feels so current. Michael Stipe was many years before coming out, but was feeling confident enough to not mumble so many lyrics. “What we want and what we need has been confused.” “Welcome to the Occupation” “Exhuming McCarthy.” It’s like the Reagan era never left us.
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” was a huge song to teenage me. The desperation, the absurdity, the struggle between rage and acceptance. Plus it’s, as the kids say, a bop. The same theme returns in “Fireplace” with a massive sax solo (if there’s one thing I can’t resist it’s a massive sax solo).
The only skip on the whole album is “Lightnin’ Hopkins” but at least it keeps the energy up. Whether this record is tinged with nostalgia for you or not, I highly recommend a listen.
We’re having the HVAC replaced (because of its age and to make room for stairs down to the Craft Underground), but fortunately it’s not as hot this week as last. A couple of portable units are unsightly (and louder than the central AC), but they keep it nice and comfortable.
We were hoping to have it finished today, but it looks likely we’ll be stuck with this arrangement through the weekend. So we’re sorry it’s not ideal, but we are hanging in there while big changes are happening.
We’ve traditionally offered an open WiFi network with a time limit, but we’re switching to a public WiFi with password. Look for the sign on the wall with our lonely snake (inside joke from one of our fabled Telestrations games). We are happy for you to log in, and you won’t get kicked off after 2 hours anymore.
Yes, this is kind of a boring update, but the snake needs all the help they can get.
