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.
For information about our stitch groups and community activities, our class schedule, and other events
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We love it when the shelves are stuffed full of yarn because it means almost everyone can find the color they want in the quantity they need. But y’all keep buying stuff and that keeps us very busy reordering!
We got four enormous cartons of yarn yesterday from Berroco and three smaller ones from Knitting Fever. More Malabrigo is en route, too, as well as some colors of Peace Fleece.
This is our busiest time of year and we are grateful to you for keeping us on our toes!
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I was driving home from Raleigh, listening to one of my favorite podcasts, “You’re Wrong About” with Sarah Marshall.
The first one I picked was about the D&D Satanic Panic of the 1980s, which I remember well. The second one was about the rise of the tradwife trend. This one really resonated with me. There were several years back when we lived in Brooklyn when I was a stay-at-home dad, grinding wheat I had shipped in from Kansas to make my own flour to bake bread, getting meat and veggies from a CSA, canning vegetables from our backyard garden. It’s never been possible to actually opt out of capitalism, but it’s always tempting to try.
But there’s something equally toxic about the impulse to try to do it all yourself. We progress together, by making connections and building community. While we joke (not really a joke) about starting a commune, it would never succeed by retreating from society. Some days working retail is exhausting, but engaging with the public and living in the world (and displaying our values publicly) is so, so important.
Anyway, if you have an hour or so, listen to this podcast. I think Sarah Marshall is really smart and funny; I learned a lot about the history of kitchens; and I was reminded that while I love crafting and history, going backwards in time is never a good thing.
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So many charts left in order to get to the next stage of my cape. Why do there have to be so many stars???
At least here at the shop I’m not fighting to keep the cats from clawing at my papers and pencils. Last night we were having our own little Star Wars.
I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end.
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The Handknitted Scarf/Shawl/Wrap with Commercial Yarn Category was dominated by our Purl’s knitters. 1st was Ruth’s wedding-ring cobweb lace shawl. 2nd was Kim’s double knit Halloween kitty scarf. 3rd was Sara’s steeked stranded woodland creatures colorwork wrap. Amazing work all around! Ruth’s piece also took Best in Show.
Karen submitted her fire dragon sweater and was absolutely robbed not to win an award. We think it’s her best work yet!
Congratulations all, and remember that no matter what your craft or skill level, we’d love to have you with us. Nobody starts out creating this kind of ridiculously intricate work without a lot of practice and a lot of support.
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Our booth at SouthEastern Animal Fiber Fair is all ready and chock full of all kinds of fibery nerdy goodness! Find us at Booth #141-145 in the Davis Arena (Fri & Sat 9-5, Sun 9-4). The store will be open Fri & Sat 10-6, Sun 10-4 – closing early with NO Nerd Night – we’ll be flopping!). We hope you’ll visit us at SAFF or the store if you are in town. There’s a lot of tables & chairs near our booth at SAFF for resting your footsies and chilling out after roaming the aisles of fibery overwhelm. Rik will be doing tarot readings from our Cryptids Crafting deck at 3pm in our booth everyday. And of course if you find yourself on Hendersonville road you can stop by the shop and flop on the couch (and give me a bathroom break!).
Everything in our booth was personally crafted by us and our local fiber friends(!) and we’re pretty excited about our collection:
If you go to SAFF, don’t forget to pace yourself, hydrate, feed your tummy, and go pet the fiber beasties out in the barns!!! Check the SAFF schedule for all kinds of demonstrations with the sheep, goals, alpacas, etc., as well as fiber demos of all kinds. Also remember if getting to SAFF is just not in the cards for you (feeling overwhelmed by the world and/or don’t want to be tempted by the fibery things or just have other things going on), no worries! Take care of yourself cause that is most important.
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We’ve been so busy making stuff for SAFF we have neglected posting, but we got a big Malabrigo shipment in this week. See you soon!
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Our murder-mystery detective themed yarn is coming back with new colors and a new mystery to solve! It all starts SAFF weekend. Join us at the Ag Center October 24-26.
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This morning we installed our Pride celebration yarn bombing on a downtown path near Pack Square Park (by Pack Tavern). Earlier this year I plotted with folks at BlueRidge Pride regarding a yarn bombing installation inspired by Pride flags for the Blue Ridge Pride Festival. We settled on a path of 6 trees and 9 lampposts in an area that wouldn’t be filled with booths at the Pride festival (which takes place this Saturday).
This year’s festival theme is “Resistance and Resilience.” A little MORE than a year ago we were filling all our buckets with water. And now our buckets are definitely in need of all the powers of resistance and resilience we can muster. I really like that we ended up with so many yarn bombing pieces in the form of crocheted granny squares. As I pieced together the granny squares made up of different Pride flag colorways I liked the idea of thinking about “Gay Grannies” and “Lesbian Grannies” and “Trans Grannies” and “Non-binary Grannies”…all these grannies and elders in our past who lived under the radar — or very much NOT under the radar. Cause being gay or lesbian or trans or nonbinary is not new. Our queer family has been here all along. And I really like to think of Trans Grannies and Nonbinary grannies and all the queer grannies in the future. Because WE WILL find a way to overcome this hatred and fear-mongering culture. We will protect one another. We will do what we need to do to RESIST and to build and support RESILIENCE. One stitch at a time. One connection at a time.
Thanks yarny fam for crafting all these beautiful things and to those who came out to help stitch them together for the community to enjoy. The yarn bombing will be up for one week (until next Monday, Sept. 28) so go check it out while it’s up! After washing and mending, we hope to transform the yarn bombing pieces into Pride Flag blankets that we’ll be gifting to BlueRidge Pride for their community space.
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The Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair is October 24-26 at the WNC Ag Center. We’ve been super busy making new stuff to bring to the show!