Boring Beige this year, plain-ass white next year? It’s like you don’t even want to be in the color business anymore. Are you blinking in morse code? Maybe your meds need to be adjusted? Whatever is going on with you, we’re not taking color advice from your sorry ass.

Shop local small businesses and save! Buying your card helps support local public schools and using your card keeps money in the local economy. Fight the blight of big box stores and private equity firms siphoning off your money. We will never use your cash to buy a yacht. Instead, you get 10% off every purchase you make when you show your Go Local card at Purl’s. Explore a whole city of great discounts and opportunities, don’t wait to buy your 2026 card.

We finally have a lighted pylon sign! (The word “emporium” wouldn’t fit, but you can’t have everything.)

Don’t know if Elizabeth and I will make it (Tuesday afternoon is reserved for naps), but it sounds like fun!

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!

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.

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.

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.