Dear Friends of The Blue Purl,
Respite as Resilience.
That is the key to thriving at a time of enduring stress; being able to disconnect for brief periods and focus elsewhere.
We want to help. We want to be there for you, to offer you all respite – a chance to focus on making beautiful things rather than on hand sanitizer and facemasks and social distancing.
It’s true, we have been in a bit of denial, hoping this strange interlude would be short lived (didn’t we all?)
But we get it, for now at least, this is our new normal.
So how can we rekindle our connection? How can we reconnect with our community and offer you all the kind of intense, focused, experience we once enjoyed together around the tables inside The Blue Purl?
Well, we are hoping to start with Zoom classes. Keri will begin with a class on a stranded colorwork cowl this week (previously scheduled) that we will beam through the wonders of the internet :) Carolyn will be teaching beginning crochet on Thursday nights that is available for sign up now. More is on the horizon. We need to get it right so we're starting slowly.
We hope that you will give us a try, allow us to come into your homes via the technology of the day, and work together to advance our skills and make beautiful objects.
Look, this is not perfect. Perfect is being together, next to each other, leaning into a conversation, sharing skills and experiences. But a zoom class is a step forward – for us and for you – so please join in.
Respite as resilience. That is not just some cliché but a worthy concept to remember and to live by.
What exactly is resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
How do we nurture that strength? Respite is one way – and for us, that means taking a breaking from all that ails by working with our hands.
We look forward to reconnecting via zoom.
We need each other. Now more than ever.
connect + create
Patty & Wendy
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Needle Kits - Great for Mother's Day!! Lykee, Karbonz, Addi's, DPN's, Knitters Pride, There's a beautiful Lykee crochet set also! Our sets are in the
online shop
.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
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TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, 11-4pm and SATURDAY, 10-2pm CURBSIDE PICK UP
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Bear with us as we adjust our hours to a new normal every week. Our new curbside and phone shopping times going forward are Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11-4pm and Saturdays, 10-2pm. Call us! 973-377-5648 - You can always e-mail us with your requests anytime at
info@thebluepurl.com
Also check out our
NEW ONLINE SHOP! Kits, yarn, & needles are showing up daily! It's a work in progress! Patty & Wendy are busy inside fulfilling orders (with gloves and masks) and will hang them on our door when you pull up curbside, or send them in the mail.
We appreciate the support and love you are all giving us!
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Learn How to Crochet in 2 Zoom Classes
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Make a Granny Square and the World's your Oyster...Blue Purl oyster of course...
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So what are you doing Thursday night from 5:30 - 7pm - Come
learn how to crochet! In two 90 minute classes you'll learn how to (1st class) make a chain, single crochet, get proper tension by holding the yarn and hook correctly. Next class you'll learn how to double crochet and make a granny square.
It's just practice! We are taking under 10 students so the teacher can go around and help.
Here are the particulars:
Dates: 2 Thursdays May 14, 21
Zoom Time: 5:30-7PM
Price: $25
Teacher: Carolyn Hanson
supplies - J or K hook and some chunky yarn
call us to sign up! 973-377-5648
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Our web store is growing! Lots of kits - and the yarn is slowly popping up -oh so exciting!
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Virtual Shelf of the Week- Worsted Superwash
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Since you can't browse our shelves, we thought we would bring the browsing to you! Every week, we'll highlight a section of the store. We're starting this week with a perennial favorite- our worsted superwash. Beautiful and practical- this section is great for adults and kids, accessories or sweaters. In fact, we have sweater quantities of hand dyed superwash in Lichen & Lace, Tosh Vintage & Rios. Beauty & brains!
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Email
info@thebluepurl.com or call us to get details on colors & quantities, we don't have enough hours to get all this goodness onto the online shop yet.
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Free Fibre Co. Foundations Patterns
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Our friends at The Fibre Co. (Road to China, Cumbria Fingering, Luma, Acadia, Arranmore Light, Meadow) are helping out by offering us free patterns of their
Foundation collections (just some pictured above) with purchase of their yarn!
If you see a project you like, give us a call. We will include the free patterns with your Fibre Co. yarn purchase. We are putting up The Fibre Co yarn on the
online shop in the coming days also.
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Guess what else May brought in- Baah's Limited Edition May '20. Irises and pansies galore!
Email or call us- 973-377-5648 to get these beauties. They're not in the online shop since it's a limited supply. We also expect a new Baah shipment later this week with more spring colors!
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Venezia by Joji Locatelli
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One of our favorite designers- Joji Locatelli just released a perfect spring project- Venezia, a one skein beauty for those cool spring mornings. Venezia calls for 400 yards or 100g of fingering but she says you can use thicker yarn if you prefer, just read her comments on the pattern page for guidance
here.
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It started with the scratch n' sniff (not really) picture with the lilacs - making a
Granny Square Blanket with Noro Silk Garden....
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...then Kathleen eyed it and emailed us a
Half Granny Square Shawl, a free Churchmouse pattern she saw on Ravelry made with 2 of our fun Zauberball Crazy's...
Here's the free pattern from Churchmouse
here.
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The Amazing Casapinka - "
Breathe and Hope"
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Come
join
the Blue Purl's knit-along for Breathe and Hope on
Ravelry. We'd love to see your color choices and progress! If you didn't get your kit last week, we have more available
online or
reach out to us if you want a fingering weight combo not in a kit.
"
This is “
Breathe and Hope
” which is a boomerang (asymmetric triangle) shawl. It is for intermediate beginners, and just has slipped sts, k, p, and “made up” knotty stitches on the border (these are not bobbles - they require no turning!)"
Also Casapinka has a 50% off on a pattern on her
Ravelry Page with the code pinkislife. And join her newsletter! She's having a zoom get together tomorrow!
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Check out our latest Morning Walk hat. It's the maroon combo in our online shop in
Kits. Of course a few days of warmer weather made us dream up some pretty
spring combos for those cool mornings.
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A little help from our friends at Berroco
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From Berroco:
We are aware that many of our LYS have had to temporarily close their doors for their safety in accordance with regulations from their governors. We recognize it's a difficult time for many of our brick and mortar shops. Many shops are transitioning to curbside and e-commerce options but we wanted to help them offer something more! We are happy to introduce Berroco 123 DropShip, to ship Berroco yarns directly to your home.
Isn't that great!
Here (click in) is how it works
...
you find what you want and then call us and we'll place your order and they'll ship it. You can even dip into yarns we don't have in the shop like Remix Light for this week's pattern. Below is the
Derecho, a seamless tee
they're offering with free pattern.
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We miss seeing everyone's work at our table so we decided to start a virtual table for you to show off your finished pieces. We encourage you to post and interact with the Blue Purl's Ravelry
group. Join the discussions, the
Breathe and Hope
Knit Along, and show us your work in progress and finished pieces. In fact, there's a thread for showing off
Finished Objects. Check out Tam's latest finished
sweater there (pictured above.) To encourage you to post a photo of your finished work for us to admire, we're starting a fun giveaway. Every month, we will randomly pick a posted finished work to receive a $25 gift certificate for the Blue Purl! We'll pick our first winner at the end of May!
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Laurie made this
Building Blocks Blanket (with an extra heart block ) with Blue Sky Extra. These are so beautiful Laurie! Love em!
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Nancy's Big Blocks Blanket
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Nancy! We love this picture! First of course, the beautiful
Building Blocks Blanket, 2nd the shadow man holding it, 3rd the yoga mat. It's a covid pic for sure! Nancy made it larger with 20 bloc
ks...
"
I changed the design by adding stockinette blocks to become a 20 block blanket. First, bec. it was to small for my tall family. Second bec. I wanted to break-up the design blocks to better appreciate all my mistakes (lol)"
We love it Nancy- what mistakes?!!!!
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Jenn's cool mommy-to-be hat for her friend!
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Every mommy-to-be is a Queen - especially if they're lucky enough to have this sweet, hip, hat made by a good friend :) Jenn - it's awesome!
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Woolfolk SØEN cardi - is insane!!!
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Bec
ky's
SØEN
a Woolfolk pattern by Amy Miller, - (her second pandemic sweater!!!) is lush and gorgeous. Can't wait to see your next masterpiece!
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Yiba's Sonrae is on the needles :)
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Yiba is making Jen Steingass's
Sonrae. She is using Kenzie (in a really cool light ice blue and brown - sorry about the photo colors...) It's gorgeous and we hope she brings it back when she's done! Yay!
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So here's the link to Sister's hat pattern!
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We featured Sister Immaculata with a hat she knitted last week and got inundated with emails because we didn't link to the pattern! Enough already people :) - just kidding. Here ya go....It's the
Neon Ski Bonnet by Lacey Volk and it's free on Ravelry - Enjoy!!!
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Susan made these 3 hats for
Hats Not Hate with 2 skeins of Cascade 220.
Hats Not Hate is a anti-bullying campaign which The Blue Purl is a drop-off point for. R
ead more about it here. . They're great Susan. Thanks making and for sharing.
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Quartz, an online magazine featured spy knitters and other intriguing subversive knitting subjects in their
Quartz Daily Obsession feature on Monday -
take a look!
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Hours:
Thursday & Friday this week 11- 4 - Saturday 10am-12 for pick-up Curbside Delivery and Mailing Only
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