Thank you!!!

Thank you for all your wonderful donations!!!! We received over 50 hats and 30 scarves (not to mention a few mittens). They were very appreciated at the Refuge... thank you for your generosity and your fabulous knitting skills!!

Yarn Dying Class

Make sure you sign up for this great class soon...
Saturday November 14th 2-4
$30 includes all materials (you will dye 2 skeins of sock yarn, enough to make 2 pair of socks)

Pumpkin Parade

Thanks for everyone who brought in their pumpkins!!

Sock Club Yarn Dyeing

This month in sock club we dyed our very own yarn. What a blast!!! Stay tuned for pictures of the beautiful yarn all knit up.

We had so much fun with Hillary (yarn dyer extraordinaire!!) We hope to have her back for a yarn dying class!! We will also be selling some of her beautiful hand dyed sock yarn.

What are you knitting?

Chris Jones designed and knitted this cute little number!! What are you knitting? We would love to share your projects. Bring them in. :)

Pumpkin Crazy!!

The Great Knitted Pumpkin Raffle

WHAT: Win a fabulous fall basket filled with knitting and non knitting goodies
HOW: Knit a pumpkin. Bring in your knitted pumpkin for a photo and receive a raffle ticket.
The winning ticket will be drawn Saturday October 31st



Don’t have a pumpkin? Buy a ticket $2.00 for each or 3 for $5.00 (all ticket money will go towards Relay for Life)

Shine a Light

We have been nominated for the Shine a Light program!!!! Read our nomination here!!
Please nominate us!!!!!

Happy Bithday Sue!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!

The 34th anniversary of Sue's 30th Birthday Sale!!

;)

Happy Birthday to my mom!!
To celebrate her birth selected items in the store will be 30% off Wednesday -Saturday

Martin's sweater

I've got a long way to go... No this is not Martin...Martin is cuter ;)

I had to get a head start on my men's sweater knit along because I have decided to do this as a knit along too! (dates to come)

Click here for more photos of this beautiful shawl... (no this is not me either :)

Workshops

We had great time with Leslie and Rose Ann...



Alison working on her Shawl pin and Leslie holding up Jennifer's beautiful Cashmere Shawl!! (Stay tuned...we will be getting this beautiful lace weight yarn for your special lace project!!)


Ellen's shawl pin!!

Rose Ann's class, The Confetti bag.

Don't worry, if you missed these workshops we hope to have them back soon!!!

Special Guests

Rose Ann Hunter and Leslie Wind will both be doing afternoon workshops on Saturday August 22nd. You may remember them from the Knit and Crochet festival in Pittsburg. Leslie will also be bringing her lovely shawl pins, cable needle necklace (as seen in Vogue Knitting), and beautiful handmade darning needles.

Rose Ann specializes in Heirloom rugs and she has taken those techniques to make modern day projects like this purse...

Rose Ann is teaching a quick technique class for the Confetti bag. The Class will be 30min to 1 hr long and the cost is $20. Bring US size 7 needles she will supply the fabric.

Leslie will be doing a work shop on how to make a simple shawl pin. It is 30min long and the cost is $20

Space is limited for both of there workshops so call now!!

Relay for Life

We had a great relay. Thanks to every ones hard work we raised over $14,000.00 for cancer research!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Another Fair Isle Bag

We wrapped up another Fair Isle Bag class today and here's one of the finished projects!!! Soooo proud of you N------------!!!!! (There, see? You SHALL remain nameless!!!!) Love your knitting! AND the knitter of course :-)

Can't wait to see how everybody else's bags turn out...

Yours in 2-stranded knitting,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 755p smartphone & Chattermail

SRS SALE!!

Stuart Reginald Straker

Born March 31st
8lbs 4 oz

21 in

To celebrate the newest member of the Purl family everything in the store will be 25% off now until Friday April 10th.
Sale does not include special orders or lay a way items.

Please join us for birthday cake at Happy Hour tonight (4/3)!

Leo LOVES being a big brother!

Meet the newest member of the Cultured Purl Family!!!!

Meet Stuart Reginald Straker, born about 10 this morning, at 8lbs 4oz. Shirani, looking tired but beautiful, is doing great. And little baby Stuart looks a lot like big brother Leo! Congratulations Shirani, Martin, and Leo.

Lots of love and hugs,
Claire

Knitting at the Cultured ppurl

I stopped by the shop today and was once again struck by what a warm and friendly place Sue and Shirani have created. Passing an hour with the friends I've made there, convinces me that maybe the best of part of knitting, and the reason the craft has endured such a long and colorful history, isn't its beauty or function, but more the comraderie it has inspired and friendships it has sparked as knitters have circled together round the globe these last centuries...creating garments for those they love while sharing their stories and lives with like-minded women (and the occasional man)!

(ohmygod what a run-on!!!!!!)

thanks, ladies, for a nice afternoon

yours in merino lace,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 755p smartphone & Chattermail

A New Design

I've got something new on the needles!!!! This is the gorgeous Skacel Merino Lace and


I'm working on a little evening shrug design. I decided to go with a simple top down garter raglan, with the complexity of the pattern being reserved for the sleeves and the edging detail.

I'm playing around with the idea of a to-the-elbow bell sleeve and maybe a knit-on edging along the cropped lower edge. Still working it out in my head!
The garter doesn't look like much right now...but after blocking I have high hopes for it. And this color is a very interesting grey with a lot of depth - thinking of it for over the top of a little black dress! Shirani has this yarn in lots of really pretty colors, and the skein has such enormous yardage, you'll get something nice out of just one skein :-)



Yours in lace,
Claire

The Fair Isle Hat Class

I had the best time today with my A+ fair isle knitters!!!! Aren't their hats turning out great! Thanks for being such great students :-)

yours in two-stranded knitting,
Claire

The Sock Thingy...

Thanks Stacy, for your comment and question about the needle holder for socks. I get that question a lot. It's a little wooden gadget, designed for sock-sized double pointed needles. They're handmade right here in PA especially for Cultured Purl and they come sized for both 5 inch and 6 inch needles. One end pops off and you slip the needles inside, cap the end again so the needles won't fall out and then the work (socks or mittens or whatever other little thing you might have going) hangs out the slit along the side. I actually wrap the sock around the needle holder and it makes a tidy little package that I can tuck in my pocket or purse without having to worry about the stitches slipping off or the needles breaking in half.

I'm glad you like the shawls. I LOVE lace!!!!! It's funny that I haven't met you yet but see your husband all the time! Despite seeing WAY too much of him lately, I do adore my car and wouldn't think of driving anything but a Volvo: sooooooo good in snow. Champion takes very good care of its customers, so for anyone in the market for a car, I highly recommend them.

I haven't had much time for knitting these last few weeks, although I've just started a couple of Fair Isle Hats w/ear flaps classes: and we're having a lot of fun! Instead of getting any personal knitting done, I've been busy paining set pieces for the Walnut Creek Middle School production of Seussical the Musical, which opens this weekend. Here are a couple of the 16 feet x 6 feet book covers I've done which will act as wings on the sides of the stage.



There are 4 in total, so I'm heading back over to school right now to get a few more hours in!

Don't be afraid of tackling socks - next to lace, they're my favorite thing to knit. Laura, the sock teacher at Cultured Purl, is wonderful. Think about signing up for one of her classes and you'll be addicted before you know it!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Meet Oliver & Ruby

These teeny tiny Ragamuffin kittens are only 27 days old, but they'll be coming to join our family on May 1st. Since we lost beloved Bailey this past summer, I've been pining for something cuddly...

There's something cozy about kittens and yarn, and it got me thinking in general about pets and knitting. I'm wondering what funny stories readers have about pets getting themselves in the way of knitting projects.

The one that comes to mind for me happened about 8 years ago when Bailey was still a puppy...

Bailey was a major chewer,and it drove my husband and kids crazy,because she'd chew anything within reach which was usually my husband's gloves or one of the kids' toys. I was always sticking up for Bailey, pushing her positives, defending her chewing habit as being the most natural and innocent of puppy traits. Until she got a hold of the RED SWEATER...

I had, years before, found the most gorgeous red silky wool at a store in England...I'd carefully brought it home, tucked safely in my carry-on, lovingly watched over it for a long, long, long time - waiting for the perfect project to knit it into something wonderful. Finally I found just the project: a complex lace, dropped sleeve sweater... The front and back and one sleeve were done and the pieces felt like butter against my skin...The second sleeve was on the needles when the unthinkable happened...I'd left my knitting on top of my open knitting bag after working late into the night. In the morning, I discovered, to my horror, that Bailey had slept on the project and at some point during the wee morning hours it must have caught in her puppy nails, where it had snagged and become a really really fun chew-toy.. The work was shredded...as were the three extra skeins tucked in the bottom of the bag, Bailey had left no skein intact. It was hopeless. And yet...as my vet friend pointed out,she had slept there because my scent was on the sweater and she loved me best....How can you argue with that?

And so, 8 years later, I'm bringing two kitties into the house: Eight paws with nails itching to catch my knitting...but look at those little faces! I'll let you know how it goes...

Yours in yarn,
Claire

Happy Valentine's Day

Sue and Shirani are at the yarn show in Pittsburgh, but Bob is holding the fort down at Cultured Purl so the shop is open today. Thanks Bob!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day,
Claire

Polishing the silver

Today I polished the silver and it got me thinking about how some things seem meant to be. Years ago, I was strolling through a dirty, dark, antique shop somewhere in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, when I spied a filthy, tarnished, cobweb-covered
tea service. Most people wouldn't have, understandably, given it a second glance, but something about it spoke to me and after some good natured back and forth with the shop owner, it left the shop with me and made the long journey back to Pennsylvania. And now we come to the point of the story...I quickly set about polishing (thank God for Goddard's silver paste) and as that lovely silvery sheen emerged from under years of black tarnish, I was shocked to see that a finely engraved "B", previously hidden under the weathered layers of age and time, now graced each piece of the tea set. A "B" for my last name: as if it were meant for me all along...

Sort of the way it seems that I was meant to find the Cultured Purl, and Sue and Shirani, my wonderful friends, and all the customers who I enjoy so much. It makes me smile to think of all the little twists and turns my life has taken through the years for me to have happened into their shop one sunny August day. As if it were always meant to be!

Well the silver is gleaming, and I am heading back to my super chunky neck warmer: a new design I've been playing around with. And, no Amy, I never made it to 12: New Year's Day saw me at 11 and 1/3. Although, technically, the single socks I had done through the year really did push me past the dozen I had set as a goal, but since they weren't pairs I'm not going to count them!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

ps, the thing that got me in the mood to polish silver this morning is the book I'm reading: An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear, her most recent title in the wonderful Maisie Dobbs series - set in 1920s England, Maisie is a psychologist/war veteren (nurse) who solves some very interesting mysteries as Winspear explores the journey of an independent woman trying to make her own way in life in the aftermath of WWI. A good weekend read.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Sent with my Treo 755p smartphone & Chattermail

Baby Surprise!!

I love this pattern...it is a bit like origami...When you finish knitting the fabric you fold it this way and that way and Viola an adorable baby sweater.


These are Daren McCullough's Baby Surprise Sweaters...TOO CUTE! Hard to believe this was all stash yarn.
The finished one is one ball of sock yarn.
Can't wait to see the pink one finished!
If you would like to bring your stash and join us for the class there is still room...call the shop for info.
Thanks for sharing Daren. :)
~Shirani