Crochet, Hot Spot, knit, Shopping, Yarn

hot spot post: Purl Soho

For my birthday this year I received a gift card to Purl Soho.  I hadn’t heard of it before but after a quick visit to their website I was soon in love.  I was tempted to purchase every single skein of yarn…but the thing about yarn shopping is you want to feel the texture and the weight of the yarn…well I do!  As you will see in the pictures I post below they can range from very lightweight to super chunks…not exactly the technical terms there but you get the gist, yeah? Also, I’ve noticed that the color on a mac isn’t always true to life.  All this to say I ended up buying a quilting book (I have been on a bit of a quilting kick lately).  Coincidentally another one of my friends rings me and asks if I’d be interested in going to the Purl Soho Warehouse in Tustin.  Initial though was…Tustin?! Jigga What?  I though Purl Soho was only in New York! You mean, I could have driven to ORANGE COUNTY and felt all the yarn in person AND avoided shipping costs?!  Turns out all online orders are shipped out of Tustin. Sigh.

So we drive to Tustin which ended up being an amazing day driving around Orange County shopping, eating, and getting some real quality time reminiscent of the summer after our senior year in high school.  The day was nothing short of perfect.  The building we pulled up to left a lot to be desired.  It is basically an office space in an industrial building (15431 Red Hill Ave Ste D Tustin, CA 92780 (800) 597-7875). We were scared we had been misled but once we walked in, we were not disappointed.  The picture below is the store front in New York. How adorbs is that?

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PURL SOHO
459 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013
phone: (212) 420-8796

Photo: Pinterest

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Here I am surrounded by yarn goodness.

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Please note the empty basket.  Yarns range from $8-$40 a skein…a far cry from the usual $4 I’m used to spending!

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This is a testament of my self control that I was surrounded by all of this and walked out with a very modest purchase.  The key was walking in with a plan…something I don’t usually do!

Another thing about high end “fancy” yarn is you have to wind it yourself into a ball.   This was a first.  Good thing I didn’t order any yarn online because I would have totally tangled it up!  Here’s the yarn winding process:

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Here are the yarns before and after! Ooh La Loo! The colors look so good together.

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PS also has much more than just yarn.  They have a great selection of notions, tools, and fabric.

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Also, there are cute kits that would make great gifts.  Here was my personal fav.  FYI, I’m completely obsessed with sloths.  In fact today on Instagram I saw the raddest sloth tattoo…the pain of my recent tattoo is still too fresh in my memory. I don’t think I could do it again. But I’ll admit…it had me tempted.

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Last but not least here’s Andy.  It never ceases to amaze me how similar our taste is.  Birds of a feather…

The purpose of our visit was to get started on planning a baby shower for our mutual bestie.  Had a solid 11 hour hang out today.  Couldn’t have asked for better company.

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Crochet, knit, Yarn

the trusty cowl

I’ve had this here cowl scarf for about 4 years.  I loove it.  I wear it all the time and you can tell by the photo that it has been well loved.  I’ve always known that this would be a really easy project but never pushed myself to make one because I already had this one which was so neutral.  I finally gave myself a reason to make a new cowl.  Two words HARRY POTTER.

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This summer I went to London and the nerd in me was REALLY EXCITED to go on the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  Probably the highlight of my trip…ok Stonehenge was a close second.  I knew that I wanted to have my very own Gryffindor scarf and I didn’t want to spend $75 on it.  As I mentioned in my “about” page I like to deconstruct items in order to create new ones. I didn’t have to take apart my cowl to figure this one out.  I simply crocheted (of course) a 32×40 rectangle, stitched together the shorter sides of the rectangle and tah-da…a perfect cowl!

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nobody had the same one AND I only spend $10! I win.  please note the Harry Potter scar…it’s the little things that get me excited.

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ooh la loo! I also bought these glasses at forever 21 for $4 instead of $15 at the gift shop.

 

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