May Newsletter

Dear Friends of Indigo Purls,

Join us for YARNOPOLY! Our game-themed crawl for this year was so much fun to plan. Get your game on and travel around the Yarnopoly board! Collect free patterns, find great yarns, and enjoy seeing friends again!

Reminder! We are no longer on the westside of Olympia. Our new location is easier to get to for crawlers making their way around the South Sound. We are looking forward to greeting you at our new location! Be sure to follow the addresses provided on the 10-store passport. Download your passport today at pnwyarncrawl.com.

Crawl hours are Thursday through Saturday 9 am to 6 pm, and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm.

Newsletter List Under Repair
If you haven't received a newsletter from us in awhile it is because we have been working hard on our newsletter list to get folks toggled to "yes I want to receive your newsletter" in our point-of-sale system.

We discovered the hard way that our list did not automatically merge when we migrated to the new system. This means we must go through over 1000 customers and toggle them to "yes" one by one.

Thank you for your patience - we are sorry if you've missed out on the last few newsletters. We are about half way through, so bear with us as we keep working on it!

Reward System Improvement
Also a work in progress is our customer reward system. While you are all earning points from your purchases and that continues, actually getting you your discounts and rewards is not so easy. The system is simply too complicated for us to explain, much less get you your rewards.

Maddy is working with our vendor to convert your points to a simpler reward system, providing you a predictable reward you can plan for as we count your visits and purchases. We will update you when we are ready to re-launch rewards. In the meantime, the system continues to count your purchases and awards points, and we will preserve those moving forward.

Classes for May and Beyond - Sign up at indigopurls.com!

May 9, Friday at 5:30 pm - How to Read Patterns with Maddy

May 10 and 18, two sessions, Saturdays at 1 pm - How to Knit with Cheryl

May 14, 21, 28, Wednesday at 5 pm - How to Spin on a Wheel with Maddy

May 16, Friday at 5:30 pm - Brioche "Lush" cowl/loop with Maddy

May 18, 25th (and very likely June 1), Sunday 1 to 3 - Vintage Rabbit. Kit will be $25 on the first day, pattern is free.

May 31, Saturday 9 am to 4 pm - Focus on Fit with Valerie

Classes in the Planning
Home dyeing classes are tentatively planned for June 21, July 19, and August 23, all Saturdays. This will be a one-day workshop repeated three times. Techniques will work for both undyed yarn and fiber.

Michelle is working on a fantastic Entrelac shawl (below) in anticipation of teaching it as a class/KAL. Using self-striping yarn Universal Offbeat (has a touch of alpaca, yum!) the entrelac technique really shines. Once she finishes we will schedule this class for a future Saturday.

I am working on a tea towel design of my own using a skein of the new Universal Cotton Waves and a skein of Clean Cotton (see picture). I will be using this project to teach a class/KAL on the Intarsia technique, allowing knitters to do colorwork flat. This was an awesome project to take with me on my trip to Austin, very portable and quick at a worsted/DK gauge.

Sara, our resident crocheter, is working on a crocheted flower coaster pattern for a group class for both knitters and crocheters! Knitters will learn how to make the Java Flower (an on-line pattern), crocheters will learn to make Sara's flower. These can be felted at the dyehouse to make them into coasters, or to be used in a garland.

On Maddy's needles is the Goodwin Shawl (below) by Patricia Shapiro. Maddy loves to knit lace and textured pieces, so not surprising that her work-in-progress is covered in lace stitches!

Crafting Groups Update
Thursday's drop-in social crafting group is still working on finishing their Hvammsvik Blankets. This color-play blanket by Stephen West has been a popular project. The group continues working on these through May, and we will be sharing pictures of finished blankets on Instagram and Facebook.

The next KAL project, again an opt-in for Thursday crafters, is the Ranunculus Sweater by Midori Hirose. This KAL tentatively launches on Thursday May 29, all are welcome to join from 1 to 3 pm. We encourage you to check out our yarn options for this project, including Wool Pop, or Pima 100, light and breezy for summer.

New! Based on urging from the students we are forming a new group! Sunday Morning Sweater Club is a natural outgrowth of my First Sweater class. Starting May 18 from 10 am to noon, and continuing on an on-going basis, knitters who want support and cameraderie for sweater knitting can drop in with purchase of a $30 punch card ($5 per session). Club members will have staff support and help with projects.

Suggested sweater KAL a sweater club project is the Spring Tee by Jo Cottle (see below).

In Gratitude for Your Support!
Thank you for your continued support for Indigo Purls. We will "Knit on with confidence and hope..." as we share our love of craft, yarn, and fiber. Please join us as we knit together our Indigo Purls community. See you soon! Kerry Graber