pearl, purl

Pearl or pearl means the round thing used as a gem, made by an oyster--
An oyster may be used to make a cultured pearl, using a plastic bead instead of a grain of sand.
Their mother always wore a pearl necklace and high heels.

Purl or purl ( rhymes with pearl ) means a type of knitting stitch--
The directions say to knit row one and purl two.
If you purl every other row, the scarf will have narrow ribs.
Purl also means to flow or ripple, as water in a stream over stones--
He liked to watch the brook purl over the rocks.
You can hear the stream purl over the stones from here.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"When she turned her knitting over for to purl a row, it caught on her pearl necklace and broke it."

Note--"purlin" ( sometimes spelled purline ) means one of the pieces of a roof fame, used to support the rafters--
He accidentally sawed up the board we need for the last purlin.
Not to be confused with "purl in"--
If I knit in blue and purl in red, the sweater will have ribbed stripes.
Not to be confused with "pearl in"--
There's a pearl in my oyster!