generate n random numbers from a skewed bell-like distribution using scipy

I need a function in python to return N random numbers from a 'normal-like' distribution which has either positive or negative skew. The skew needs to be taken as a parameter.

e.g. my current use is

x = numpy.random.randn(1000)

and the ideal function would be e.g.

x = randn_skew(1000, skew=0.7)

Solution needs to conform with: python version 2.7, scipy version 0.14