You'd never believe it, but...

We do knit. A lot. So do our customers (also a lot). Much of the time, this blog focuses on a variety of other yarny things (new shipments of yarn, visiting instructors, etc), but today we have a project-packed post* for your vicarious pleasure.

First, we have A (remember A? our very adventurous 8-year-old knitter...) and her very first finished pair of socks:

And side view:

Which, we were told by her mother, she had begged to be brought to the store and show off "all week". How awesome is that? She's clearly been bitten bad by the knitting bug, and we might just have the next EZ right here in Portland.

Of course, as soon as A took off her shoes to show off her socks, her little brother proudly pulled up his jean cuff to proudly display the Coriolis socks his mom had made for him:

To which his older brother announced that he had a ton of socks made by his Mom, too, but wasn't wearing any right now (but would be wearing them next time, if I wanted to take a photo then). I can tell that this is going to be a very knitterly family.

It was all very cute and quite endearing to see handknits so well appreciated.

After the Parade of Handknit Socks ended (always fun to watch, honestly), we had two deliveries of felted cranes for the knitnotwar 1,0o0 KAL. The first was by Mandy (who brought in eleven cranes, all made with Cascade 220):

And closely followed by Tammy, who was clearly not to be outdone, as she brought in sixteen cranes:

Personally, I think they're just trying to make the rest of us look bad. Or, it might be motivational, since I just bought yarn last night to knit even more cranes (my count is two, for those of you lamenting your lack of progress, please take comfort in the fact that you've probably outknit me by now).

In any case, these two knitters together were responsible for upping our crane count substantially. Thank you, Mandy & Tammy!

Next, at some point this week**, Farrah came in with her finished Porom (by brooklyntweed). For some reason it was modeled by Lindsay and not Farrah herself:

It's so cute and, well, French, isn't it?

Love it. Which might explain why Liz and I are each working on one ourselves. Anyway, back to Farrah's lovely hat, it's made with Rowan Felted Tweed and has some slight modifications from the original pattern - a reduced stitch count and it was knit on smaller needles.

And, finally, at the end of our list of ongoing & finished knits we have the Staff Projects:

For this week, anyway. I announced to all and sunder at some point this afternoon that I would be taking a group shot of any WIP's/ FO's provided to me by my coworkers. You cannot imagine the madness as my coworkers literally threw their WIP's & FO's at me. I suppose they were all so relieved that I didn't ask for a model, that this seemed like a reasonable request***.

I hate to start at 12 o'clock (top, center) since it's mine, but it makes the most sense. First (the socks) are a pair of socks (yes, obviously) made with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Tuscany". I made up the pattern as I went, and they're for my SIL. (closeup here)

Second, at about 2 o'clock, are Wendy's adventures in colorwork. A pair of gloves (not matched) from Selbuvotter and a lace'n'colorwork gauntlet she's making up with Kauni W-EJ. (closeup here)

Next, at 5 o'clock, is the i-cord cast on of Jenni's very recently started Mermaid cardigan. Pray for her, that's a lot of i-cord she's got to knit.

Then, stretching from 6 o'clock to 11 o'clock, is Marj's Cabled Rib Wrap. She chose to pair ShibuiKnits Baby Alpaca DK in "Rapids" with ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud in "Mist" and it is just gorgeous. There's no other word for it. I think we've all considered rolling in it, it's simply that luscious.

And, finally, at 9 o'clock we have Liz's Aeolian Shawl (from the most recent knitty), which she is knitting up with Habu Textiles Cashmere. If you want to stalk this project (who wouldn't, right?), here it is on ravelry.

Whew! I think that's everything (those are all the photos I have from the last week, anyway). Check back on Tuesday for photos of Beth Brown-Reinsel's classes this weekend and the updated crane count. Happy knitting!

*I dare you to say that three times fast.
** Dates, knitters, I need dates when you fill out a project information sheet. This also goes for staffers (yes, I know you read the blog, too)
*** Or I'm reading too much into this and they're all just really proud of their WIPs. Both are likely.