Two Shiny, Happy Knitted Scarves

I haven't been able to post any crafty, knitty stuff lately - it's the time of year when everything I make is a gift for someone, being stashed away for Christmas, which means being a quiet little elf about everything I create.

Luckily, there have also been a couple of birthdays lately, and I can at last show you some of the beautiful projects I've been working on.

My mom's birthday was in mid-October, and I found some beautiful yarn called Yarn Bee. I hadn't heard of it before, but I might need to get a big stash of it. It's braided yarn, and the one I picked up - Enchantress - has subtle matching sequins woven into the yarn.

They're the perfect touch to this scarf, and they were great for my mom, adding a little bit of sparkle without making it too flashy.

The other thing I liked about this yarn was knitting with size 11 needles. It only took me a couple of days to knit up this whole thing. It ended up being rather wide and a bit short, but it was still a good scarf size.
The other fun thing I made recently was for my sister's 21st birthday. I like to make 21 about something other than getting completely trashed (don't get me wrong, I'm going drinking with her, too), so I made her something bright and elegant.

(Obviously, this is a picture of me. But look at the scarf!)

I used a pattern I learned several years ago for a shawl, which was also knit with Misti baby alpaca yarn. On size 6 needles, I was afraid I'd get bored with it, but it was an enjoyable project.

Once I decided to use tangerine orange, it was a short step to adding the mother of pearl-styled bead-sequin-things. Clearly, I'm not sure what they should be called, but you can see how pretty they look next to the orange scarf. I also crafted a pin to go with it.

One of the most fun, beautiful things I've made in a long time, I think.