start of kimono shawl

this is the last of the unfinished projects i'm working on right now...this one will definitely not be finished for the holidays!! think i'll be dropping an iou in the mail for this one...i'm hoping to be finished before a month after the holidays...i do have a long flight coming up...that will help for sure!

the end product will be this kimono shawl from folk shawls...

except that i'm using a very different kind of yarn...unfortunately, it's a little hard to work with...it's my first time with a really fine yarn and it's slowing things down quite a bit since the yarn is hard to pick up...

this is what i've done thus far...well plus 5 rows or so i did while i was doing laundry...it's mostly the garter stitch border...

leaf lace scarf

i'm working on the leaf lace scarf from vk...it's a really easy to follow lace pattern...and the results are really nice! i definitely recommend this pattern....the yarn is a little cliche i know! it's hand dyed yarn that i bought on a splurge...it looks like the scarf will be a little shorter than originally planned since i'm running out of yarn and don't know if i can get any more...

this is what i have done thus far plus my tooties...

a closer look at the pattern...

and finally...a close up on a leaf...

what's in the works...

next we have some unfinished stuff...

this is an almost finished hat from stitch n bitch...it's supposed to have earflaps and horns...i got stuck on picking up the stitches on the sides for the earflaps, but i think it's as easy as it sounds...i'll pick that one up again soon so i can finish it up for a late holiday present...

another unfinished present that i need to get moving on...it's a knit picks pattern knit with their shine yarn...i've started working on the first of two jumpers and matching hats for my friend's nieces, but i'm still working on the first one and have actually put it aside a little bit to finish up with some other things...these will hopefully be finished by the time i go to france in mid-january...the one i've started working on is pink and green (see pictures below) and the other one will be yellow and turquoise...

here's the hat for the older niece...i thought the pattern was intarsia, but it's actually a simple slip stitch pattern for the maze pattern...it's super cute!

close up on the maze pattern...

and finally, this is as far as i've gotten on the dress part...it's looking good tho...

hats!

continuing with finished products that i have pictures of....more hats!

i actually don't wear hats myself, so i tend to make them for other people....

this one is a holiday present to a friend of mine...the colors are less orange and more bright pink than this picture shows...the close up let's you see the stitch i used...it was knit in the round...i love the yarn! it's funky and fun!

this other hat is another holiday present and my first attempt at intarsia...except that i didn't know about the twisting over of the yarn and so it was doing a strange gather so i literally cut and tied at every color change....the intarsia pattern is a rock on hand if you can't tell...my gauge was different enough from the original that i ended up just doubling the width and doing it at the same height...not sure that worked well, but that's what i did!

some hats...

so i've had some productive knitting time recently, at least in terms of hats...and i finally have a digital cam so i can post some pictures of my stuff...i definitely have somethings that i'm not going to finish in time for holiday presents...so they'll just have to be a little late! shrug

all these pictures have to be split up over several posts, but let's start with the finished items...

first is a hat that i made for my friend elena a while ago and just finally gave to her...the lighting is a little weird in these pictures (my old room was pretty dark...not that my new place is much better...)...
so the colors actually start with red at the bottom and go to an orange and then a yellow....i doubled up the yarn so that there was two strands of red and then a strand of red and orange then two strands of orange then a strand or orange and yellow and then two strands of yellow.

here's a close up of the stitch i used...it made vertical zigzags on the hat...they get a little lost in the colors, but when it's on her head, it stretches out nicely...

this one i haven't given to anyone yet...the colors are a little weird, but it makes for something bright and fun...

since it's hard to see in the larger picture, here's a close up for the detail of the stitch...clearly i like playing with my stitch encyclopedia! it's a diagonal stitch...