Two presents down...

I haven't been online much but have been busy knitting over the past few weeks and now have two presents completed :-) although seeing the progress other people are making this doesn't seem like much.

First is a hat for my cousin, using some orange/red/brown variegated yarn I had in my stash using a pattern I made myself.

Next is a hot water bottle cover for my dad. I made up the pattern as I went along (with a lot of unravelling and re-knitting) trying out different stitches from this 1980s book - I went for a very plain dad-colour, but think the different textures makes it a bit more interesting, although it should be subtle enough for him.
Sorry about bad phone pictures, the quality isn't great and you can't see how beautiful the colours are in the yarn below. I saw it and knew I needed it for something for my stepmum. I finally joined Ravelry and found a lovely (and super easy) free pattern for this scarf with wavy lacy holes and a scalloped edge. The pattern is easier than it looks - 4 rows repeated, and 2 rows are plain knitting. I think it will need blocking when it is done as the edges are getting quite wobbly, but I've never done this before - do any knitters have any links to good guides for this?

I am a little annoyed that I couldn't get the scarf out of one hank, but at least I'll have some nice wool to make matching mittens or a hat. The scarf is approximately 160cm long now and I'm starting to get bored - how long should a good scarf be?