A couple finishes and an almost finish

Here are a couple pictures of the cowl I finished for my SIL earlier this week. It will probably be a Christmas present or I may give it to her for her birthday in October so she can use it all winter. 

Here it is wrapped around my neck twice. It's still loose enough that I can tuck my chin in or pull it up higher over the bottom half of my face if it was really cold. Hopefully she'll like it.

Another picture.

Detail of the lace pattern. Again, I really like this pattern, easy to memorize and it is free on ravelry.

Made a lot of progress on the February Lady Cardigan that I am making for myself (another free ravelry pattern). I finished the first sleeve Thursday morning and since my husband, whose been home sick all week was still sleeping, I weaved in ends and started the second sleeve instead of trying to find the buttons in our bedroom. I tried the first sleeve on several times and decided to end it around my elbow. 

These are the buttons I wanted to put on the cardigan. I thought all 3 were flower shaped and was disappointed that one was circular. I got these on clearance at JoAnn's over a month ago. I went back to the store yesterday and searched all over but couldn't find any more. 

Luckily I had these 3 sitting at home as a back up plan. Not as interesting but still fun. I've been making such great progress on this cardigan that I am hopeful that it will be done by Monday. I timed myself and it takes about 10 minutes to do 1 pattern repeat and I have 9 more to do on the second sleeve, plus the garter stitch border. 2-3 hours and it should be done. Finally.

I might have finished the cardigan this morning but I opted to finish this novel instead.  "The Wife" by Meg Wolitzer. It was amazing. There's a great little twist near the end that I totally didn't see coming and makes you rethink the entire novel. Highly recommend it if you like Margaret Atwood - reminds me of early Atwood, think "Surfacing" and "Bodily Harm" but written by an American. (And yes, there is a difference between Canadian and American writers. And no, that's not a bad thing. They're just different. As they should be.)