Keep Knitting, Hope for the Best

I have most of my Christmas shopping done.... but then, my list gets smaller and smaller every year. No in-laws, no significant other, (no insignificant other) - and my sister seems to have stopped giving birth. For now.

She did tell me not to worry about getting anything for her kids this year if money is tight... but I did anyway. Not because I'm such a great aunt or anything, but because I bought presents for my brother's dogs and I thought that might seem bitchy to buy for the dogs and not for the kids.

Just another illustration of the structure of my family.

I am almost finished with the hat I'm making for my brother. It's the same pattern as the Jayne hat, but I just used a variegated green yarn. I'm done with the actual hat part, but I need to finish one more ear flap and then add the pom pom.

And the sweater. Oh, the sweater.

I lost a lot of prime knitting time yesterday because I was with my mom most of the day. My uncle had a kidney removed on the 17th, and while he came through the actual surgery ok, he's been really sick since. Yesterday was a particularly bad day for him - it was sort of scary there for awhile. Today he's been out of bed and mom said he was talking to people - which he hadn't been able to do before.

I'm knitting the sleeves 2-at-once and I have about 7 inches done - just eleven more to go. Sigh. Tonight when I get home I'm going to start blocking the front and back. It's technically possible to get this done on time, but I just don't know if I have the stamina.

Last night I was asleep by 10... and I'm working late tonight and tomorrow with the hope that I can leave early on Wednesday to avoid the crazy-yucky-bad weather coming this way. And also run my last few Christmas errands.

If I can get the sweater started in the blocking process and knit 11 inches in two days I can sew the whole thing together on Wednesday and put the buttons on in PLENTY of time for Christmas Eve. I'm just so wiped out by the time I get home and I really just want to eat something fast and crawl into bed!

I haven't given up. I'm going to just keep knitting and hope for the best.