One week to go!

Man, I'm a slow knitter! I can't believe it's taken me 2 months to create 1 poncho. In my defense, I am still the sole breadwinner in our happy home, with Samhain activities, the Autism walk, and lord knows what else competing for my attention in those 2 months. But still...

But it's truly hit the home stretch, no more stalling. Thanksgiving was one long, relaxing knit fest...well, most of Thursday was taken up with me cooking...side dishes turned out a little strange, but the apple pie kicked ass! Then Friday through Sunday were spent on my butt, watching flicks, doing laundry, tidying a tiny bit, and knitting, not in that order. Last night, I finished the back (ok, almost finished, need to measure and probably throw 2 or 3 more rows in); tonight I'll sew them together. That'll be a neat trick, I'm a little concerned with how to create an unnoticeable, but incredibly strong seam with 6-ply unspun. I guess I'll just lay them back to back, wrong sides out, and stitch 'em together, and if it'll take 2 layers of stitches, even better. Tomorrow, I'm going to handwash it in the tub and find SOMEPLACE to lay it flat that doesn't smell like smoke...I'm pretty confident that it hasn't retained much odor, but I don't want to take any chances, will probably Febreeze it before it goes in the box. Thursday, I'm bringing it to Knitting Bitches to show it off and take some piccies, and Friday I'll mail it out. And start Mom's Yule prayer shawl the minute I leave the post office :)

Mom's the ONLY one getting knitted stuff for Yule; I just can't fit anyone/anything else in realistically. Maybe I'll make a list of stuff I would've liked to make people for Yule, and consider those birthday projects; but we're just too close to the dreaded holiday to make myself nuts over it. Plenty of other stuff to do that with...new recipes I'd like to try, budgeting for the next year so we can actually move out of Jax next November, getting Les back in school--I'd love to get him into classes next summer, get some of the remedial stuff out of the way, and our income certainly ought to be worthy of some financial aid, plus federal grants...what else? TRAINING!!! I haven't started eating smart or exercising yet; needed to get past this holiday, which is a crock, because now that we're past Thanksgiving, what'll my excuse be now, Christmas? No way! I just have to keep reminding myself of how out of shape I was in 2002, how lucky I was that the walk was cancelled after 1 day. Strained ankle notwithstanding, my body was one big throb that night. I don't have any trouble with determination at all, but my body needs to be in the necessary shape to make this walk a realistic venture. Waiting until my handbook and t-shirt come in, or until I can afford a cheap stopwatch and pedometer...well, those are just bullshit stalling tactics that won't help me at all come next October if I haven't dropped about 50 pounds. I'm not even looking to lose all the weight for this, but getting down to 2 bills would be a wise move.
Ok, less talk, more action. And since I'm at work, more editing!