Vocabulary

Ambition:  thinking you can start a major project less than 48 hours before you need to have it wrapped and under the tree

Stupidity:  (a) thinking the project is "quick" and "easy"; (b) not planning on time to block it

Insanity:  forging ahead anyway, determined to have it finished in time

Despair:  at 1 am the night before the project needs to be finished, with at least 2-3 hours of work still to be done, and immediately after sewing in the ends and cutting them, discovering that you joined the last motif backwards and twisted

Desperation:  very very carefully finding the yarn end you just cut and very very gently un-sewing it from the motif so that you can just rip out and redo the last few stitches rather than having to cut the motif out and start it over from scratch

Comfort:  telling yourself that took less time than cutting the motif and starting it over (this actually probably is true)

Relief:  having the thing finished and blocking on your bedroom floor an hour before the recipient arrives  (No, it was not dry when they needed to leave, but it was close.  We used a hair dryer to speed things up at the end.)

Tears of Joy:  the response from the recipient that makes it all worth it  <3