First Finished Object Of 2010

What the hell is that? you might be saying.

It's the kimono, all knitted up and waiting for seaming. I finally finished that puppy today after starting it on, I think, 12.23.09! Ridiculous. Obviously, this wasn't my favorite knit, or it wouldn't have languished on a side table for so long, untouched.

Here it is folded up into place, before blocking. After getting it wet and steam-pressing the ribs open, it morphed into this:

Here it is, all sewn up and (mostly) dry. It's just lacking the ribbons to tie the flaps closed. I could have sworn I had some thin pink ribbon, but it turns out I only have blue. So a trip to Michael's is in order, later this week, to finish this up. I thought about just using the blue and saying, ho, well, at least it's done, but that would hardly be the right thing to do, now would it?

I do like the finished results, very much. I just hated knitting it. And seaming it was a bitch bear. But it's cute as a button, extremely soft, and the colorway is lovely. This is Oceanwind Knits' 100% merino, fingering weight, in berrijus. I won it from a blog contest, so the kimono is mine to use as I see fit.

At first, I was going to gift this to my good friend, who had a baby girl on New Year's Eve. Then, when I didn't think things were going well, I thought I would just donate it to CARE Package. Now, I see how cute it is, and I think it's still gift-worthy. So I need help deciding: gift or donate?

Please tell me. I'm a lousy decision-maker sometimes.

Fin.