Yarn Math

I have been making a gift for my MIL
( Yes, the one who upsets me)
It's a shawl ( or, if she hates it, something to throw over a chair)
Each ball of yarn if 71 yards long.
I have just started on the 5th ball.
Every row takes me 10 to 15 minutes to knit ( I'm slow)
I have no idea how many rows I've knitted, I just know that it isn't done.
The yarn is so beautiful that I don't even have to be good.

I bought the yarn when I wasn't smoking, and each ball cost about a pack of cigs, so it's almost like the thing was free.
And each row was 15 minutes that I wasn't holding a cigarette.

And as bad as I am at knitting? It's beautiful.

I once babysat a toddler for a friend of my Husband, just for the craft hobby money.
For a YEAR!
I potty trained someone else's whiney 2 year old just to pay for my ceramics habit.
I made some cool stuff though.

When we had no money for craft supplies, I used to sculpt out of shredded newspaper, and glue and sand, and scraps of magazines.
Before the internet came to my house, I was an artist.

So if I knit 2 yards of yarn an hour, how long have I spent on this project?
How many cigs did I not smoke?
Will I finish it by next Tuesday?