My Sewing Vs Knitting Dilemma

Over the past few weeks I've had a bit of a dilemma.

I normally don't have a problem with my Knitting vs Sewing projects and very much enjoy doing both. I'm very very grateful that my mum and nana passed their 'crafty' knowledge on to me.

Our family has started a tradition (of late) where we only give either Handmade or Second-Hand gifts at Christmas time. This was started on a particular Christmas when we were all a bit low on cash and it has now become somewhat of a tradition.
It's a good one.
It gets you thinking well in advance (well, it's supposed to, but I always end up whipping something together at the last minute for my 10 family members...), especially when there's a deadline for getting parcels posted back to NZ in time...!

So on to my dilemma:

KNITTING
In the past few weeks I have been busy knitting a dear little dress for a newborn and unfortunately this project took me a little LOT longer than anticipated... I ended up using a good quantity of my time knitting this garment that I really should have been spending on making Christmas presents in time for the December 6th posting-to-NZ deadline...ARGH!!
But they are very dear friends of ours and babies grow so fast and I knew that if I had put the dress aside until after the Christmas-Present rush it would probably be too small for the wee one and then all my hours laboured in love would have been wasted. 

So I am pleased to report I finished the knitted dress in the weekend and it turned out ever-so-sweet

The main reason why it took me so long to finish was because I had to start it 56 times (...okay, maybe 5 times...) because I had to knit it on circular needles and, being a novice at knitting 'on the round', I kept on stuffing it up.
But it's all done now and I learnt some new techniques, even though it did eat up so much of my precious time.

VS

SEWING
Now that I have the above knitting project completed I can focus on the Christmas gifts for the NZ family.
Now here's the difference: I whipped this little puppy up while my boys took a nap yesterday afternoon.
(CHRISTMAS PRESENT SPOILER ALERT! Eph & Beks don't let Freja see this please...)

Yes mum I still have to tie the loose threads in...

So we're talking approx. 2 hours total labour (Sewing) vs approx. 48 hours total labour (Knitting).

It's a no-brainer really??

Only that just when I was starting sewing my next Christmas present project my sewing machine (which is really high quality crap) packed a sad and started breaking all my sewing machine needles.
And so I picked up it's cover and placed it over it's high-quality-crap body for the very last time and went and ordered a new one on Amazon.
The only problem is it won't be delivered until 8th December which is 2 days after the post to NZ deadline...!!

I could probably knit up a couple of scarves before then but it's summertime in NZ so that's not the best option!

So Mum, T and Bubble: I'm very sorry but your Christmas presents this year will now be delivered after Christmas... BUT they will be made on my new sewing machine so there won't be any missed stitches or problems with the bobbin thread bunching on your gifts!
If you have a problem with this, let me know and I'll knit you a scarf.