Under Construction

I love knitting.  And while I love being finished with my knitting, I don't so much love the finishing itself.  Allow me to demonstrate the lengths I will go to in the interest of procrastination...

There's this blanket, right?  I'm stalling on it because each 4"x4" square requires weaving in ends and blocking.  There's a lace shrug I've been trying to get done before the end of May [Rav link]; it's just lying there now, glaring at me as I type this.  It only requires weaving in the join between skeins and grafting the underarm areas and picking up lotso stitches and making ribbed bands for the armholes and body openings... that's all.  Not high maintenance at all.  /sarcasm

Can you see them all giving me the collective stinkeye?  I can't work under these conditions!

I've been knitting off and on (mostly off) on a little Lambie toy since April 7, 2010 (for those playing at home, that was before my daughter was born.  You remember her, the little blonde girl who runs around and makes articulate verbal requests.).  I was awake until 2am last night, trying to get as far into finishing as was humanly possible:

At 9pm, I wasn't even finished knitting the face yet.

The pattern is free! from Lion Brand [Rav link] and I like it...  but it's an annoyingly neon reminder, flashing brightly at me:   

HELLO!  THIS is why you're a garment knitter!  

Toys are sooooo fussy.  The legs and body and face are all knit in one piece (THANK GOODNESS), but there's lots of seaming + ears + arms + attaching + sewing nose and eyes blah blah blah and now I'm whining.  You can't hear it, but I am.  I blame the exhaustion.

So between avoiding finishing work on garments and avoiding finishing work on toys, what's a knitting lady to do?  Find a completely useless, instant-gratification project with an inverse relationship of object size to number of needles used, you say? 

Enter the mini-sock.

Yep, that'll work.  And it uses up otherwise-disposable stash!
It's for Quidditch.  Stop smirking at me.