Last Friday (the date of my last post) I did work on my Flugel.

This is the beginning of grafting the underarms (lower sleeve edge from cuff to armpit).  Since the cast-on method was to use the backwards-loop co, I had an invisible row of loops waiting for me to use.  I slid half of each loop of the front’s underarm sts onto a needle, pretending it was one leg of a live stitch.  I did the same thing on the back’s underarm, then used matching yarn to graft the fake “live” sts together.

Just as I’d stopped the stripe pattern on the shoulders and changed to white once I was at the full length, so none of my stripes would wrap around the body and/or be involved in the grafting, here I’d made sure that even though my first row of knitting would be in the gold ribbon, I did the cast-on for the sleeves in the navy.  That continued the line from the body and left me with the ability to use the more “normal” yarn for the grafting.

This is the complete underarm after being grafted; cuff-edge to the right, and the join to the body stripes on the left.

It worked really well, and I was able to get both sides done.

On Saturday I picked up sts around the neckline and started knitting the neckband.

I’ll admit, I got distracted.

I put it aside Saturday afternoon because I had to pack up all our school stuff to bring up north with us.  As per our usual tradition, on the weekend before our final (or midterm) exam, Yannick and I leave the kids at home with my inlaws or parents, and we go up north to peace and quiet to study.

We spent the weekend up there and got a lot of work done.  I only brought a sock-in-progress with me for easy car knitting, and truly didn’t knit at all beyond the car rides.

Last night I finished the neckband (I’d added a few extra rows) and bound off.  Technically that means that Flugel is finished (but for weaving in ends) but I don’t like the unfinished cuff edges and will be adding some ribbing.

But not yet.  A) I have to concentrate on studying for Sunday morning’s exam, and B) I have a new knitting priority.

😛

Jakob is turning 5 in May, and we’re having his party before his birthday so I can have my surgery and know everything is done (exam, school, party, etc).  He’s NUTS for How To Train Your Dragon and since last year has been telling me that he wants a Hiccup & Toothless cake.  (The main viking kid and dragon).  The only problem is that we’re having his party at a location that doesn’t allow ANY outside food being brought in, which means I can’t make his cake.  (And we’re not doing a separate family party to make baking one worthwhile).

They DO have themed cakes, and have a HTTYD one, so he’ll be getting Toothless & Hiccup on his cake after all, but I wanted to make him something.

I found the PERFECT PATTERN.

This (above) is Toothless.  This (below) is the Toothless knitting pattern, plus pipe cleaners and craft eyes to make the “spruced up” version of the pattern.

So knitting a dragon and studying for a final exam, that’s how my week will look.  How about yours?