u/mangling_dodifier

I’m finishing a ribbed swearer hem that I knit from the bottom up and used a provisional cast on to start. It’s the Vellichor pattern by Andrea Mowry). The ribbing is two twisted stitches (it’s like a combined k2tog that you then make another stitch with, not sure if I’m explaining it right) then p1 k1 p1. I bound off the sleeves in pattern with going up a needle size (I’m a tight knitter) and that seems fine but just wondering if anyone has any other ideas? I’ve been looking up tubular bind offs and they do look nice but not sure how to mod those for this set up.

(Also this is like 300+ stitches on fingering weight so however I bind off is going to take … a while. But it might as well be worth it?

(so obviously this was a while back, and I felt bad about it for years. but it kinda popped into my head again, hence the tale)

My youngest sister got married in the spring of 2021, back when vaccines were still rolling out. She'd gotten engaged a few months prior and the wedding was just immediate family only, no bridal party or friends.

To back it up a bit; one of our parents had gotten suddenly sick during the pandemic (a sudden, debilitating mental illness that I can only describe as a break with reality and extreme depression that left him non-functional; I'd had to travel from three hours away to get him into a psych ward, it was awful.) He was still very ill and spent probably 23.5 hours of the day in bed.

Anyway. My partner and I had just moved in with my parents to help out, so we were there at the wedding, with my parents, and my middle sister and her husband.

It's a nice ceremony, my dad looks like a walking cadaver in a suit (he'd lost like 60 lbs or so) and does his bit walking her up the aisle. I don't remember if he made it to the dinner, which was a side room off a restaurant.

I don't remember the dinner, other than that the food and conversation was fine. Then came the toasts.

His brother and sister give one. His mom gives one. Our other sister gives one.

I should probably note here that I was very angry with this sister, because she had refused to call me back or text me even when I called to tell her that our father was on a three week hold. And there she was, acting like nothing had happened and wow wasn't this pandemic just so boring. I had been living in NYC in 2020. I was not amused.

She spouts something wildly pretentious that goes on for far too long. .

My mom gets up and has a speech prepared. It's fine.

Then. THEN. She sits down and starts doing that mom-gesture when she wants you to get up. There's like no way for me to not say something at this point and not look like a total brat.

And...I got nothing. I have nothing prepared. Because no one had asked me to give one. The only thing that had been going through my head was "I guess I'm good enough to take care of dad for you, but not speak at your wedding?"

I still want to do a good job, because I still love my sister even though she planned a wedding Weekend at Bernies. But in the moment, I freeze. I completely blank on what you're supposed to say AT ALL in a wedding speech. I had never given a wedding speech before. Also I had never met his family before, so I didn't know my crowd.

I have no idea what came out of my mouth. I babbled something I think was G-rated but probably awful. It was like my worst public speaking nightmare.

A while later my sister mentioned that she had been pissed off out our family during her wedding, and I apologized. And felt bad about it!

But honest to god, it finally just dawned on me that I should have said that if she wanted me to speak ... she really should have given me a head's up. Or a head's up that she didn't want me to.

She had a bigger celebration again a year later. I went and did not speak that time.