Thursday, June 7, 2012

Updated: Age and Stage

Another long week... I'd be lying if I said Tuesday's birthday wasn't somewhat of an anticlimax. Don't get me wrong - it beats the hell out of the alternative. And my friends have been wonderful - celebrating with me (and food and wine). What could possibly mean more than friendship? However, things have been vaguely relentless lately, if only in my own mind. I don't feel old. Of course, I'm not old. But I do feel momentarily older.

What's age if not experience? And, a propos of this, allow me to share a recent discovery: phyllo brushed with butter and dusted with sugar (baked till brown) is an awesome treat. When cool, pipe on some pastry cream and drizzle with dulce de leche / chocolate sauce / berry coulis and it's divine. But really, if you can only get it up to make the wafers, that's enough. They hold up well in a ziploc bag for days.

Alas, despite years of baking under my belt (um, literally), my knitting experience is fairly shallow.

Here's where things stand:

A word to the wise: I'm loathe to mention this, but note the broken pattern at the underarm (it moves horizontally for a depth of about 5 rows). Key when knitting this thing: You've got to end the upper back piece and front pieces on the same row (see below for construction details). The pattern is 8 rows long. I ended the back piece on row 5 and the front pieces on row 8. Regrettably, the pattern doesn't clearly stipulate how to manage this and my knitting experience is woefully brief. Live and learn, I say. It's really not noticeable when you're wearing it. And if this thing works out, I will no doubt make another.

This is a strangely constructed top-down pattern:
  1. Knit the back from shoulders to mid upper back (to underarm). Put live stitches on a holder.
  2. Graft on the fronts (one after the other) and knit, also to the underarm.
  3. Merge all stitches onto the needle, cast on some extra stitches at the underarms of each side. At this point you knit down from the finished armholes.
  4. Work flat from the underarms to the ribbed hem. Here's where you're supposed to make the knit buttonholes...
  5. Pick up stitches at the armscye to make the sleeves. At this point, one has an option to shape the sleeves with short rows. I intend to give them a go.
  6. Pick up stitches to make the shawl collar. At this point, one has an option to use short rows - though precisely how is a huge mental leap. I intend to undertake this option too...
You'll notice that I haven't made button holes on the rib band. That's because, in a gambit to improve structural integrity, I intend to hand stitch ribbon to the wrong side of the "button band" area (the lower rib) and then machine stitch the buttonholes. How vintage-plus!

Yes, you did read that correctly. The super-tired woman with a pathological aversion to machine buttonholes is going to give it a go. I will first practice on my gauge swatch, natch, but I'm opting to be optimistic given recent experience with my vintage machine.

Here's the fascinating thing: When you fuck with gauge (remember I went down a needle size but I'm using a thicker yarn than is called for - this yields 5 stitches per inch vs. 5.5) you have to think ahead. I'm more or less happy with sizing - well, I think the finished product may be too large, but not unwearably so. (I waffled over XS or S. Went with S recognizing that it might be too large, when combined with the larger gauge. It's hard to say at this point, but I think the project might be moving in that direction...)

One thing's certain though: My button band area has gone from a 2 inch width (on either side of the centre front) to 3 inches. Why does this matter, particularly? Well, have you run across 3 inch-wide grosgrain ribbon lately?   

Updated: I think I must have been high on drugs when I came up with that sentence... Having just finished binding off the rib at the hem (i.e. the sweater shell is complete minus shawl collar and sleeves), it occurs that grosgrain ribbon wider than 1 inch is going to look bizarre, regardless of what width of band I affix it to. Furthermore, I have a comfortable inch of overlap of the two side fronts at the lower ribbing (the bottom 4 inches of the sweater). If I go with wider ribbon, I suspect it's going to pull.

The issue here is that I am trying to apply a technique (ribbon stabilizer) in a somewhat different way - different than the way described in the tutorial to which I linked above, at any rate. That tutorial shows ribbon  (the exact width of a continuous, i.e. collar to hem, button band) overlaid on that band. I can't run my ribbon this way because the shawl collar doesn't permit it. I'm likely going to ribbon-stabilize along the bottom 4 inches of rib only. That's the area that buttons and buttonholes will lie upon.

Mokuba happens to stock navy grosgrain in every width under the sun (including the presumed unnecessary 3"). My intention is to purchase some tomorrow, a day I'm taking entirely for myself, during which I will dine out for lunch and dinner - with others! - and shop for yarn and notions.

So here are today's questions:
  • What birthday has hit you hardest? Was it due to life circumstance? Self-imposed perspective on what age means? A brief moment in time?
  • Have you used ribbon on a button band, the likes of which I intend to? How wide was the band? How did it work? Did your machine cooperate?

24 comments:

  1. My 40th birthday is the only one so far that hit me hard. While that seems like such a stereotypical reaction, I couldn't help myself. I was happy with my life overall, and now (at age 44) the whole reaction seems silly, but it definitely threw me for a while.

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    1. I don't know why this one has bothered me - it's such a middle-of-nowhere age (42). I guess, in Hitchhiker's lingo, it is the meaning of the universe :-) See, I'm old enough to remember that entire series!

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    2. That's funny you say that, because for me 40 was fine and a novelty, but at 41 I got that feeling of doom, finally realising that I was 'in my forties'!
      I'm completely over it now, in fact my number is irrelevant enough to me that I sometimes have to double-check which age I am!

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  2. 22 (because it was a post-21 nothing year, obviously all downhill from there 'til 30), then 40 (the math made it very clear to me that this is the half of life one dies in -- not so true these days when centagenarian demographic is growing quickly, but still . . . ). 50 I actually felt good about, oddly, but I suspect that 60 (next year) might be tough. Belated Happy Birthday! Whatever age you might be, you've embraced the hell out of me since I started following your blog. You make every day count and you're obviously living with passion, integrity, and style, baby, style!! Plus you're, you know, fabtastic . . . ;-)

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    1. You really got in on the ground floor :-) I love this comment, thank you. Sometimes I have to be reminded that age is but a number when you are FABTASTIC!

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  3. Which birthday hit me hardest? Honey, I'm turning 60 this year. I'm starting to think there is a watershed when you think OK, enough already.

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    1. Mae, I hear you. My mother just turned 64. I have to ask her, when I visit in a couple of weeks, which age hit her hardest. I seem to remember it was 33. But maybe she has updated info :-)

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  4. Happy belated birthday! I can't say I've had a birthday really hit me hard - but I'm not even 30 yet, so I suppose it'll be within the next few years haha :)

    I have done the petersham on a button band before - and it worked beautifully. I loosely followed that tutorial, except I sewed my ribbon to the underside of both bands (I liked the way the ribbing looked, and didn't want to cover it) and I did knit the button holes in the band before sewing the ribbon... just cut some slits & did a little blanket stitch around each button hole. I was terrified my machine was going to eat that sweater otherwise! I don't remember how wide the band was - maybe 1", I think I used 1" petersham - but it was the Agatha cardigan.

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    1. I remember your post! I've gone back to reread it. Very helpful, thanks!

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  5. None of my birthdays have really bothered me much, but my age gives me twinges. I don't mind my actual age nor all the experience that came with it. I wouldn't want to be 18 again, that's for sure. Still, I was getting blood drawn today and they have my birthday in decimal format and I don't like what I saw...

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    1. Oh neither would I! I hope you're holding up hon. xoxo

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  6. I never had a problem with my age until 51. Each year since then had been difficult (I'm 57). My problem is that past 50 you become a little more invisible with each birthday. It is amazing that anyone in their 80's is seen at all. This is especially true in searching for a job. When I was in my 40's I did not feel this, but looking for a job in one's 50's really makes the growing invisibility and unimportance obvious. As far as button bands go, I've never done one, so I will be really anxious to see your progress. I'm knitting a cotton/rayon sweater now and maybe I will try the ribbon on that.

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    1. I have definitely heard about this from others. I guess I have to hope that the invisibility proposition will diminish as our population ages, by necessity if nothing else.

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  7. I've always embraced my age, but I'm a little stressed about my impending 37th bday in Oct. But I think its because 1 - I've had 2 injuries this 36th year that are keeping me from things I want to do, like running another half marathon. And 2 - there are some big personal goals/changes on the horizon that I'm going to be stressed about until they happen. So, if I'm healed and these changes happen I'll probably be doing cartwheels for 37. If not, well, maybe I'll finally understand why people get the birthday blues.

    You, on the other had are fan-frikkin-fabulous and make me think 42 is an age to look forward to!

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    1. I can imagine that injury has cast a new light on being 36. For what it's worth, my life got WAY better when I turned 37 than it ever had been before. You are so sweet in this comment. Thank you!

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  8. For me birthdays between 12 and 15 were pretty awkward. I did not have any friends and remember spending one birthday going to the community pool by myself. No birthday parties with people my age - luckily my parents usually made it a nice day for me anyway. I was worried about reaching 30, but it was one of the best birthdays in the end

    Mona.

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    1. Mona: This casts a whole different light on the experience of milestones. Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope you have many wonderful friends and family members to spend your current birthdays with!

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  9. I think that 40 just sounded o.l.d. to me at the time. Truly, I don't think about numbers any more -- until the darn elliptical machine asks me to plug it in to calculate calories.

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    1. I was cool with 40. It seemed like a new frontier. But 42 just hit me as blah. Note: I'm over it. It's my responsibility to make 42 exciting. :-)

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  10. Cool knitting update! You really think your stuff through! It's great :) I am attempting to do the same on my projects.

    I don't really have a particular bday that hit me hard but I gotta say, every birthday I had when I still had my illness was pretty hard hitting- "yet another year with nothing accomplished but sitting on the couch". So I'm looking forward to my next birthday when I'll actually have a year of actual living to look back on! Whoops, started waffling there... Sorry!

    About the button band, looking forward to seeing yours, I was thinking of putting one on my Miette, but I'm not sure if it's necessary!

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    1. Man, Jo, way to put things into perspective. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to watch at the window while others were out and about. I can see how much joie de vivre you have! Thank you for this comment. It's something I should think about.

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    2. Thanks for understanding! I can't help but bring it up sometimes, it was a long 10 years! But it has really helped me be grateful for the small things in life!

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  11. Usually I look forward to birthdays, seeing being a year older as an accomplishment, perhaps with a vague hope of finally "growing up". But 50 was hard for me. Not because I was 50, the decade thing didn't bother me, but because no one remembered. We had plans to go to a gala and to dinner but my spouse went mentally down the dementia drain and didn't remember my birthday or why we went where we went. I sat through a dinner with no conversation and no wine, went to a gala where my spouse was acting out and our tablemates fled, leaving me at a big empty table alone with him, none of my friends or step children called.....

    Obviously I still get teary just thinking about it. Anyway the subsequent birthdays have been fine. 55 might bother me, but I don't think 60 will.

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    1. Oh, that's horrible. I am so sorry you had that experience. xo

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