Personally, I blame Yarnmarket.com. Had they not featured the Marakesh Shoulder Bag in their July 2005 bulletin, I would be happily knitting my Ribby Cardi. I think it's fair to say that I quickly became obsessed with the idea of creating this bag, and I went ahead and bought the pattern and all of the materials. I'm proud to say that although the pattern leaflet has sat on my desk for the last week I actually managed to exercise some restraint and keep my paws off of it...until last night.

I can't explain why, but the urge just hit me to start knitting it. It was to the point that I actually had the Rowan Cotton Rope in hand and was getting ready to cast on the 58 stitches when tragedy struck. Reading ahead to the instructions for the first row I saw the following notation:

After four days of testimony and eleven hours of deliberations, the trial came to an end (finally!) this afternoon. Although I wasn't thrilled about being picked to serve on a jury, I have to admit that it was a very interesting experience. The part that I dreaded the most, though, was trying to decide on a verdict. It's extremely difficult to sit in judgement and know that your decision will have a decided impact on the lives of the parties involved. The added twist is that the decision has to be based solely on the letter of the law and the preponderance of the evidence. There's no room for emotion in these decisions. All of that has to be checked at the door. Good thing it was a civil lawsuit and not a criminal case.

"Jimmy", the intrepid reporter with the weird pen fettish (I swear, he stuck that pen in every orafice in his head), did a decent job of covering the case. His articles are listed below:

• The Daily Times 7/26/05
• The Daily Times 7/27/05
• The Daily Times 7/30/05

I'm sure that I would have absolutely hated performing my civic duty had it not been for my fellow jurors. It's kind of scary to think that you can randomly put eight people together and have them click so well. There were times when we were laughing so hard that I wondered how we would ever be able to keep straight faces in the courtroom. It really did seem like we were having way too much fun for jury duty. Terry, Donna, Kelly, Ed, Dee, Kathy, and Kevin: you guys are totally awesome and I'm so glad I got to know you over the last few days. Here's hoping that we can continue our friendships outside of the courthouse!

Now don't think my Ribby Cardi has been neglected during all of this drama. I was knitting away with my Denise needles in spite of Security's repeated claims that they would be confiscated upon entering the building. Go figure. At any rate, I managed to get a couple of inches of the back panel finished and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. The ribbing is actually looking halfway decent, and I absolutely hate ribbing. Must be the magic of the new needles.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. After three weeks of being on call for jury duty for the District Court of Maryland, I get selected as a jury member for a trial. I can't say this was a surprise, though. I had an awful feeling that I was going to get picked about halfway through the three-hour voir dire process. Of course, the fact that I practically leaped out of my seat when faced with the question of whether I would be able to participate in a trial that was scheduled to last four plus days probably didn't help matters. I cited work-related reasons, and I honestly felt that I had just cause for dismissal. The judge wasn't having any of it, though, and I ended up back in the pool. Chances are that if I had kept my mouth shut I would have been "safe". Now I have the dubious honor of serving as Juror #7 on an eight person jury.

On a positive note, I was able to complete my swatch for the Ribby Cardi (I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get my needles into the courthouse without detection, let alone comment!).

Looks like I'll definitely have to drop a needle size -- instead of the recommended US 6 and 7 needles, I'll be using US 5 & 6. I'm still a little worried about the ribbing aspect of this project. I've always used the Knitting-On method to cast-on my stitches, but it doesn't seem to work as well when setting up for a project like the Ribby. I've managed to find a cast-on method on Knittinghelp.com that seems more suited for ribbing. The method is called Cable Cast-on. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to master and I'm definitely encouraged by what I've seen so far. The first row immediately after the cast-on row is always the most difficult for me -- things tend to get a little loose -- but this doesn't seem to be the case with the Cable Cast-on. Who knows: I might actually start enjoying ribbing after this experience!

The decision to which project I should start next was taken out of my hands. Since the wool for the Ribby Cardi was the first to show up at my door, that's what I decided to go with. Actually, I have to say that I was very impressed with how quickly elann.com processed my order -- I placed the order on a Wednesday evening and had received the materials by Saturday afternoon. So happy!

The colors that I'm using on for my Ribby are Lotus Blossom (body) and Grape (sleeves and collar), both beautiful shades of purple from the Highland Wool Peruvian Collection.


Ideally, I would have liked to have used a really dark color for the sleeves and a really light color for the body, but it doesn't really matter. This partcular yarn is cheap enough at $2.25 a ball that I can afford to make more of these sweaters down the road.

I have to say, though, that I'm a little nervous about knitting this sweater. I'm not particularly good at ribbing, especially when it comes immediately after the cast-on row. This really shows on the sleeve and body edges of Sitcom Chic. It's definitely something that I'm going to need to work on if I'm going to continue knitting sweaters.

Have been busily working away on the yoke detail for Sitcom Chic. I absolutely love the way the yarn overs turned out -- it really gives the piece an interesting and sophisticated look.

The slightly raised appearence of the decreases also adds a little bit of character to the sweater. I'm excited to finish this project and start showing it off. Now if it will only fit...

The Denise Needles arrived and I can't wait to start using them. I love the variety of needles, not to mention the flexibility of the cords. The Bates needles -- I know, I went the cheap route! -- I'm using for Sitcom Chic pale in comparison.

Since Sitcom Chic is almost finished, I have been trying to line up materials for some new projects. Looks like the next project is either going to be the Ribby Cardi from Chicknits.com or the Fibonacci Cardigan from Magknits.com -- I seem to be on a roll with cardigans these days. However, don't count out the Marakash Shoulder Bag featured in the latest Yarnmarket.com bulletin. Needless to say I've been stock piling yarn like crazy. I'll just have to see where the mood takes me.