Civic Duty & Busyness

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
– Amendment VI of the United States Constitution

Last month the mail held a Standby Jury Summons for me. When I called the jury line on Monday afternoon I learned that I would indeed have to show up on Tuesday for jury duty. On Tuesday morning my purse was stuffed full with things to pass the time: bottle of water & snacks? check! a book? check! notebook? check! knitting? check! After making my way to the courthouse, through security and signing in at the jury room I sat down with my knitting – after watching the “Intro to Jury Duty” video the first panel called to a courtroom was my panel. As we stood outside waiting to go in the courtroom I had my sock bag hanging from my wrist and continued to make progress – a couple of women on the panel with me commented about being smart to bring the knitting with me. While sitting in the gallery listening to other potential jurors be questioned I pulled out the knitting & kept going. By mid afternoon the jury had been seated and the rest of us were sent back to the jury room where we were given our ‘paycheck’ and sent on our way. Over the course of this jury experience I added about 3″ to the leg of the sock and got about halfway through the heel flap before it was time to go home.

In other knitting news, I have started on my sweater. The first 2 games of the Cubs play-offs were the perfect opportunity to cast on for the back panel of the sweater. I have now started into the “detail” of the sweater. So far I am really enjoying this knit & see this project competing for my “knit-tention” in the coming weeks and months.

Other knitting has been pretty sparse recently. Artisan Dad came for a visit last week/weekend. Our main goal for the trip was to work on turning the spare bedroom in my place into a usable space for artisan endeavors. We got a lot of work accomplished while he was here – many boxes were sorted & cleared out and we put together a great cubed bookcase from Ikea for holding all of my crafting supplies (and I have quite a bit). A large pile of things was taken to the Salvation Army shop and several bags of books were sold back to Half Price Books. Even though the goal for the weekend was a lot of work around the house we still managed a few fun trips – a quick trip to the Art Institute of Chicago allowed us to see the Gates of Paradise exhibit. We also enjoyed the Richard Misrach: On the Beach photo exhibit. One evening we also ‘beat the heat’ by taking in a movie that we both enjoyed. By the time Dad flew back to GA on Monday afternoon we both agreed that we had made a lot of progress – although I still have more to do before my Artisan room is ready to reveal. Thanks Dad for all of your help!

The next couple of weeks look to be pretty busy – so the knitting and continued progress in the spare bedroom will be competing with other events on the calendar.