Dish Rag Tag

**DISH RAG TAG SIGN UPS ARE NOW CLOSED! PLEASE CHECK THE MAIN PAGE FOR DETAILS**

There is a dearth of Competitive Knitting out there. No really, there is. Here at Yarn Miracle, we want to change all that. That’s right! It’s the summer insanity you’ve all been waiting for! Time for:

Dish Rag Tag

dishragbutton.jpg

Here’s the button! Take two, they’re small.

The Short Version:
Teams of Knitters will participate in a Dish Rag Knitting Relay Race that spans the 50 states.

Heard enough? Sign up here!

**DISH RAG TAG SIGN UPS ARE NOW CLOSED! PLEASE CHECK THE MAIN PAGE FOR DETAILS**
***DISH RAG TAG SIGN-UPS fOR 2007 WILL CAP AT 200! I HAD NO IDEA Y’ALL WOULD BE THIS ENTHUSIASTIC!***

The Longer Version:
Teams of Knitters will participate in a Dish Rag Knitting Relay Race that spans the 50 states.
There will be a box (the baton) that circulates through the team.
Each box will be packed with a finished dish rag, two balls of dish rag cotton (you know the kind I mean: Sugar’n Cream, Peaches & Creme, or a similar cotton) and a small treat (stitch markers, a candy bar, one of those “what size is my needle” thingys).
When a knitter receives the box, the knitter will report that she or he is “it”, and empty the box keeping the enclosed dishrag and treat.
The knitter will then knit a new dishrag with the cotton in the box. The idea is to use one ball of yarn to make a dishrag and keep the other one for personal use, but that should not keep you from knitting a two color dish rag if you want.
Dish rags may be any pattern, but must be standard dishrag size: 9 inches square or in diameter.
**You may not start knitting your dishrag until you receive the box. This is cheating and will make William Henry cry. Not to mention ruining the fun for your whole team.**
When the dish rag is finished, it goes back in the box with two new balls of dish rag cotton and a small treat (see above) and will be Priority Mailed to an untagged team member. The first box to make it through a team’s members and return to the Miracle Household wins! Prizes will be announced at a later date.
The whole thing (even with priority shipping) should cost less than $12 per participant and take up a little more time than knitting a dishrag.

Heard enough? Sign up here.

The BEST Part
Michael is making us a relay race application. There will be forums for each team and we will be able to electronically monitor the progress of each box. Addresses will be stored in the Relay Race Manager Application – they will not be included in the boxes. To get the address for the person you are supposed to send it to next, you will log in with your secure password and pick the team member you want to tag and receive the mailing address for that person and that person only. Your address will be available to only me and the team member who is mailing the box to you.

Details and Rules:

**DISH RAG TAG SIGN UPS ARE NOW CLOSED! PLEASE CHECK THE MAIN PAGE FOR DETAILS**
***DISH RAG TAG SIGN-UPS fOR 2007 WILL CAP AT 200! I HAD NO IDEA Y’ALL WOULD BE THIS ENTHUSIASTIC!***

Signups will happen from now until 12:00 am Central, Sunday, July 15, 2007.

Teams will be assigned and made public by Thursday, July 19, 2007.

The race will begin on August 1, 2007, when I mail all the team boxes.

Fed-Ex and Overnight Delivery are Prohibited. Participants must ship using the US Mail’s Priority Shipping. International knitters, my apologies and explanation for excluding you this go-round are at the bottom of this post.

Dish rags may be any pattern, any color, any shape. The two requirements are that they be Standard Dish Rag Size (9″ square or diameter) and made with the yarn you are “tagged” with.

Teams will consist of 6-10 Team Members. Number of teams will be determined by number of participants.

Teams will be assigned by the Yarn Miracle Household (because geography has to be considered to keep the playing field even).

There will be a Team Captain for each team who will moderate that team’s private forum (did I mention that there are team forums?). Team Captains will be responsible for communicating with me about their team’s status and will let me know if there are any obstacles that need hurdling. Teams are encouraged to develop winning strategies and communicate with each other. Oh, and make up team names – names are fun.

Boxes will not go in order down the list – you may not know that you are going to be tagged next – stay in touch with your team members in the forum to let them know if anything comes up (out of town for the weekend etc.) and you shouldn’t be tagged next. Have your pattern, two balls of cotton and treat ready at all times!

You may not start knitting your dishrag until you receive the box. This is cheating and will ruin things for your whole team. Cheating makes William Henry cry.

Included treats should remain small. The boxes won’t have room for much and you want to keep the box under a pound for the best shipping rate. (Priority Mail under 1 lb. is $4.60 to any zone.)

There will be prizes. I can’t tell you what yet. There will be prizes for the top three placing teams and additional individual prizes based on merit (even if your team is dead last, you have a chance at Personal Dish Rag Tag Glory). There are so many options! If any one would like to donate to the prize pool or has a great idea, I would love to hear from you! My plan is for the members of all placing teams to receive the same prize. And of course, everyone will receive a wonderful dish rag to enhance their kitchen or bathroom.

My Abject Apologies to International (to me) Knitters
I had a huge struggle to decide if this swap should be limited to the United States. I hate the idea of leaving any one out of something. But. It’s a race and it seemed like it wasn’t fair if one team had to ship their box to Czechoslovakia. I’ve been going back and forth on this for months. This is also the first time that I have tried something like this (it could be a complete disaster) so I have decided that for this particular Dish Rag Tag, I am going to limit it to the places that can be reached in 2-3 days by US Priority Mail. If this works, I will figure out how to make International Dish Rag Tag a success.
**UPDATE! CANADA WANTS TO TRY TO FIELD A TEAM! CLICK THE “I AM WITH TEAM CANADA” LINK ON THE SIGN UP PAGE TO JOIN UP!**

That’s all I’ve got! Email me with questions or sign up here!

FAQ POST HERE

***DISH RAG TAG SIGN-UPS fOR 2007 WILL CAP AT 200! I HAD NO IDEA Y’ALL WOULD BE THIS ENTHUSIASTIC!***

48 thoughts on “Dish Rag Tag”

  1. Lene Clausen

    Aw – How it sucks being “international” sometimes! I should not complain though, having signed up for a doll quilt swap.. yay 🙂
    Don’t you think, you should have dishrag / box flickr groups? I think that would be absolutely perfect and a very good thing, to let us all in on what’s happening.

    /Lene

  3. Carole

    This sounds like fun! I’d like to sign up but I’m going to be away on vacation from Aug 11-18. Do you think that would be something we could work around?

  4. emily Post author

    Absolutely! Going out of town is not a problem in this race, just let your teammates know (via the forum) that they shouldn’t tag you during that time!

  5. kathy b

    Okay it is early and despite my ultra delicious cup of Carpe Diem, I am still slow on the uptake. I think I can knit a dishrag. Does this involve special computer skills in anyway? If I organize a team, then do we just knit to each other? Ie: all us nurses who knit in the nursery…..that wouldn’t be fun. Or do we knit against or with another team?
    Im confused.

    the COST is the best part! i am in. Im talking it up on irisheyes today!

  6. Rhonda the Stitchingnut

    Hey this would be fun even if I’m already knitting in other events right? How long could a dishrag take to knit? One or two nights or a few rides on the commuter rail? Okay, count me in … I already have the cotton yarn, LOL [but chocolate is hard to keep around long – better hide in freezer.]

  7. emily Post author

    To answer kathy b’s question:

    The Miracle Household is assigning the teams so that no team has an unfair geographic advantage. Teams are like relay race teams: the boxes will circulate through that specific team. Your team will be in competition for fame, glory and spectacular prizes with all the other teams.

    There are no special computer skills involved, if you can blog/read email/shop online you can do this.

  19. Ellen Martens

    I am obsessively knitting dishrags, so I am in, baby! For me, they take about a day or so, but I do not have a job other than taking care of two behaviorally challenged dogs and a picky-eater husband.

    Thanks, Emily, for setting this up. I am impatient for it to begin … how many dishrags will I have knitted by then? Oh, and … what if the 9″ is fudged a bit? I try and try to make them measure right, but I am not that persnickety (blush) about gauge and stuff.

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  21. Dorothy

    This sounds like fun! If you did decide to go International, you could try to put a team in each country or continent as opposed to trying to do a dual country/continent race. You could also assign handicaps to teams. Say knock off a week’s worth of time if one team has an international teammate or a day or two each way if the international teammate is in Canada or Mexico. I know if the parcel is clearly marked gift, there isn’t a whole lot of time lost at the Canada/U.S. border

  24. Cynthia

    You are such a clever woman Emily! You guys will definitely have lots of fun. You certainly come up with original and creative ideas woman!

  26. Rachel

    Bummer. I think even with an APO address, I’d be considered international. I’ll have to sit this one out, but it sounds like a lot of fun and should be a blast to watch!

  27. emily Post author

    Ellen: Round about 9″ is perfect. As dishrags go, gauge is not a high priority!

  29. kt

    Counting the days, and working on a co-worker to let me teach her to knit–I think she’d love it, and then she culd play, too! My first FO was a dishrag! Emily, you’re aces.

  30. Ruth

    Given that it has taken 5 and 1/2 months for parcels to reach me in South Africa I totally understand excluding international players. 🙂 I’m looking forward to watching the progress of the race though!

  31. jackie

    Sounds like fun! But with a border to cross, not for me. I will enjoy being kept posted on how various teams are doing. It is a great idea and you have it very well though out!

  36. Sue

    Such a pity. Being all the way down here in Oz makes it difficult for us to join in something like this, although I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one who would like to.

  38. SueG

    I think I get it? I receive a box keep one ball and knit a cloth with the other (or both for 2 color)…add a treat/thingy and mail it to the person the team leader gives me for the next participant.
    Do you leave the dishcloth(s) and treats in the box and add to it to send to the next participant? The box will get heavier with time. I read it twice and couldn’t find if it said the dishcloth and treat you keep also.
    I’d love to join..just need to clarify.
    Thanks

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  49. Sarah

    Hey! I custom dye dishcloth cottons and would be happy to supply a prize to one of the winners! Just drop me a line!

  50. Dale-Harriet in WI

    What a FAB idea! I’m too late, but I’ll keep my little beady eye out for another in the future. This is delicious (and dishrags are within my sphere of….well, *expertise* is too fine a word for my ability, but I can do dishrags!)

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