Will you look what’s in the hotel room closet?

I think the Universe wants me to iron the lime green polo’s facings.

I’m not at home. I’m in Raleigh. Michael is attending an event called the “Ruby Hoedown” (Ruby is his programming language of choice)*. This is good news for you, Dear Reader: I took pictures of the Dish Rag Tag Team Prizes before I left, remembered to bring the camera (AND the camera cable) and as travel knitting I have brought the unfinished green polo and CounterPain squares. Avoiding both these projects has provided me with suitable motivation for a blog post that has been too long in coming.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in addition to Dish Rag Tag Glory, The members of the First Dish Rag Tag Team to complete the race will receive:

A dye-your-own sock yarn kit!

Each kit will contain a skein of Knitpicks’ Bare Superwash Merino (the tweedy kind that will look great dyed a solid color), a packet of Cushing Acid Dye in one of a rainbow of colors, a disposable dust mask and a pair of disposable gloves. Not a sock knitter? The Superwash Merino is also great for shawls, book marks, coffee cup cozies, doll blankets…

Second Place Dish Rag Tag Team Members will receive:

A set of hand-painted Peace Fleece knitting needles!

The ends are hand painted wood with pretty flower designs in a variety of colors, the needle part is also wood that has been sanded smooth and pointy (all the pieces come from different places but since I am here** and the needles are at home I can’t tell you where those places might be).

Third Place Dish Rag Tag Team Members will receive:

A beautiful, hand-made row-counter!

I love these! They are ingeniously designed with 10 beads that slide neatly up and down the loopy bits to keep count of how many rows you have completed. The beads all look like candy (every marker is different). They were made by Joanne who has a knitting shop of her very own – every girl’s dream! She helped me make these great prizes possible – so everyone should run over and thank her for her kindness (and sign up for the Continental Knitting workshop if you are in the area).

There are also a number of Individual Merit Awards that can be earned by any Team member regardless of Team Performance. Unfortunately, I left my list of prizes at home (remembering to bring the camera cable seriously taxed my resources) but the categories are as follows:

• Fastest Turn-Around – This will be based on the Dish Rag Tag Application’s Tag Logs, which is why entering the actual date of mailing is so important.
• Most Complex Tag Dish Rag – This will be awarded to the Dish Rag Tag Participant who completes the most complicated dishrag pattern as part of the race. To enter, email me a picture of your finished Tag Dish Rag and the details of the pattern you used. If it’s too late for a picture – just let me know and I can contact the recipient of your dishrag for photographic evidence.
• Best/Most Interesting Dish Rag Knitting in Public Picture – Anyone may enter to win this Merit Award. Simply email a picture of yourself knitting a dishrag in an unusual or exciting Public Area. The Ivey Household (including Great Gran) will select 5 finalists. The 5 finalists will appear in a blog entry and be voted on by the Knitting Public At Large.
• I know that there is at least one more – but I can’t for the life of me think of what it might be. You’ll have to wait until I get home and look at my list.

The Race seems to be going just swimmingly (five Tags have been started today)! It is so exciting to watch the boxes show up on various blogs around the country*** and to watch the status bars get longer with each tag!

*He claimed that the last Ruby event was no fun without me. He also claimed that it would take us nine hours to get up here. While the first claim may have been the truth, the second was a Big Fat Lie.
**I love the hotel! There is a tiny kitchen with a refrigerator that makes ICE! I also suspect that there is yarn in the vicinity.
***Usually after the box has already left – it’s all about Speed, baybee.