This is really the type of thing that should be in my sidebar, but I thought the Greater Knitting Community needed to be aware of the situation:

This year’s USPS holiday stamps are knitted!

OK they aren’t really knitted, because adhesive would be a challenge and they would probably get stuck in the sorters, but they are the Illusion of Knit. I am buying a large supply today when I go to mail Marisol’s Special Swap Package (the yarn finally arrived and it turns out I need a bigger box).

In spite of the busy weekend:

A point for me!

It’s one thing to read 22″ in the pattern description, it’s quite another to see a 22″ stocking in real life. I could fit a cat in there if they were more cooperative. The only change I made was to the toe shaping, I wanted it to look like a sock toe.

I haven’t looked at my email since I got home (I will check it real quick now for anything Urgent), but I’ve got to finish my last sock pattern for RubySapphire. I am about halfway through the second sock and Tivo is full of all the shows we missed last week, so it shouldn’t take too long.

Chuck and Pushing Daisies are my two favorite new shows this season. Pushing Daisies is already on my list of Greatest TV Shows of All Time - not just because Emerson is a Knitter.

The current score: Emily - 4 Christmas - 2 (I get a point for the stocking, Christmas gets a point for the chocolate-filled advent calendars in World Market, I get another point because I have already eaten up to Day 12)

Once again we are not at home. We are up in Atlanta through the weekend and it is actually almost cold here! I brought the camera, but not the camera cable (of course), so you will have to make do with camera phone pictures to illustrate all the posts I make from here. No pictures right now, I am in my Dad’s recliner and I am not getting out just to find my phone.

Luckily, Dorothy is at home and can take her own pictures - Team Canada’s box has arrived at it’s final destination! I have buttons and certificates for all of our teammates up North when I get home.

That’s all for now, the laptop is “running on reserve battery power” and I want to post this before the Shut Down! Cross your fingers that I get it through in time!

All the US boxes have completed the race!

The 19th box to arrive:

The Rag Tag Band of Knitters!

I have such a thing for orange.

Do you need a glass of orange juice now? Or maybe one of the new V-8 fusion drinks - I think they are all orange. Deborah also included some Sock Landscape from Knit Picks which I have never tried before. The texture is very smooth and pleasant and the color way (Tropical Sunshine) is certainly aptly named! I am excited to try it out (although its future may not be as a pair of socks). Thank you, Deborah, this is fantastic!

As the 20th and final US box to finish the race (and I understand this poor box was thought to be lost in the bowels of the USPS at one point):

Running Ragged!

How’s that for a beautiful dish rag?

Oh my good golly. Kris sent me Koigu. My very first Koigu (if you can believe that) - a little twist of sky. Darning needles and point protectors (otherwise known as project-keeper-oners) are always welcome. The cats made off with all my point protectors and have started on the row counters - I used to have two and now I have none. Thank you so much, Kris, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness!

These 20 boxes (19 of which are the original boxes - I am very impressed with corrugated cardboard) represent 200 US Knitters who completed their sworn task and moved their team’s box along to Dish Rag Tag Glory. This swap needed no angels, required no threatening emails (from me anyway) and had a 100% success rate. I applaud your follow-through! Without the participation of every single one of you, Dish Rag Tag US would not be a success.

The International boxes are not far behind! They are returning to their Team Captains (who started the boxes at the same time the first US Team Captain received hers). I will be the first to admit that the International Teams were unfairly handicapped in this maiden round of Dish Rag Tag. For one thing, the US postal system appears to rock quite hard. Much harder than I thought they did when I was coming up with ways to ensure a fair race. I have come to the conclusion that Dish Rag Tag won’t really work unless all the competing teams use the same postal system. Which means that next year, I will host a US-only race. Non-US Residents, DO NOT PANIC! If you are interested in hosting a Dish Rag Tag for your country, please contact me to be named Dish Rag Tag Commissioner of that country! The DRT Application, Hosting and Technical Support will be provided happily - the Commissioner will decide on the details of their country’s race (registration cap, team size, prizes, publicity, start dates, etc.).

Just because the US boxes are in, don’t forget that there are still the Individual Merit Awards! Voting will begin on these as soon as our international team boxes return. In the meantime, please email me your hard luck stories, your pictures and your nominations for Miss Congeniality (this one is based on the number of nominations a player receives)!

When you change DSL providers, the thing that no one mentions is that you won’t have internet for about 24 hours. Longer if there is some sort of strangeness with the phone lines. The telephone man actually said, “I’ve never seen anything like this, man.”

So we had a snow day. For about 36 hours.

I worked on the November sock pattern for RubySapphire.

I really really love the color way.

Two circular needles and four cables, I am naming this pattern “Garland.”

The last two US boxes arrived in the interim! More details in an upcoming post!