I have consulted the calendar. I have estimated how long it will take to make starter dish rags. I am ready to announce the dates for Dish Rag Tag V.

Sign-ups for Dish Rag Tag V will open Monday, August 15, 2011 at 9am central and stay open until there are 100 knitters signed up (10 teams of 10) or 9am on Sunday, August 21, 2011. Whichever comes first. If capacity is reached within 24 hours, we will extend participation to 120 knitters (12 teams of 10). If for some reason this race is much more wildly popular than I anticipate, I’ll think about opening sign-ups to 144 participants (12 teams of 12).

The race will begin Friday September 2, 2011 when I mail the starting boxes to the Team Captains. The Labor Day Weekend start worked great last year, Team Captains should receive their boxes the following Tuesday.

To keep the playing field even, this race is only open to folks with addresses that are actually, truly, physically in the United States.

Specific information for Dish Rag Tag V will be announced immediately prior to the opening of sign-ups. But here are a couple of answers to the questions that keep you up at night:

What size box?!
We’ll be using the USPS Priority Mail Small Flat Rate as the Official DRT Box again this year. Postage rates went up again this year so the Flat Rate boxes for $5.20 (Doesn’t it KILL you? that’s the online rate +free tracking) is the most predictable rate available.

Sign-up fees this year?
I am going to continue with the $1 sign-up fee to offset all the shipping costs and weed out the less committed players. (PayPal is preferred, but other arrangements have been made in the past.)

Further questions specific to Dish Rag Tag V? Ask and I’ll answer in the comments so the responses are there for everyone.

If you have no idea what Dish Rag Tag is, there are plenty of ‘Rules and Regulations’ posts from past races for background reading. This year will be exactly like last year, so you probably want to start with
Revenge of Dish Rag Tag