The final box of Revenge of Dish Rag Tag arrived yesterday. But the mail was late. And then it rained for about twelve hours. So you had to wait until tonight to hear about the 7/11 +1 Grand Finale:

ooooooooh

And this (the box was only singed a little bitty bit):

aaaaaaaah

And these terrible pictures in tungsten lighting of the contents of the box:

The gum is mint. Mamie likes mint.

The last leg and denim blue (in case you can’t tell in the horrid lighting) dish cloth are by Marie! Thank you so much – I haven’t had Starburst in forever! Team Captain Tracey and the rest of the 7/11 + 1 also sent postcards!

Photographs too!

We love postcards! I’ve put them at Ellie’s place so we can look them over at breakfast before we put them in her book. I’ve got all kinds ideas for what to do with our post card collection – I’ll share a few when Ellie is old enough to do more than look. Thanks you so much and congratulations to the entire team for finishing the race!

This is the second Dish Rag Tag with a 100% completion rate! The first was the original race. I didn’t send a single replacement box. We didn’t have a single alternate knitter. Every participant knit for their team and every team achieved Dish Rag Tag Glory. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me! I am Over the Moon. Thank you so much to each and everyone of you for making this race a success. I hope you all join me next year for

The Return of Dish Rag Tag

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010
Alterknits 10/25/2010
Dishrag Divas 10/25/2010
Purl Power 10/27/2010
Ragtime Knitters 10/30/2010
The DRTy Knitters 11/1/2010
7/11 + 1 11/3/2010

The tenth box to finish the race belongs to

The DRTy Knitters!

Hi, Renna! How was your first Dish Rag Tag? You must have been perfecting your technique while you were on the sidelines – the dish cloth is lovely! And SO PINK!

I might have to fight my Mom for this one.

Renna also crammed the box with thing to eat and things to use and things to make lips taste like a sweet tart (we love sweet tarts and “yip bom”)?

I’ve never seen a Peanut Rounder. I’ll eat that first!

Incidentally, if you don’t have a Needle Nest, you should take steps. There is a magnet in there that keeps your needles and pins from going all over the place! I’ll put it in the car and when I find all the needles that I’ve dropped in the seats, it will be full to the brim!

Thank you so much, Renna! And congratulations to The DRTy Knitters and Team Captain Susan on a completed race and Dish Rag Tag Glory.

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010
Alterknits 10/25/2010
Dishrag Divas 10/25/2010
Purl Power 10/27/2010
Ragtime Knitters 10/30/2010
The DRTy Knitters 11/1/2010

The ninth box to complete the race for Glory arrived today!

Ragtime Knitters!

The last leg of the race, knit by Lila, resulted in a great stripey dish rag! As well as a bunch of Tootsie Rolls! I love tootsie rolls.

Stripes!

There’s another little treat that fit perfectly into the box: a Sugar’n Cream pattern booklet! How appropriate is that? It has patterns for non-dish cloth kitchen things! How cute is this basket?

The title is “Eco-Kitchen.” You know you want a basket.

You should see the little round baskets and leaf scrubbies! Thanks so much, Lila, I know what to do with my enormous stash of Sugar’n Cream!

Ragtime Knitters and Team Captain Deb, congratulations on your Dish Rag Tag Glory!

Two teams to go – and both have tagged me! Will the race have a photo finish this year? I don’t think that has ever happened.

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010
Alterknits 10/25/2010
Dishrag Divas 10/25/2010
Purl Power 10/27/2010
Ragtime Knitters 10/30/2010

And here they are

Purl Power!

Eboni filled the box with blues blues blues and green! It’s like the beach in here.

pretty pretty pretty

And beautiful stitchmarkers! Love the flowers! Love how well they match the coffee table!

She’s got an Etsy Shop. You can get your own!

There’s more! The Purl Power team members sent me

RECIPES!!!

You know me so well. I can’t wait to try these out! Thank you so much – this was such a wonderful idea. I wonder what’s for dinner… *flip flip flip*

Congratulations, Purl Power and Team Captain Jennifer! Dish Rag Tag Glory is yours.

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010
Alterknits 10/25/2010
Dishrag Divas 10/25/2010
Purl Power 10/27/2010

Two boxes today!

First in is the one on the bottom.

The sixth box to achieve Dish Rag Tag Glory belongs to the Alterknits! This is the surprise Team 11 made up entirely of volunteers for emergency alternate knitter. Captained by Roz, this team made the most of their unexpected opportunity to race!

PEANUTS!

Mary Caroline writes that she uses the Micky Mouse paper clips as markers! I can’t wait to try it (I bet they make great necklace charms too)! If I saw it in August, the dish cloth would immediately make me want watermelon. In October, it makes me think of Christmas trees. Funny how that works. I think it looks great with the socks too! Ellie had a great time opening her present too:

Bat bowl! She immediately filled it with the m&ms. (Brown for me today.)

Thank you so much from both of us, Mary Caroline! My parents live down the road from you – they’ve got a golf cart. Congratulations to the Alternates! I am so glad you got to compete!

The seventh team to place in the race belongs to the Dishrag Divas! Let me tell you with no reservations, Sara knits a beautiful dish rag.

Too pretty for scrubbing.

In the cream, the pattern is simple and elegant with Sara’s perfect stitches – it should be a bedspread square. Excellent finish! Congratulations, Team Captain Meg! Congratulations, Dishrag Divas! Thank you so much, Sara!

I’ve been tagged again! With just four boxes still in play, will this be the fastest completed race on record?

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010
Alterknits 10/25/2010
Dishrag Divas 10/25/2010

This week has been packed with Dish Rag Tag Glory!

Cable 4 in Front!

Team Captain Billie Jo successfully guided her team to a spot in the Top Five! Congratulations to the team and a big thank you to Jessi for the treats!

Clearly labeled. She knows us well.

The blue and white dishcloth is Striking! Makes me want a blue and white kitchen if I ever have to start over – with enamelware for mixing bowls! And treats for Ellie! If you look closely, you can see a little round tin in my treat bag, It’s full of teetiny stitch markers. I’ll add a picture later – something must have disrupted my photo shoot.

“note book! me draw CLUE” (she is a Blue’s Clues fan)

One bracelet for each arm! Later, Meeow wore the bracelets as ice skates (??!??) and she had her notebook in her back pocket. In case she came across a clue.

The face of Ellie eating sweet tarts.

Thank you again to Jessi (I didn’t know you had hermit crabs) and congratulations to Cable 4 in Front on a great finish!

Two more boxes are on their way to the finish line! Monday might be an exciting day.

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010
Cable 4 in Front 10/23/2010

It was already dark when we got back last night. I had to employ FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY to illuminate you about the fourth team to achieve Dish Rag Tag Glory:

X-Treme Rag Taggers!

This team worked hard for Dish Rag Tag Glory: unexpected events called a knitter away from her post after the box was already in-route (her husband sent the box along unopened – it made it’s way back later for her leg of the race), another knitter walked two miles while on vacation to keep the box moving. Same day turn-arounds, frantic emails and an awful lot of team work earned this spot in the standings. Congratulations, X-treme Rag Taggers, I am in complete awe that you triumphed over adversity to land in the top 5. Team Captain Jo Anne, you must be so proud!

I am also in awe that the Post Office will still use a Flat Rate Box as a Flat Rate Box after it is covered in a half inch thickness of packing tape. That’s the original box in there – with a little flow chart of knitters written on the outside! And on the inside…

I made yet another tactical error: I opened the box as soon as there was enough light for pictures. This happened to be at breakfast.

If Ellie is there, I have to share. Luckily there is plenty to share!

I believe my exact words were, “How did they manage to get all of this in there?” First things first, Amanda made me a wonderful dish rag.

The variegated yarns are very very pretty.

Amanda also included two sets of DPNs (great sizes for sleeves and toys and any other little thing I can come up with), I used the bat ribbon that tied it all up to embellish Ellie’s hair clip and some Really Amazing Scissors.

They even have a sleeve so they won’t poke through your knitting bag!

I love their beautiful ‘don’t loose it in your bag’ hanger! Not pictured are the matching stitch markers – Ellie had them. They are pink AND they make fairy sparkles in the sun. I think we’ll hang them in the window (temporarily) a la Pollyanna this afternoon.

The thing Ellie holding in the back ground is a tape measure (Michael: Is that really from Fox? Did Wen send that?)! It’s attached to a row counter – Wen makes awesome stitch markers – I think I’m going to have to fight for it. But I’ll let Ellie measure the cats first.

That is clearly MY NAME on the card. Ellie can only read the ‘E’.

There are also post cards or greeting cards from the whole team! Oooh, and a caffeinated pick-me-up from Kara (who knew Starbucks comes in convenient little pouches?)! Such a treat! I can’t tell you all how much I (we) appreciate such a fun package, such an incredible finish and such forgiveness for it taking so long to write this post! Revel, X-treme Rag Taggers! Revel in your Dish Rag Tag Glory!

Revenge of Dish Rag Tag Final Standings
Doggone Dishrag Addicts 10/15/2010
Five Alarm Fire 10/18/2010
Faster Than Ewe 10/19/2010
X-treme Rag Taggers 10/20/2010

The third team to achieve Dish Rag Tag Glory is

Faster Than Ewe

Why yes, the box DOES say “me first!” As you know, position in the mailbox (first in = first delivered) determines placement in the final standings. Lesley wasn’t taking any chances that history would repeat itself when she wrote that on there!

The baby monitor was not in the box. I’m keeping tabs on nap.

Faster Than Ewe has made a spectacular finish with a barn red dish rag from Lesley, stitch markers (for ME) and purple to start next years race. But that’s not all!

Cupcake calendar! You know how we love to bake.

And the flowers and butterfly are tatted, yes? I have no idea how to tat. I know there is a needle involved and some teeny tiny thread. These are impossibly delicate and sweet and I will find something brilliant to do with them!

There’s even a treat for Ellie!

SPIDER BAG

She’s going to love it – it’ll be packed full of tiny toys about 15 minutes after she gets up! And we’ll read the post card fifty times while she’s filling the bag, Tammie. M&Ms are her favorites (she eats the reds first as they are close to pink – I love a girl who can prioritize). I get the orange if she is feeling generous.

Looking back at all the pictures, I’m a little stunned at how much was packed into that box…

Thank you so much! And HUGE congratulations to Faster Than Ewe and Team Captain Shawn for achieving Dish Rag Tag Glory!