Dish Rag Tagged

Knitting's calming effect may have influenced me to give up the aggravation of fantasy sports, but it hasn't eliminated my competitive side. I was confident that the Dish Rag Tag box would arrive at my apartment today, so I set the foolhardy goal of getting it back in the mail the same day. I checked to see how late local post offices were open. Unless I summoned previously untapped knitting superpowers, it was doubtful I could get to the post office by three in the afternoon, but I located a nearby hardware store with a postal center open until eight on Saturday nights.

At 11 a.m. I heard a loud rap on my door. I opened it to find my team's box and went into action mode. Balls of red and white cotton were inside along with the dishcloth my team member knitted and a bag of 24 mini markers. Since I'm using red yarn for two WIPs, I opted to knit with the ivory to make the quilted diamonds dishcloth.

Everything was going well for the first hour, although the seed stitch border looked suspiciously like ribbing. Perhaps in my haste I misremembered how to do seed stitch, but the first three rows seemed fine. I was annoyed that I had messed up, but it looked OK even if it wasn't what the pattern called for.

I kept cranking away at it but took a break when I lost track of stitches and had to undo the better part of a row. I put lunch in the oven, knit a few rows, and then had something to eat. I'm guessing that this is when I lost my spot in the pattern. I didn't notice because my needles were clicking away, but a few inches later I saw that I knit a couple rows of pattern that weren't where they should have been. The mistake was compounded in that it switched the right side for the ribbed border. Ugh.

And the hits kept on coming... While binding off, both stitches on the right needle flew off. I took care of them, or so I thought, but then I noticed previously bound off stitches sticking up. I picked up and bound off again with these stitches. As I neared the final stitches I saw that there was a dangling strand of yarn, a sign that I had dropped a stitch while binding off. I didn't know how I might work back to correct it, so I covered it up when weaving in the end.

Quilted diamonds dishcloth

Yarn: Lily The Original Sugar'n Cream (100% cotton; worsted weight)
Color: Ivory
Needles: US 7s
Stitches: 46

The final product is... Embarrassing isn't the right word, but it's along those lines. The moral of the story, for me at least, is that I can knit fast or knit well, not both. I made this dishcloth in four and a half hours, so you know which option I chose. My apologies to the team member receiving this mediocre example of my abilities. I can do better than this. It might not be the worst looking FO I've knit since my practice piece, but it would be in contention.

It was something of a miracle that the box was processed for mailing. The employees of the hardware store with a United States Postal Service center didn't know what buttons to push to charge me for priority shipping and delivery confirmation. It took about fifteen minutes to check out despite there being no other customers at the counter. Here's hoping the package gets to Indiana without any delays. We have a race to win!

Did I mention that tornado sirens were wailing when I stepped out of the store? I didn't have far to go to get home, so I avoided being on the road when a brief but fierce storm passed by. I didn't see any funnel clouds, although I heard that some were spotted a few miles from here. It's probably best that I didn't see them. As a kid I was afraid of tornadoes, probably because I'd heard about the big one that hit Xenia. I still get a little on edge when I hear those sirens. Seeing a tornado, even if it's from the gods and not a front row seat, might stop my heart.

Oh, in the comedy of errors that was my day, I scribbled a short message on the side of the box. I started a word that I decided I didn't want to use. In an attempt to scratch it out I made a little blob, which I then tried to shape into the state of Ohio to cover up my mistake.

How appropriate that I saw The Boss of It All tonight. It's a comedy, although not in the knee-slapping way, not that I can recall any movie eliciting that reaction...but you know what I mean. Best and worst intentions are undermined at every turn. It helps to be able to laugh about what happens, even if you tend to take yourself too seriously.