The Penny Per Stitch Project

Who: me
When: starting jan 1, 2015
Where: wherever I can
What: I will crochet a giant blanket, completing one stitch per penny contributed
Why: I love to crochet, I want to create something beautiful with my community,
to buy an electric car
How: with your help
Goal: $10,000-1 million stitches

Perks

$5- I will crochet 500 stitches of the blanket for you
$25-I will let you pick my next color
$50- I will let you pick my next 2 colors and will make you a thank you video
while I work on your stitches
$100- pick 4 colors, I will take time out from the blanket to crochet and
send you a hat + thank you video
$250 (limit20)- what are you doing to me?!? You realize that's 25,000 stitches?!?
 Pick my next 10 colors I will teach you the 4 stitches I know over
video chat (up to 30 minutes)
$500 (limit4)- you realize it will take me over 200 hours to crochet your part?
Chose 20 colors and you can dedicate a seat in my car and I'll make you
a hat and scarf or pair of slipper socks + personal video chat to talk about
anything you'd like (up to 1 hour)
$1,000 (limit 1)- is this out of love or hate? Chose the color of my car plus
any one perk from a lower category
$5,000 (limit 1)- I know I asked for this, but ouch, half a million stitches.
Get the amazingly special task of naming my car plus any one perk from
a lower category
$10,000 (limit 1)- Hit the "Buy It Now" button. You will receive the blanket
when it is finished

Video script:

Oh, hello! Just finishing a sweater for my daughter. I love to crochet, it's a fun way
to create beautiful, functional and cozy items.

I recently had this crazy idea to fund a dream of mine by asking
generous contributors to help me to make a GIANT blanket by
contributing  one penny per stitch. The blanket will be one thousand rows
of one thousand stitches, one million stitches total. Which equals
ten thousand dollars worth of stitches. 


This should come out to roughly 20x30 feet in size. I will ask my community
of supporters to help chose colors and will keep them all apprised of
my progress with weekly picture postings, tweets and videos. Along the way,
you'll learn more about me and what made me crazy enough to want to do this. 

So, what dream am I trying to fund?
I love all electric vehicles and think it is the future of transportation and
what's best for our planet. Although I have supported this technology for a while,
I have not yet been able to make the switch from my current
internal combustion engine car. My husband and I got duped into
a very bad loan at a time when we were desperate for a car and
vowed never again to take on that kind of debt. Ten thousand dollars plus
the trade in of our current car should be enough to purchase
a used Nissan Leaf or Mitsubishi i-MiEV. 

I can usually average 5 stitches per minute, which comes out to
300 stitches per hour. I plan to dedicate an average of
no less than 3 hours per day to this project until it is finished.
I know that seems like a lot of time that I could be dedicating
to work that pays more that three dollars per hour,
but the absolutely beautiful thing about crocheting is
that you do it just about anywhere:

-At a park watching your kids play
-Watching a movie
-While exercising (carefully)
-At a restaurant 
-Waiting for a bus or train
-On a bus or train
-On a long car ride

And I just happen to have a very long car ride coming up in 2 days from
the launch of this campaign, so please get your contribution in now
so I can utilize my 12 hours in the car. 

I will not complete stitches until the funds raised is at or above that
corresponding number of stitches and after the campaign is over,
I will not be allowed access to money until I have completed
the corresponding number of stitches. That was a little confusing,
I know, so contact me if you need clarification. 

I hope you will chose to be part of and follow my journey.
Included in this campaign are perks to put you right in the action,
see them on the side or in the copy below. 

And lastly, what do I plan to do with the blanket when I'm done?
Well, considering that to get to one million stitches at three hundred stitches
per hour at three hours a day, the math would suggest it is going to
take me roughly 3 years to complete it. My current plan is
to auction the blanket off online, but I want to include the option
to "buy it now" as it were, as one of my perks for anyone willing to
contribute the whole kitten caboodle, ten thousand dollars. 

So, that's my story, I know I may have some sore wrists, blistered fingers
and odd looks as I wheel a giant crochet project into the movie theater
ahead of me. But if I can realized my dream of owning an electric car
and meet some awesome people along the way, it will be 100% worth it. 

So here I go, I'm contributing the first $10 to make my base row
of one thousand stitches. 
[time lapse]

Alright, your turn. 

Tweet questions and encouragement to @stephhartphoto