What is the 200 shawl project

So, what the heck is a 200 shawl project?

We realized that we need to do some upgrades to our home to make it easier and more comfortable for the new members of our family to live here. It will take roughly 10 thousand dollars to make these happen, even if we do a lot of the work ourselves.

Both my husband and I work full time. We already work alternating shifts so that we can care for the children and still be able to pay the mortgage(s, thank you plumbing repair bills...). There isn't much space for either of us to pick up a second job. At least not for 2 years when our youngest starts school; and our family moves in on the 21st of this month.

I considered a life of crime. I just don't see that as feasible.
I considered prostitution. Yeah, not feasible either.
I considered selling the children...... occasionally tempting, but also not an option.

So. Time to consider the other talents I have that may be useful to the family. I can sew, but not while I work and not with the 4 year old. I can glass-etch, but ditto due to the chemicals involved. I knit. Frequently, for stress relief. I knit lace for fun. I already have a stash.... Knitting it is!

The original thought was that if I charged 100.00 flat in labor plus the cost of the yarn and the percentage fee from pay pal, I could earn enough money in 100 shawls. 25 would be enough for me to put in the heater that will allow my in-laws to use their second room for the full year, and I could put up progress on both the shawls and on the projects and people could see exactly where the money is spent. The shawls would be a crazy-good deal in terms of cost for product, and it would benefit women who haven't had much of a break to date.

Then I realized that the IRS would want a chunk of that ~2.00 an hour. So it became the 200 shawl project.

So this is the 200 shawl project. I will create 200 shawls out of varying yarns in my stash. I will put them up for sale at a rate of 100.00 for labor plus cost of yarn and the 3% for paypal (no 3% for paypal if given checks or cash). Each shawl will be a minimum of 68x30 for triangle, 60x60 for square, and 60x24 for rectangle. They will come with a repair kit, a blocking diagram, instructions and soak for re-blocking when necessary. They will come numbered 1-200.

I will blog the progress of each shawl as they are made. And hopefully together we will make it possible for Ann and Mollye to be comfortable in their new digs.
Edited to add:
Well, any money that comes in won't be going toward more renovations to accomodate Ann and Mollye.  They took off after 10 days of being here.  We now know that they were moving their things back into the apartment the day after we finished moving Mollye's stuff here, and were telling us that they were unpacking.  I suppose they were, just not here.

At this point, the readers voted that any profit from the 200 shawl project be used to send the boys to school, to invest in awesome yarns for the shawls, and to update our water heater to something made in the last 20 years ;-)