Plotting

I see so many metaphors between gardening & knitting.  Maybe it is because both things occupy a fair amount of my brain space or maybe there is a true correlation.

The way I see it gardening & knitting both take a great deal of care & time for an end result that on the surface isn't so terribly different from what you could "just get at the store". Neither is an inexpensive or quick-resulted.  I think the slowness of the process might be what I enjoy best about both. I love eating fresh tomatoes as much as wearing a wool sweater in February but I equally love sitting in warm dirt in May or feeling yards of wool slipping through my fingers as I knit.
Both practices slow me down, give my fingers a task, allowing my mind to wander to the quiet, dark spots in the back.

I've been thinking more about gardening as the days lengthen slowly and the seed catalogs pile up on the chair by the fireplace. I think the whole Northeast is collectively willing Spring to arrive. I hope it works.

I saw a post on Facebook from my local farmer's market about an indiegogo campaign for a community education garden at the local YMCA.  I've been thinking about it ever since. I live in a city, not a big city like New York but a place where the majority of residents are apartment dwellers without any green space of their own. I think it is so amazing for children to get the chance to grow vegetables, dig in the dirt and see the literal fruits of their labor.  Besides the time spent outside & the healthier eating it promotes, it is just an awesome feeling to grow something.

I knew that I wanted to donate to the campaign and then I had an idea sparked in part by a great discussion going on in my Ravelry group about what they (and you too if you want to join the discussion) want from me.  I heard there and have heard many other times that people would love the chance to custom order Empire colors.  Well, really all the bases, but let's stick to Empire for a moment...

I decided to list a really limited number of custom color Empire hanks. I'm releasing just a few at a time over the next 4 weeks, I'll release them at different times of the day and days of the week with no announcement until they go up.  I think this is the fair way to give everyone a chance.  The custom colors will be an additional $15/hank and all of that will go to the Kingston YMCA Farm's indiegogo campaign.  I may open custom colors up again later in the year but if I do they will be more expensive than this and without the warm fuzzy feeling you'll get from doing good for some local kids.

If you aren't interested in Empire custom colors, you could just donate directly to the campaign if you still want a good deed done.

Now, the sheep are still wearing their coats so delivery of the yarn won't be until late Summer but by purchasing one of these custom colors you'll be getting the very first Empires of the season, these will be the very first out of the dyepots!  You can pick any semisolid shade from my line, for the closest match I suggest using Empire or Mohonk colors.  When you purchase a skein you do not need to know what color you want it to be, yet.  If you know for sure which color you'd like, feel free to add a note to your order.

Thanks for helping me plant seeds, both literally and metaphorically this time.