Hats On! Forward March!

The weather was terrible, driving was atrocious, but we put our pussyhats on in Anchorage, Alaska and did it anyway. We went downtown in our thousands to manifest our unity and our resistance to the promises of the incoming president.

It was beyond exciting to see that the Pussyhat Project succeeded exactly like the wild dream of its creators--a sea of pink not only in Washington, but nearly everywhere in the nation and abroad that people gathered in the name of tolerance, inclusion, and human rights. The hats were a wonderful symbol of our reasons for being there--handmade, very individual, and yet expressing the same theme. It made me so proud to be a participant.

When I sent hats to Washington, I included a tag with information the wearers could use to communicate with me. I got lovely responses that included pictures. Here are a few:

And then there was this family who got two of their four hats from me:

Closer to home, there were friends who made and wore their own hats:

And friends and family near and far who got their hats from my pile:

 
As wonderful as it was to physically be a part of such a (dare I say?) huge event, we would be kidding ourselves if we thought that our mere presence would budge the incoming program. Next comes the hard graft of working to minimize the damage being done, and to make this aberration in the arc of progress as short as possible.

None of us can do it all, but all of us can do something. Find a place to invest your effort, find others to help, and never let up. There will be causes that need your time and money, lawsuits to file, candidates at all levels to support, representatives now in place who need their feet held to the fire. One easy place to start is the 10 Actions in 100 Days, an immediate offshoot of the march. Or contact organizations like National Immigration Project, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU. The pussyhat is now a thinking cap and a warrior's helmet!

What's New, Pussyhat?

Woh woh woooh! My daughter introduced me to this,  and I've been a maniac ever since. On the first day of the new presidential administration, a great mass of women will march on Washington to give notice that we are here, we are aware, we are watching, and we will resist any attempt to diminish the rights we have now and any attempt to curb efforts to set us back on our road to establishing women's rights and all human rights.

I had heard about the march, and was wistful that it was so far out of the question for me to go and participate. The cost of transportation and housing could be so much better deployed supporting the organizations we are going to need to see us through the next four years.

And then came the news of the Pussyhat Project. The nation's makers making pink pussy-eared hats for as many marchers as possible. I loved it. Just because the march has a serious purpose doesn't mean there can't be fun and joy. In the words of marchers 100 years ago--bread and roses. And pussies to take back the term the grabber-in-chief used to brag about sexual assault, and also reclaim the definition of pussies as weak and wimpy. We are anything but!

I have for a long time had a problem with the color pink. First because it has become a color code for that which is feminine or reserved for females and therefore anathema to males. I absolutely hate that pepto-bismol pink that's used to code the "girls' " toys, girls' clothes, bikes, you name it. And then the pink ribbons came along, and corporations tried to boost sales by packaging their goods in pink and donating a pittance to breast cancer research, somehow trying to convince the public that you can cure cancer by buying yogurt.

But I'm fine with this use of pink. It's not for the enhancement of any corporate person's bottom line. It's not for marking out girl-cooties so as not to infect the y chromosome. It's just--yeah, we're female; deal with it.

Trouble was, with my longime attitude to pink, when I entered the stashcave to seek materials, almost none were to be found. Just a few balls of pale pink wool fingering left from making a brain hat. I made a start, using it double to get worsted weight. And then I realized that there was a part of the stash I could use--the various knit-in threads I've accumulated.  So in went the gold thread and what came out was the first pussyhat:

It will subtly twinkle in the sunlight.

After a trip to the store and another stash dive, I was ready to start production in earnest. Next came the glamourpuss, magenta acrylic with a topping of silver sequins:

With each hat, I am refining the pattern to suit my yarn and gauge. I have enough trimmings to make all of my hats uniquely endowed with extra flash.  Pale pink and sequins yielded this beauty:

And Number Four was back to the magenta with yet a different sequin treatment:

I now have switched to knitting in the round, with a 3 1/2" rib and an 8" overall length. I am a little apologetic about using the acrylic yarn, but it does have a nice, not "plastic-y" feel, and anything else would be financially unfeasible in the quantity required. The same amount of love goes into the making as if they were made of handspun angels' bellybutton lint.  Last of the pale pink wool with a band of the last of the silver sequins:

I will be posting each hat on Instagram as I finish it. (button in the sidebar) Go take a look at the wonderful variety of hats folks are making and revel in the creativity and determination being unleashed. And maybe pick up your needles and knit a hat or two yourself!