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I have a lot of big thoughts right now, so heavy post alert: You may have seen photos of the knit red hat showing up on your feed. (Context: The Melt the Ice Hat is inspired by Norwegian protest hats from WWII, it’s designed by a woman-owned small business in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area and the money from the pattern is being donated to immigrant aid agencies impacted by ICE.) FYI, I’m currently making one, that’s what the image is above. Craft and activism have always been deeply knitted together (pun intended). It’s something that makes the crafting community strong and special.

But over the past few days I’ve seen some backlash about the hat which has made me incredibly sad. There have been crafters getting pretty angry about the hat and claiming it is “performative” or “does nothing” or that instead of making a hat you should donate or call representatives or X, Y, Z thing. (As if most of us aren’t doing those things as well?) Some are claiming that the hat is the very first time some knitters are participating in activism and giving them grief for that. But you know what? WELCOME ABOARD. If it’s your first time participating in activism, thank you for being here.

We are all on the same team. Let’s not forget that. Instead of tearing each other down and shaming people for not doing activism “the right way” or the way you want them to do activism, this should be a moment where we are coming together as a community. I personally know that if I try something for the first time and people immediately jump on me for “not doing it right” I’m highly unlikely to come back and try it again.

Share resources? Cool. Participate in a protest? Awesome. Call your representatives? Great. Donate to mutual aid? Super. Make a hat that is a symbol of resistance? Also fantastic. Everything is a piece of the puzzle and we each do what we can. Maybe it’s one piece, maybe it’s multiple pieces. But we build it together.

Thanks for coming to my rant/TED talk. Love you. xoxo



PS: You can find the pattern here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/melt-the-ice-hat