Knitting update

[mme_hardy]

Those "pussy hats" are unbelievably hideous and completely unsuitable for donation to charity, or for any use.

Comments

[movingfinger]

That orange-pink one on the left made out of very expensive-looking bulky yarn could make a good tea cosy, as she didn't bother shaping it.

[mme_hardy]

Let's hope it's wool so it's dyeable. They aren't supposed to be shaped; they're seamed rectangles and the "ears" are the parts of the top of the rectangle that flop over.

[muccamukk]

I feel like they've set the difficulty level too low. It's not hard to knit proper ears on a hat!

[mme_hardy]

They wanted people who'd never done knitting or crochet before to do one. So no increases/decreases, just garter stitch. Or whatever the crochet equivalent is.

[muccamukk]

This is going to be that item of clothing your daughters find in your closet thirty years from now, and say, "Mom! You had a pussy hat!?"

[mme_hardy]

Then you will start singing "Pussy Control" and they will flee the room.

[muccamukk]

I'm still sat they don't look like vaginas. Then there would at least be comedy value.

[mme_hardy]

Spencer Gifts is selling T-shirts that say "Grab America's pussy."

Gonna be a long N years.

[recessional]

*tilts head*

For some knitters, it is hard to put the needles down as the deadline nears. “Doing this is taking my mind off things,” said Marina Mont’Ros. “This will be my 35th hat. Every time I think ‘OK, that’s enough. I’ve made enough, I’m going to stop,’ I read something in the news and, ‘give me that yarn! I’m making more.’”

It seems pretty obvious to me that mostly, these women are scared and unhappy, and using a joint project to attempt to jazz themselves up for an act of civil disobedience they usually wouldn't do, and would in fact normally be against their nature. It's a bit silly, but I've definitely seen way, way uglier hats, and had uglier things pressed on me by knitters who thought they were beautiful. I've also seen way uglier, way stupider protest-unifying memes. If it makes them feel less like going crazy, and if it means they get out there and are actually PRESENT as warm bodies on the day, so much the better.

The women who make them spent their own money on the yarn for it, and they get to decide what to spend their money on. They're not showing up and holding a gun to anyone's head as far as I can tell. Mostly I just see a lot of scared, upset, angry women trying to find something to hang their brains on as they work up to doing a thing.

[mme_hardy]

They get to decide what to spend their money on, and they chose to spend it on a symbolic protest. I, in turn, get to choose to mock the appearance of said symbolic protest, and believe that when you choose a silly-looking symbol, you should expect a certain amount of mockery.

I don't see "jazz themselves up for an act of civil disobedience they wouldn't do" in the article; I see "add a symbol to what they (and other people) are already doing."

We may have to agree to disagree on this one.

[coraa]

Yes.

My mother is the kind of woman who would knit a hat like that. Because she is sad and unhappy and doesn't know what to do, and she wants to do something, anything, to make her cause visible. And because she is a mostly-conservative woman in a mostly-conservative state, doing what she can do safely and effectively.

It makes me desperately sad that urban coastal women (and I am an urban coastal woman, and so are my friends, which is why I feel perfectly confident saying this) who might could possibly be her ally would instead make fun of her for the ugliness of her hat. As if that was the most important thing about this.

[movingfinger]

She can feel empowered knowing that every phone call she makes to her state's Congressional delegation matters about five hundred times more than any call most "urban coastal wom[e]n" make to theirs. If she wants to serve a cause as an ally, speaking to those people and registering her (I presume) displeasure and opinion is good service.

[vom_marlowe]

If only that were the case. The Congressional delegation in fly-over country, as my urban coastal friends so charmingly call us, doesn't particularly give a shit about the opinions of their constituents. It's a different dynamic, when being a member of a particular party is more or less a rubber stamp approval for re-election. So long as they grease their party's palms and assure the major fat for the big local concern (cattle, wheat, tobacco, oil) they're good to go, and they may do as they choose in DC.

[mme_hardy]

Just for the record, *I* don't; I lived there.

[julian]

Yeah, I'm more on your end of the couch, here, in the sense that they aren't something I'd do, but I'm perfectly glad other people have found a way to be activist-y that works for them.

(But they really are quite ugly.)

[tigerflower]

A well-meaning friend offered to make me a pussy hat. I said "No, thank you, it clashes with my protest fashion imperatives."

She said "What do you mean?"

I said "As the Good Lord Herself made clear in the late 1980s, the appropriate clothing for any theatrically responsible street protest is formalwear, fishnets, and combat boots, black eyeliner, the brightest red lipstick a girl owns, and a rhinestone and plastic tiara from the kiosk at the mall. A knitted hat just doesn't make the same statement."

[mme_hardy]

*Damn*.

If I ever did a protest, I think I'd try to revive Ladies Against Women.

[tigerflower]

YES!

[ithiliana]

*LOVES* this comment....

[executrix]

I think they're tacky as hell, but I'd say they are suitable for the specific purpose of the march next Saturday. I was at a rally today and two women were wearing some ugly, tacky hats that nevertheless had some interesting stitching.

[mme_hardy]

Sometimes a joyous tackiness is the point. (whines) But these are ugly rather than tacky. It's all in the viewer's eye.

[garpu]

I'm so not a fan of poorly-spun bulky yarns. Less so of hunks of roving knit without plying. And add me to the chorus of people sad it's not an actual vagina hat. (I'm sure there's a pattern on Ravelry...I would be shocked if there wasn't. Although by now there would've been pearl clutching about it and a few 'necked threads.)

[mme_hardy]

If I ever move some place with a winter again, I'd love to try knitting lopi. It looks so cool!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I thought about fixing up a pink scarf with a couple of knots or rubber-banded bunches in it for ears, but I just don't want to wear pink, period. And anyway I don't get why "pink" goes with "pussy." Vulvas get called pussies because of the FUR. (I'd like to do a curmudgeon "you young'uns don't get that, do you" cane shake, but somehow the expression "Get off my lawn" doesn't quite work here. Or it works too well. And of course in reality it's largely women my age who are going to be wearing the hats anyway.)

[mme_hardy]

I have bad feelings about pink as a symbol because of Susan G. Komen. I quite like pink as a color, but not the one chosen by the hat people. I'm more an ashes-of-roses person.

Joan Baez is singing at the rally near me (Redwood City, if you're local!) but I've decided not to force myself to sit outside for two hours.

[sabotabby]

They are awful! I was envisioning something vaginal, but this is somehow worse.

Especially if they were going to go the cat route, there are so many better options.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping my mouth shut about them, because I have an acquaintance who is all into it and y'know, do what works for you as self-care... but jesus, all I can think of 'that's about as useful as those damn giant puppets that were everywhere in early 2000s protests'.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

My analogy was all the nice Marin ladies who were photographed naked spelling out "peace" with their bodies as a protest against one of the Bush* wars, but yes.

* No pun intended