This Icy Winter Chill

Hello from my poor neglected blog.  It's been a rough sort of year watching my country be torn in two as white supremacists and misogynists have come crawling out of their holes, like angry bears who slept too long and woke up too hungry.
My year has been one of political engagement and involvement.

Last January I started a knitting group, the Nasty Knitters, to make Pussy Hats for the Women's March, this January I will be knitting some more.  As a group we also began a project making blankets with and for recently arrived refugee families. It was an act of solidarity and defiance in the face of our president banning refugees from our shores.  Eventually the families will take the blankets home to their homes and hopefully feel they are indeed welcome and wanted, in the meantime we meet once a month or so to create and join knit or crocheted squares, to share food, and company.

I couldn't make it to the Women's March in Washington DC or the local March in Providence, I did make a couple of dozen knit hats which I sent to friends across the country.  I will never forget the pure exhilaration of running to the living room when my mom and kids started yelling.  The sight of that sea of pink, knowing that some of those hats on some of those people were mine made me feel connected in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.  I'm not ashamed to say I cried.  Later that day the kids and I wore our hats to the beach (along with my mom, who isn't in the photo because she stayed in the car out of the cold) Two women who had been at the March came over to talk to us, share hugs, and take this picture. My oldest was at the Providence March and agreed the tone of the day was one of love as empowerment.

  

This year will end as last year began, with me making Pussy Hats in a variety of shades and not all pink.  With family and friends getting ready to take to the streets.  We are now saddled with a government which wears its disdain for the poor, for minorities, LGBTQ people,  women, and immigrants, as a badge of honor.  It glories in vulgarity and divisiveness.  And it threatens us all.  This is not the country or the future I have imagined for my children, and it isn't one I will leave them willingly.

Half of the country has been plunged into an icy winter chill and our government has cut funding for heating programs.  Out west fires rage and go without aid or even acknowledgement from the White House, and over 100 days after a hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Isles Americans in those territories are still without electricity or potable water supplies.  Our government has abandoned it's duty to its citizens in favor of greed and hate.  All I can say on this freezing cold last day of 2017 is that 2018 must be the year we reclaim our nation and it's promise for all of its citizens.  

Simple Pussy Hat for non-knitters

Knit or crocheted pink hats are the most visual form of connectedness and protest at the upcoming March for Women in Washington DC, and across the country.
Time is getting short and request for hats has absolutely exploded in the last few days.  Need exceeds the speediest of knitters.

Here is a simple solution made out of polar fleece, or any knit fabric with some stretch.
Pink is the suggested color, but not one particular shade.  I've made knit hats ranging from bubblegum pink to a deep purple.



For non knitters,  the hats are a simple rectangle.
Take a piece of pink fleece that is 10.5"×16"
(The diagram says 9", but that was too snug when I made one,  your best bet is to measure your head and add one inch to allow for seaming)

Fold it in half right sides together  and seam up the sides
The fold is the top of the hat.
Roll up 1" at the open end and stitch it in place
This is the brim.
Turn it right side out and voila!  Pink hat!

Simple straight stitch

Up the sides

And along the hem for the brim.

Flatten the side seams as you sew the brim

And give the fabric a good stretch as you go so the stitches won't break when you pull it on.  Or sew in a zip zag stitch.

Same directions apply for machine stitching,  keep the fabric stretched as you go.  Fleece is very forgiving and doesn't unravel, so if you prefer you can simply roll the brim up.

                       Finished hat inside out

                    

Finished hat on my cooperative son