Just a quick note on something I’ve seen over and over. A lot of people, both conservative and liberal, seem to be confused over the intention behind the Pussyhat Project. The most recent example is a yarn store owner in Tennessee who said she thinks dressing up like a vulva is gross. But I think this misconception also fuels some of the criticism of the Women’s March as non-inclusive to trans women.
I have nothing to do with the Pussyhat Project officially. I did knit a group of hats for the March. But I’ve been a knitter for about 15 years and I hang out in knitter communities a lot. So I think I can surmise how the pussyhat thing came about.
First, you have to understand that knitters’ first instinct to pretty much any major news is “I want to knit something for that.” You’re having a baby? Knit baby clothes or a blanket. You’re getting married? Shawl or blanket. You have cancer? Chemo hats or a blanket. You are grieving? Blanket. You get the idea. Knitters also do a lot of charity knitting, whether it’s donating hats for the homeless or using knitting to raise money for various causes. I’ve known knitters to knit rainbow items in support of marriage equality and purple items when Prince died.
So I completely understand why the election of Donald Trump led knitters to ask “what can we knit in resistance?” And the announcement of the Women’s March was the perfect excuse. Let’s knit something for all the protesters as a sign of solidarity! Hats are the obvious choice, as they are quick to make and would be visible.
So let’s all knit hats in the same color! What color? Well pink is associated with women and femininity and it’s the obvious choice. At this point I’ll assume someone protested and talked about how much they hate pink. This may have turned into a protracted debate, but anyway, pink was settled on.
So what KIND of hat are we going to knit? A plain beanie would be the obvious choice. The downside there is that it’s kind of boring AND requires slightly more than basic knitting skills. A beanie uses a series of decreases to achieve the rounded look and it also has to be knit in the round. It wouldn’t really be an ideal first knitting project.
So the absolute most basic way to make a hat is to make an envelope hat. It’s a rectangle of knitted fabric folded in half and sewn down the sides. All you have to know to make it is the basic knit stitch (and the purl stitch if you want ribbing to make it fit better.)
And at this point is where I imagine someone said “hey, these hats when you wear them make it look like you have cat ears, and that’s cute!” And somebody said, with the dirty mind that is entirely common to knitters IME, “like a PUSSY….a PUSSYCAT! How perfect is that? We can call them PUSSYHATS! And it will be a protest of Trump’s treatment of women!”
So, just to be clear, pussyhats are rectangles folded in half. They were never meant to represent genitalia in any way. There are even versions of the pattern that use more complicated techniques to make the ears more “ear-like.” So, I hope this clears things up.