My friends and I were racking our brains the other day trying to figure out how we’ll ever find each other at the Women’s March on Washington in a few weeks. One friend suggested matching T-shirts; another proposed pins (which was obviously never going to work, but sweet in theory) — but nothing seemed quite right. But now, I think we’ve found our answer: the pink pussy hat.
According to The Huffington Post, Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman are the founders of The Pussyhat Project, which is based in California and debuted in late November. Like so many, Suh and Zweiman were looking to do something positive and proactive in light of the election results. So, they joined forces with the owner of their local knitting shop, Kat Coyle, and together designed a pattern for a “pussy power hat” inspired by a certain comment by a certain president-elect. The hats are pink, in the shape of pussycat ears, and most importantly, super-simple to make — simple enough that knitters and sewers alike can make them for themselves, or for friends, of course.
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A major goal of theirs is accessibility. “Everyone can participate,” Zweiman told The Huffington Post. Suh added to that, “For me, a lot of the magic lies in [saying], ‘Hey women of the country, you might not think you’re politically active, but you’re already community organizing in your knitting groups and women’s groups, you just don’t call it that.” The Pussyhat Project, on the other hand, does call it that, which, according to Suh, “is where a lot of the power comes from.”
Though it’s hard to say how many pink pussy hats will be at the march exactly, there will be a lot. According to HuffPo, if the ladies had to take a gander, they think between 30,000 and 100,0000 hats have been made. Plus, they just launched a registry, where you can “register” the hat you made in order to be added to the Pussyhat Project hat anthology. I think I’ll make an amendment to my New Year’s resolutions list asap and add: learn to knit.