Hat on Top, Coat Below
« previous archives home notify list e-mail next »
Pussy Hat, Pussy Hat
January 20, 2017
I finally finished a knitting project. Two, actually. These are my first completed knit objects in almost two years. I’ve done some knitting in between, such as the not quite finished scarf in a basket on a shelf downstairs and part of a blanket I lost track of in the move (I don’t even remember when I started the blanket, it’s been so long; originally it was going to be a baby gift, but that baby is in preschool now, so I don’t know), but only in fits and starts with long gaps in between sessions. For these new projects, I went from yarn purchase to finished objects in less than two weeks, because there was a deadline. Tomorrow I’ll be participating in a local sister march to the Women’s March on Washington, and I decided I wanted a pussy hat to wear. I found some hot, nearly neon, pink yarn in the sale bin of a shop in town, bought all three skeins they had, and cast on that night, using the Pussy Hat for Bulky pattern by Cherylann Ganci as a starting point; I cast on more stitches than the pattern called for due to my big head, trying a new cast on for me, the alternate cable cast-on for 2×2 ribbing a la Wooly Wormhead. Then I knit and cast off (in a non-matching way to the cast-on because I was impatient to finish and didn’t want to learn a new cast off just then) and seamed rather wonkily and ended up with a pussy hat that felt like it was a bit on the large size.
I had enough yarn to do another hat, so I cast on again, this time for working in the round so I wouldn’t have the cast on doesn’t match cast off issue or the same lumpy side seams problem. I did have the “where are my circular needles” problem and the “remembering how to do in the round on two circs because I can’t find my smaller circulars” problem, but it worked out. I finished hat two today, and it seems a little on the small side. Either one is wearable, so my head will be festively attired tomorrow. I’ll bring both hats; probably wear the bigger one and try to find someone with a smaller head than mine to give the other one to.
I know there’s some disagreement about whether the pussy hats are a good thing. Some say they’re too frivolous. Some say they reduce women to a body part, one not all women have. Some are annoyed at the assumption that all women are crafty and will make hats, or know someone who will make one for them. Some are annoyed at the color pink. I have decided having a pussy hat makes me happy, and I need as much happy as I can get in this era of government by the rich and uncaring for the rich and uncaring.