Reports of shortages of pink yarn as women knit "Pussy Hats" to protest Trump

Alessandra Kelley

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http://www.seattletimes.com/life/lifestyle/pussyhat-production-causes-run-on-pink-yarn/
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-p...tivists-cause-shortages-of-pink-yarn-20170110
http://wwmt.com/news/nation-world/c...arn-in-stock-ahead-of-washington-womens-march
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2017/01/12/minding-their-knitting.html
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...ashington-march-day-after-trump-inauguration/
https://www.yahoo.com/style/why-pin...to-find-until-inauguration-day-185433557.html

Various places around the country are reporting shortages of pink yarn as unknown numbers of women knit "Pussy Hats" in protest against the boastful "grab 'em by the pussy" comments of DJ Trump, who will be inaugurated as President of the United States next week.

The "Pussy Hats" are the unofficial headgear of the planned Women's March on Washington, a protest against Trump to be held the day after the inauguration. They are knit hats, any shade of pink, with pussycat ears.

In the week since we published a story on Pussyhats — the pink, knitted, kitten-eared hats women will be wearing to post-inauguration marches all over the country — pink yarn has been scarce around here.

“They did have some,” Melissa Purcell of Seattle reports of the Jo-Ann Fabrics store in Tukwila. “But it was slim pickings.”

At The Weaving Works store in Seattle, where people are picking up supplies to make Pussyhats and donating finished hats, and where non-knitters are picking them up, the stuff is flying out the door.

“We have sold more pink yarn than Seattle buys in four years,” said Jennifer Miller, a “yarn wrangler” at the store.

They ran out of pink yarn three times over, she said, before replenishing stock this week. One staffer took to dyeing white yarn to meet demand. (She and her husband hung it outside to dry, and it froze, making pink yarn icicles. That’s dedication.)

They look like pussycats, with two ears on top. The reference to Trump’s infamous remark is intentional, said Lisa Johnson who owns Hidden River Yarns in Manayunk [near Philadelphia].

“It kind of became a symbol, a power symbol for the women going to the march.”

With group knitting sessions taking place in the city, she said it’s been difficult, keeping pink yarn on the shelves.

“I had a great stock at the beginning of the week, but for my second time I’m starting to run out of pink yarn!”

Churchmouse Yarns and Teas in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and Purl Soho in New York tell Yahoo Style that they are close to being sold out of pink yarn. On its website, Lovely Yarns of Baltimore announces itself as a “proud partner” of the Pussy Hat Project and says it will “happily hook you up with some pink yarn” if you are in need.

Virginia Johnson is a film costume designer and the owner of Gather Here, a crafting studio in Cambridge, Mass. She tells Yahoo Style that her shop has also “officially run out of the neon pink yarn in a bulky weight.” Johnson adds: “We still have some neon pink yarn in worsted, sport, and fingering, but most people are knitting their hats with bulky yarn because it’s so much faster. We’ve reached out to our vendors to see what we can get in quickly because Pussy Hats have been a very popular project for the community.”
 

MaeZe

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:roll:

I want one. I'll be wearing my pink Planned Parenthood shirt on Sat at the Seattle march. I think I'll look for a pink hat and sew some pussy ears on it.
 

JJ Litke

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I'm on my third hat. :greenie My sister had finished seven last I talked to her. And it's true, the yarn shop by her in LA and both of the big ones here in Austin are all selling out of pink yarn. When I was at the shop close to me a week or so ago, they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get reorders in fast enough to satisfy demand. Fortunately I have some pink bulky weight in my stash that'll work if I want to make more.

Also there are marches planned in most major cities. You don't have to go all the way to DC to get involved.
 

MaeZe

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I'm on my third hat. :greenie My sister had finished seven last I talked to her. And it's true, the yarn shop by her in LA and both of the big ones here in Austin are all selling out of pink yarn. When I was at the shop close to me a week or so ago, they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get reorders in fast enough to satisfy demand. Fortunately I have some pink bulky weight in my stash that'll work if I want to make more.

Also there are marches planned in most major cities. You don't have to go all the way to DC to get involved.

The irony, Trump trumped up a claim that all the gowns were sold out in DC, but they weren't.

Donald Trump claims all the “dress shops” in Washington, D.C. are sold out for his inauguration. We found hundreds of available gowns

Pink yarn on the other hand, is sold out in lots of stores.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Roxxsmom

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I want one, but it's probably too late now (I'm no knitter anyway, and I doubt I could get my mom to churn one out in time). My husband and I plan on attending the local march, and I'll be wearing my "Nasty Woman" tee shirt.
 

MaeZe

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I want one, but it's probably too late now (I'm no knitter anyway, and I doubt I could get my mom to churn one out in time). My husband and I plan on attending the local march, and I'll be wearing my "Nasty Woman" tee shirt.

Do what I'm doing, get any bright pink hat and put cat ears on it. The ears can be as simple as little triangles. I'll be using ears from a Halloween costume.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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The news has reached the BBC. :heart:

'Pussyhat' knitters join long tradition of crafty activism

The article goes into the history of crafting circles as political activism, and notes that as well as the domestic groups, Pussyhats are being donated to US marchers from knitters in the UK, Austria, and Japan.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Introversion

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Taking the liberty of linking to the image on Filigree's blog of her awesome craft:

Pussyhat-Legionnaire-Hat-for-blog.jpg


Nicely done!!
 

Filigree

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It may be art, but it is first and foremost a hat.

I believe there is a scene in Stevermer & Wrede's 'Sorcery and Cecelia' where a young sorceress thwarts a bomb attack by turning the bomb into a hat. A very red and gold little explosion of a hat. Quizzed about the longevity of her spell, the sorceress says 'It's a hat as long as I say it's a hat.' I could be misremembering.

But this is related to that hat, in inspiration.