Red Hats Protest 2026

Update: Here's a sample letter you can send to your state Senator!

There's a quiet but powerful movement afoot in the knitting community. It started at Needle & Skein, a full-service yarn store in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. Wanting to do something to protest the presence of ICE in his state, Paul Neary decided to look back in time for inspiration, and he found it in 1940s Norway. As Neary explains in his "Melt The Ice Hat" pattern,

"In the 1940s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against the Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal and punishable by law to wear, make or distribute. As purveyors of traditional craft, we felt it appropriate to revisit this design."

Paul Neary, "Melt the Ice Hat," available on Ravelry and through Needle & Skein (needleandskein.com)

"We felt it appropriate to revisit this design." We love the understatement. All proceeds from the sale of the pattern ($5) go to Minnesota Immigration Aid organizations. Over $650,000 has been raised, and the pattern has been sold in 43 countries. The movement might have started in a quiet corner of a Minnesota yarn store, but it's big now, and it's growing. This is what happens when you have a lot of people ready to take a stand and put their pointed sticks to work.

In fact, the red cap's association with liberty has a much longer history, going back to Ancient Greece where former Phrygian slaves wore red pointed caps to signify their emancipation. Romans picked up the association and bestowed red caps on freed slaves as part of their manumission ceremony. In the American Revolution, Paul Revere carved a liberty cap on a stone obelisk in the Boston Common, and local towns often placed a red liberty cap on a pole or tree to signify their allegiance to the resistance. The tradition was continued during the French Revolution with Lady Liberty sporting a red cap and her followers donning the famous "bonnet rouge." Early draft designs of the Statue of Liberty even showed her with a red cap instead of a crown. Perhaps most surprising is the Seal of the U.S. Senate--take a close look, and oh, what's that you see? Could it be a little red liberty cap at the top? The irony.

Here are a few patterns for your protest knitting: The Melt the Ice hat has as this writing, raised over $650,000 for immigration aid in Minnesota. Bootie met the designer for the Ice Out Love In hat in a yarn shop in Seattle. The Portland Frog Hat was designed by our beloved friend Michele Lee Bernstein of PDXKnitterati that we interviewed in Episode 47. Briana Arlene has a wonderful Cowl pattern called Cats Not Kings.Letter to your Senator