Day 35 - Annie Luk

Dear knitters and crafters everywhere, 

A lot of people look at our knitting and our crafting and say, “oh, that’s so cute and quaint.” We make beautiful things that are also functional and useful in real life. How many babies have been kept warmed and cozy with our blankets? How many necks have we protected from the cold with our scarves? Countless. The act of making something by hand, especially in the age of where things could be purchased in seconds on our phones that only cost pennies, seems so anachronistic sometimes. Out of this is the loss of amazing skills and techniques as well as ways for people to connect with each other. 

But knitting has a heritage of resistance and making itself known in times of struggles. Yarn bombing was started in the early 2000s as a way to make political statements, from protecting trees to raising awareness on social issues. So when ICE agents descended on Minnesota in late 2025 and into early 2026, Needle and Skein—a yarn store in the Minneapolis area—created a pattern for a red hat for knitters to make. The pattern pays homage to a hat that Norwegians wore during the Nazi occupation as a way to support the resistance. It became so associated with the resistance that the hat was banned, and it remains one of the important anti-war and anti-Nazi symbols in Norway. 

We know that as much as symbols are important, symbols alone don’t change the world and don’t offer concrete and material support to those who are oppressed. Needle and Skein also uses the sale of the pattern (at US$5 each) to raise funds for those affected by the ICE raids. As of February 2026, they have raised and distributed nearly US$700,000 from more than 50 countries around the world. This shows what knitters can do and what knitters do do when things get tough … We pull out our needles and yarns and WE KNIT!!

For those who look at knitting and all the other forms of crafting as something from the good old days, we say: think again. For those who underestimate the power of people with needles and fuzzy yarn, really think again … hard. 

​Annie Luk
Toronto, Ontario​