Dear Friends,
I just had to share an inspiring story about a little knitting shop with the biggest of hearts. Located in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, Needle and Skein is the outfit that is offering the Melt The ICE hat pattern that you may have read about. Gilah Mashaal the owner of the shop who is herself a daughter of Jewish immigrant parents, lives in the state of Minnesota where nearly 1/3 of its residents are of Nordic heritage and about 13 percent are of Norwegian descent.
During the Nazi occupation of Norway in WWII, Norwegians made red tassled pointed hats resembling gnome hats called ”nisselue” or “toppluer,” which roughly translated means “pixie hat” and are associated with Santa and Christmastime. The Norwegian resistance hats were meant to be non-violent and not threatening. The main purpose was to keep up morale and hope during a very dark period.
The movement was powerful and by 1942, the Nazis had banned the hats.
“Warning. Red caps. The wearing of red caps has lately become so prevalent that they are now considered a type of protest. Wearing of these caps is forbidden beginning on Thursday, 26 February, 1942. From that day forward, the caps will be confiscated from whoever is wearing one…” This was a public announcement from the police in Trondhjem.
Photo from Norway’s Resistance Museum in Oslo. For non-kniitters, the resistance hats are both pointed and rounded shaped so I think any red knit hat would be suitable to wear to Melt the ICE.
Then, as now, knitters are uniting against fascism. Gilah, Paul Neary, a designer that works at Needle and Skein, and the shop’s knitting family were feeling devastated by the deadly dangerous militia of federal agents that have invaded their city. Paul is a history buff and after researching the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s, he created the Melt the ICE hat.
The hat pattern went up on Ravelry, which is a massive fiber arts platform that connects with a global creative community. The cost of the pattern is $5 and all proceeds are going to immigrant aid agencies who will distribute the funds to those impacted by the actions of ICE. To date, a phenomenal $650,000 has beens raised, or approximately 130,000 pattern downloads. The downloads are from people all around the world. By comparison, a typical Ravlery pattern will be downloaded about 100 times.
With my first Melt the Ice hat, I combined Paul Neary’s pattern with the free Ravelry pattern and added some additional touches. The yarn is Malibrigo Worsted, an Aran weight #4, color Vermillion. One mini hat was made for Charlotte’s dolls and another to attach to my whistle. The minis are very fast and I just scaled down the adult hat.
Link to Paul Neary Melt the ICE hat at Ravelry
Link to the free Melt the ICE hat pattern, also at Ravelry
The color red as a symbol for fighting injustice is not new. In modern times, American and European women have worn red as a sign of female power. “Suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman loved red lipstick for its ability to shock men, and protesters donned the bold color en masse, adopting it as a sign of rebellion and liberation.” As supporters of the suffrage movement marched through the streets of NYCity and passed the salon of Elizabeth Arden, she would hand out tubes to the protesters. Arden was a supporter of women’s rights and an early 20th century cosmetics entrepreneur and “influencer.”
Hitler despised red lipstick and red nail polish. He thought the ideal German woman should be subjugated to first her father, and then husband, and scrubbed free of make-up of any sort. Also, be on the chunky side so as better for childbearing and wear traditional alpine dirndl skirts; a living embodiment of Aryan purity. In response, Allied women began wearing red lipstick and nail polish as a sign of patriotism and a statement against fascism.
Rosie the Riveter sporting red lipstick
Cosmetic companies such as Helena Rubenstein introduced a red lipstick named Regimental Red while Elizabeth Arden released Victory Red. In 1943, Elizabeth Arden created a makeup kit for the American Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. The kit contained a new shade of red lipstick, Montezuma Red, which was designed to match the Women Marines’ scarlet red hat cord, scarf, and chevron.
A matching rouge and nail polish was included in the kit. Speed and efficiency in the application of makeup were expected. Each was issued their first makeup kit in boot camp along with instructions on applying the makeup. Two minutes tops was the allocated time for applying make-up.
Knowing we were in for an exhausting four years, last January I got out my red lipstick. I had stopped wearing it regularly, thinking more about neutrals. Possibly softer shades are a better look but I don’t really care. I have loved wearing it again this past year and I think red lipstick looks great with Melt The ICE hats <3
Just as did Elizabeth Arden, perhaps a 21st century cosmetic entrepreneur will have the courage to introduce a new shade of red in defiance of the current administration. Suggestions on what to call the color include Rock That Red, ICEOut, Molten Lava – or what do you suggest to name that new red?
