This hat was designed by a yarn shop in Minneapolis to raise money for mutual aid organizations in the wake of the federal government’s tragic intervention into the lives of the people of that city. According to the Guardian, the pattern has already raised over $250,000 in two weeks. (See “‘Rage knitting’ against the machine: the hobbyists putting anti-ICE messages into crafts” by Julia Carrie Wong (29 Jan 2026))

The designer notes say it is inspired by pointy red, tasseled hats worn by Norwegians as a symbol of defiance against the Nazi occupation. Bonnets rouges, red Phrygian caps, have been associated with liberation and anti-government movements for centuries if not millennia.

If any of the strikes or resistance movements in MN are going to last long enough to be effective, then emergency grocery aid, rent relief, and motivation will be essential. For that reason, even if you’re not particularly interested in wearing or knitting red hats, please consider making a donation to any of the organizations listed at https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

For my hat I didn’t have any red worsted on hand. This Bella Cash says sport on the label, but it is pretty thin (460yds/100g) so I followed the fingering pattern. I did a long-tail tubular cast on of 132 stitches with 3.5mm 16” circulars. 1x1 for 6” then followed the pattern decreases. A few notes:

• The yarn is S-plied which gives the ribbing a slight spiral bias I don’t mind
• But there are big ladders before my SSK decreases. Hopefully blocking will fix a bit. That’s always a small problem for me, but in this yarn it seems much worse. I should work on a technique to minimize that for next time (I think tugging the second stitch of the SSK to make sure it takes up some slack yarn might be the thing).