Ten Knitting Patterns for Crafty Feminists

by Annika Barranti Klein · March 24, 2016

This post sponsored by a generous and devoted Toastie.

I love knitting, and I think it can even be a pretty feminist thing to do, taking the domestic work of our foremothers and turning it on its head — doing the work because we want to. What was once a necessary skill to keep our families warm is now, for many, just a hobby. I found myself wondering what sort of feminist knitting patterns are available, and as it turns out there are a LOT. Try some of these if you, like me, love the idea of wearing your feminism on your sleeve (or your head, or your feet).

knitting1

No is a complete sentence pattern, by Feminist Knits

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.

knitting2

Feminist Killjoy hat pattern, by Glitz Knits Boutique

One of two “Feminist Killjoy” items on my list! This one is in fun colors and features a giant pom-pom. Love it.

knitting3

Feminist Killjoy Mitts pattern, by Jen Walker and Cheryl Koester

These “Feminist Killjoy” mitts are rather more subdued than the hat, but no less fun.

misandryhat

Misandry Hat pattern, by Glitz Knits Boutique

Laugh at men who accuse you of misandry. Point at your hat with pride.

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Womb pattern, by MK Carroll

I knitted one of these for my midwife after my son was born, but all uterus-havers and uterus lovers could have their very own.

mitts

FeminInos Mitts, by Hedvig Egero

Two great pairs of mitts with a similar motif. I love the simplicity of this one, as well as the clever ties.

mitts2

Gudrun, by Maria Larkang

More mitts! I love how full of color and pattern these are.

knitting5

Feminist Torus, by Hugh Griffiths

A good alternative to the uterus pattern if you want to make something fun but not to wear!

catical

Catical Feminism Hat, by Glitz Knits Boutique

Feminists + Cats = basically everyone I know or care to know. And I love the detail work on the top!

jabot

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Jabot, by Donna Druchas and Ava Coleman

Need. I. Say. More.

Annika Barranti Klein is a feminist and a knitter. She also referees women’s banked track roller derby, and is a writer and photographer.


94 Comments

  1. suzynjackson +87

    YYYYYAAAAAAYYYYY. I first heard about The Toast on Ravelry, so I feel like something has come full circle.

    1. Nashirakins +14

      Youtube videos are great! That’s how I learned – I chose continental style since I already knew how to tension yarn in my left hand, due to crocheting as a kid. A lot are filmed over-the-shoulder so it’s like watching your own hands.

    2. arlette +27

      If you’re more of a book learner than a video learner (like me!), Debbie Stoller’s “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch” is fantastic and will teach you everything you need to know.

      2. Either_Ada +9

        ME. TOO. The explanations are very clear and the pictures and diagrams are actually helpful.

      3. hapsatou +6

        Fourthing this book recommendation and searching YouTube videos that fit your learning style

      5. blushingflower +6

        Yep. Learned to crochet from her crochet book (The Happy Hooker), and to knit from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch.

        I also like the Klutz craft books. They won’t teach you how to read a pattern, but they have really clear instructions and diagrams.

    3. m98widow +11

      Highly recommend the book Stitch and Bitch – the cartoon representations of the way stitches should look really helped me out!

    4. Emily +7

      I also learned from Stitch and Bitch, with some YouTube videos for techniques I really couldn’t figure out.

    5. Xolandra +21

      I actually went to a physical building and signed up for a class, but youtube is super helpful for everything after i had gotten basic knit purl down.

      Note – i am TEREIBLE at spatial things, so having a teacher who could look at what my hands were doing and be like “no not that this” was très important.

      1. aquamarinaveen +46

        description: “A knitting/crochet group for readers of the-toast dot net, where we share projects, show off, and write fanfic about Mallory acknowledging the difference between weaving and knitting.”

    7. Rillquiet +9

      All these other suggestions are on point, and I’ll add that rec centers often include regular classes. If you’ve got a local yarn store (as opposed to a Michael’s or Hateful Lobby), the staff there can for sure help you master tricky stitches or fix problems, even if the store doesn’t host classes (and most do).

    8. mosylu +14

      Get yarn. Stab with needles. Repeat 15978376 times. And now you have a cunning hat/shawl/sweater/Cthulu stuffie!

      Wait, is that not the way anybody else does it?

      ETA: if you want to get involved with an RL knitting group, Rav does let you search by geographical location for people or groups. My personal knitting group is a bunch of foul-mouthed, dirty-minded, smart-ass, nerdy, no-shits-giving women from the Lazy Stupid and Godless group. Some of my very best friends in the world.

    9. hawthorn_tree +5

      If you have a local yarn store that offers classes, those can be pretty great!

    11. jmstevenson76 +20

      How I learned to knit: I profiled my nearest hipster-ish co-worker and said, “you look like someone who knows how to knit.”

      I was right. She brought in needles and yarn and got me started. YouTube is great, but I did need someone present to walk me through what my hands were doing wrong. She spent about 45 minutes with me over two days and that’s all I needed.

    1. Alluvial_Fan +5

      Make one for me too, please!

      (This might be the project that gets me to pick up needles again.)

    3. theburnersmydestination +19

      I showed it to my friend and they were like “what would you wear it with?” Everything, friend, everything. Pajamas, ball gowns, work uniforms, bathrobe, jeans and a t-shirt. Everything.

  6. leslieellenjones +58

    I am now mourning that fact that I live in a climate that rarely requires the wearing of hats or mittens. Though the idea of adapting the color patterns to create, say, a sweater that just says “no. no. no.” ad infinitum is rather attractive. You can get a lot of “noes” across a 45″ bust.

  7. mariahnotmaria +11

    Ugh all I know how to do is make scarves! I want these hats to wear to work.

        1. aquamarinaveen +7

          of course! it can be difficult to tell which yarn to get online because patterns will tell you what yarn weight to use, but yarn manufacturers don’t always name their yarns in the most useful way. also, going to yarn shops is like putting on a big cozy sweater except for your whole self.

    4. sednarea51 +6

      My first project after a scarf was a hat! They’re pretty easy, especially if you work them on a circular needle. Good intro to decreasing and (eventually) knitting in the round, since you have to finish it off on double-pointed needles at the end. I think working a multicolor pattern like the ones above would be a little trickier, but no reason you can’t get there!

  8. RudyRed +94

    I made the Gudrun mittens! 😀

    I wear them all the time, basically. Weather permitting.

  9. jenavira +26

    Definitely taking the Feminist Killjoy mitts as my project to work on at the feminist science fiction con in May.

    1. ParadoxBox +7

      May I ask where this amazing sounding feminist sci fi event is taking place? because that sounds like someplace I’d like to be.

  11. grumblyqueer +40

    Idk, I always feel awkward when White feminists (myself included) bandy about the fist-plus-Venus-sign thing as though that fist isn’t much more commonly a Black Power sign.

    1. Xolandra +14

      o noes! I thought it was a way to signal that my feminism was deliberately intersectional. *quickly revises personal lexicon*

      1. grumblyqueer +13

        I’m p sure that the cardinal rule of intersectionality is making sure you aren’t co-opting things from other movements.

        1. Xolandra +11

          yepyep, 110% (and i have never, personally, used this symbol). But whenever i saw it it sparked an immediate “aaaaaaaah, these ppl get intersectionality”. It had never occurred to me that someone would use it without doing that work. But of course they do.

          Of course they do.

    2. unleavings +17

      Since a friend pointed it out, I can never see it as anything other than international-symbol-for-fisting, myself. I giggle like a 12-year-old, every time.

    3. noirbettie +7

      This is worrisome to me. I may be going on bad information about the history of the symbol, which I thought was used by black radical feminists. If indeed the black power symbol was co-opted by white feminists, that’s super uncool.

      1. shellygrrl +9

        The black power symbol was incorporated into the Venus sign by black feminists. We (white people) have no business using either-or. And yes, white feminists have appropriated it.

        1. neuromanticism +3

          Do you have any sources for that? The fist is used in the Black Power movement in the US, but may carry other associations in other countries. Over here in Europe, it’s a well-known anarchist symbol (i.e. it’s not tied to racial equality or even general progressiveness/leftism, it specifically means anarchism), with no association to Black Power. It was incorporated into the Venus sign by anarcha-feminists.

          Maybe the symbols developed independently from each other? Raising a fist is pretty intuitive, and combining it with a Venus symbol must be a pretty obvious step for Black feminists and anarcha-feminists respectively.

  12. Es_Petal +56

    I cannot knit (my grandmother spent a long time trying to teach me) but I do have a friend who made me this delight.

  14. drladybusiness +14

    1) Here is where I brag that I made my bestie Jess Zimmerman a really stellar misandry hat a couple years ago.

    2) Crafty Toasties! Knitting is my main thing, but lately I’ve been interested in cross-stitch again. Where do you find cool patterns (besides Subversive Cross Stitch)?

    1. sednarea51 +8

      I enjoy Steotch for my sassy cross-stitching patterns! I bought “Return to Shady Thicket” from them a while back. One of these days I /will/ make it and hang it above my bed.

      Colonel Angus <a href=”https://www.etsy.com/listing/158415850/return-to-shady-thicket-instant-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_5″ target=”_blank”>https://www.etsy.com/listing/158415850/return-to-shady-thicket-instant-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_5

      1. aquamarinaveen +2

        i suppose it’s not specifically cross-stitching so much as general embroidery, but still

    5. jenavira +6

      There are a ton of cool patterns on Etsy, and generally much more to my taste than the ones out of the cross stitch magazines (although I do keep an eye on those – check in your local library, make color copies of the one or two patterns a year you like, save yourself from ending up with boxes of magazines you don’t particularly want, learn from my mistakes)

    7. contrarianbear +2

      I’ve started making my own! it’s really easy to do in excel, expecially if you mainly want to do text ones, and lots of stitch dictionaries are available online.

  15. hlmorris85 +11

    I am TERRIBLE at knitting and like most things I don’t get right away I quit in a huff like a four year old, but these might inspire me to try again.

    1. dancingcorvid +6

      I failed to learn knitting basically every two years for a couple decades, until I wanted to knit socks and then it was AMAZING what levels of concentration I brought to the project. Find what you most want to knit, and then be patient with failure, and (this was my secret weapon for, like, a year) try to knit as slowly as possible. I am not sure why that last one, but it seemed to increase the difference between “I hate being bad at this” and “I hate this” substantially.

      1. hlmorris85 +1

        good way to approach it. My big problem I think has been trying to go to fast and losing count so I need to really *focus* on it and give it more attention.

  16. perianwen +2

    …who in my life can I persuade to make me one of these…*peruses list of friends*

  18. jennycieplak +5

    I will pay Good American Dollars to anyone who will knit me some of those Gudrun ones. I am serious. Let me know. I love mittens.

    1. jennycieplak +5

      Also, to avoid the co-opting noted above, I will happily purchase some with just the “lady” symbol…

  19. algebraic +8

    Oh man, this is timely. I just unearthed from my closet an “inspired by Le Tigre” sweater I knit about 10 years ago that says “feminist” on it. Back when I had time to make up my own patterns and knit them. This is great!

  20. Ivans_Sister +3

    http://allthingscomedy.com/contents/10249/18-tdf-…

    I am not crafty at all, but I just listened to Jackie Kashian’s latest episode of The Dork Forest. On it she invites guests to dork out about whatever they want. Comedian Cathy Ladman came on to dork about knitting, so I’m sure there is some overlap of interest here.

    1. Thujaplicata +3

      If you do that, please post about it in the Ravelry Toast group, I’d love to do that but my pattern modification skills are fairly low.

  23. shiwai +6

    My super crafty sister knit me the misandry hat in bright pink and teal! I can categorically say it is the greatest hat.

    2. Chantelle +3

      Jeez, I went to her tumblr and it’s totally blatant and horrible – makes me so sad

  25. extrayarn +4

    My internet worlds have collided! I have a strong feeling that many of you, if you are knitters and on Rav, may enjoy hanging out in LSG if you aren’t there already. Look us up, we’d love to have you.

    1. mosylu +1

      Yes! All the toasties on LSG, may it be done. (BTW, my name over there is the same because no imagination apparently.)

      1. extrayarn +2

        Yes, hi, I know you! I have a different handle here because my whole life is over there and I try to be somewhat less trackable, even though I know “internet privacy” is an oxymoron. (and see, now everyone knows where to find me!) But I’ll PM you.

    2. annabel +1

      I am on rav, I am toast, what is LSG? Please point me to this most specialest of places.