Knitting as Craftivism: Activists Blend Art and Protest in 2025
In October 2025, Tracy Wright organized a knitting gathering outside Portland's ICE facility to protest President Trump's order deploying the National Guard to protect ICE facilities. The group, branding themselves 'Knitters Against Fascism', used calm knitting as a visual counter-narrative to claims that Portland was in crisis. Michele Lee Bernstein joined the effort and promoted a Portland Frog hat pattern, which a church group later sold to raise $550 for a local food bank.
Bernstein herself sold a hat for $100 and donated the proceeds to the North-east Emergency Food Program amid SNAP cuts. This small act of craftivism exemplifies a long tradition of political craft, a term coined by Betsy Greer in 2003. Examples include the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Johns Hopkins political scientist and 2025 MacArthur Fellow Hahrie Han emphasizes that solidarity across groups and social-relational commitments are central to building movements and sustaining activism.
Other craft activists include Shannon Downey, who turned her personal experience with gun violence into activism through gun-embroidered works. At a fundraiser for Project Fire, she raised approximately $5,000, and 2,000 followers sent her embroidery patterns. The Pussyhat is cited as a prominent symbol of activist knitting; Downey notes it signals identity and allegiance within broader activism. She also published 'Let’s Move the Needle' in 2024 to guide artists and makers toward braver actions.
The article highlights additional craft-based initiatives such as the Loose End Project, which finishes pieces for families of the deceased; Knit the Rainbow, which provides clothes for LGBTQ+ youth in NYC foster systems and shelters; the Liberty Crochet Project, which created a mural opposing the overturn of Roe v Wade; and Knitting for Olive, a Danish brand that raised $828,868 in one weekend for UNICEF Gaza relief in August. Knitting for Olive was started in 2020 by founders Caroline Larsen and Pernille after George Floyd's murder.
