Welcome back to my blog. It’s a new year and we have a new
government in the USA as of today. It was a sad day for me to watch as the most
respected (and respectful) president in recent times flew off to his new life
as a private citizen. I’m not saying he was the most popular, but it is
generally agreed that he and his classy wife imbued the White House with
respect and a scandal-free eight years.
I try to stay away from political commentary on this blog
about playing music in the pit of an opera house but this post will be as far
as I go in that direction.
My topic today concerns knitting in the pit. I mentioned it in
a previous post as one of my pastimes while sitting through long dialogues
during shows or during intermissions. I am currently in the pit playing Phantom
of the Opera and there is no time to knit during that show but I have been
using every other available moment to knit for what has become known as “The
Pussyhat Project”.
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| knitting in the pit |
I just read about the Pussyhat Project five days ago in the
newspaper and have so far knitted six hats, all in some shade of pink for women
to wear at a Women’s March tomorrow, January 21, 2017. The first two I made
were sent off to my cousin in Washington, D.C. where she and a friend will wear
them in solidarity during the march. There are also sister marches for those
who can’t make it to D.C. I have signed up to participate in the one in
Detroit, on the campus of Wayne State University, where I and a few friends
will wear my remaining pussyhats.
You may ask, “What is a pussyhat?” or “What is the Women’s
March all about?”
At this point you could just google it as both topics are
all over the internet, but I will try to explain my take on it. I first heard
about the Women’s March on Washington when it was getting organized and wished
I could attend but would be in the middle of the Phantom run so forgot about
it. The idea of a peaceful march in Washington the day after the presidential
inauguration to show solidarity among women, minorities, immigrants, LGBT and
other marginalized groups who don’t want to see their hard-fought battles for
equality taken away kindled in me a desire to do more than sit by the sidelines
and watch as others participated in what could be a landmark demonstration for
human rights.
Then on Monday I read about the Pussyhat Project (I think the play on words should be clear for anyone who watches the news without me going into graphic detail), which was
started by a couple of women who like to knit and wanted to use their craft to make
a statement at the Women’s March in D.C. They started knitting pink hats with cat-like
ears and invited other knitters to do the same and to send the hats to
Washington to show that women are united in protecting their rights. They hope
to see a sea of pink marching through the nation’s capital. As a knitter I knew
that this was a way I could be at the Washington march in spirit even though I
cannot physically attend.
Eventually a few sister marches sprung up in other cities
but when I checked the links there were none close by until about a week ago,
when I found one in Detroit that was in the morning. Great! Now I can
participate in a sister march and still make it to the two performances of
Phantom on Saturday. When I announced on Facebook that I just signed up to
participate, a couple friends contacted me to say they wanted to go, too. One is even going to make a sign and is
planning to shout slogans.
