The far right was so rattled by the pussy hat marches that they were trying to trace where all the hats had even come from... who could have manufactured so many and moved them around the country without leaving a trail? They were completely unprepared for a genuine mass movement of the people.

Mine and those of my friends were made by other friends with skills. Multiply that by thousands over the whole country.

So many of them treated the knitting patterns being openly circulated for download as a smokescreen. "You're telling me that hundreds of thousands of people just sat down and did this for themselves? They just made the hats themselves, like... like a person making a meme?"

these are the same people befuddled by "college students can pop down to the MegaMart, or REI if they're feeling really fancy, and buy a cheap tent, and if they all go to the same MegaMart they are likely to come back with the same cheap tent..."

I can't knit, but I cranked out about 20 in pink fleece with my sewing machine and handed them out at the Madison march. I was far from the only one handing out homemade extras there, either--the fact they were easy and cheap to make was part of the brilliance of the design.