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Edited 1/31/11: Updated details on this project can be found on the sidebar to the right side of the TwinSet blog.  Right HERE.

Dear Jan,

Alison and  I have been discussing the Tucson shootings, both feeling the need to respond somehow, in a way more concrete than an email from a website or even a phone call to a Congressional office.  We want our representatives to handle conflict in a way that makes it a good thing - a thing that brings us to the right place, not a thing that divides us and harms us.

Hence was born what I am calling Making Headlines Warm Hats Not Hot Heads (name change to more clearly communicate our goal).  I am going to start knitting hats, nice hats, hats that will be noticed when I send them to congressional offices with a plea to consider that one’s opponent on a political issue is still united on the issue of being human - caring about one’s family, one’s community, one’s country.

Here is what I’d like to do.

I invite any and all knitters who would like to join in to knit a hat (sizing information here) for their own congressional representative, whether Senate or House.  Please email me, perhaps send a photo or link to a Ravelry project, and let me know to whom a hat has been sent.  I can track who is being covered (literally!) and if anyone wants to knit more than one hat, they can send them to me and I’ll handle mailing them to a rep who hasn’t received one yet.

I will write a standard note to go with it, to which any knitter could add her own personal message.  I’m also thinking how cool it would be to design a hat for it, but I am also telling myself to keep it manageable.  W suggested that the hats be purple, a blending of red and blue, but I told him I want them to be worn!  That said, I believe purple would be a fine color if that is a color the particular knitter loves.

As Alison points out, this should be a hat you would be proud to wear.  Alison put it really well:

“I would plead that the hats be of a material you’d want to wear yourself. I want each recipient to feel they are being treated with the great respect we all mutually deserve.  For whatever it’s worth, I can vouch for the fact that the Plymouth King George (how’s that for an ironic name!) baby alpaca/merino/cashmere blend on sale through Tuesday for four bucks a ball (for the moment, at least) will make an absolutely soft, warm cabled hat using two balls; I just knitted one. Three balls should I think get you two plain beanies.  All in a day’s work.

I’m not trying to shill for DBNY, I’m just trying to convey the idea that it doesn’t have to be a lot of money for it to be something nice if you don’t have something ready in your stash. Support your local yarn store, too. However it works for you.”

We want each individual to be glad they got one–and wouldn’t it be cool to have Congresspeople swapping around with each other to get just what they want? Let the cheerful negotiating begin!”

I’ll gather my thoughts and finalize the details in the next few days.  In the meantime, please jump in and start knitting if this interests you!  And if you have a blog and the inclination to direct folks this way, I’d be much obliged.

Peace,

Ellen