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RAGE KNITTING’ AGAINST THE MACHINE  
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Julia Carrie Wong
January 29, 2026
The Guardian
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_ Makers take a stand through ‘Melt the ICE’ red knit caps and
sparkly nails – all while raising funds for those affected by
immigration raids. _

‘I’ve done more subtle political messages in the past … but it
just feels like we’re past the point of subtle,’ said one crafter
making anti-ICE art. , Guardian Design/Sarah
Gonsalves/@prettyrudethings, Gilah Mashaal

 

In the nine years that Gilah Mashaal has owned Needle & Skein, a yarn
store in the suburbs of Minneapolis
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maintain a rule that “nobody talks politics” in the shop. But amid
the weeks-long occupation of the Twin Cities by federal immigration
paramilitaries, Mashaal and one of her employees decided to turn one
of their weekly knit-alongs into a “protest stitch-along”.

They didn’t want to return to the “pussy hats
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that symbolized women’s resistance to Donald Trump in 2016, so Paul,
their employee, did some research and came back with a proposal: a red
knit hat inspired by the _topplue_ or _nisselue _(woolen caps), worn
by Norwegians during the second world war to signify their resistance
to the Nazi occupation
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“I said: ‘Well gee whiz, that’s extremely fitting for this
moment,’” said Mashaal. “Me being a Jewish small business owner,
that resonates with me on so many levels.”

Mashaal and her team quickly put together a pattern
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knit cap with a ribbed brim, pointy top and jaunty tassel. They
published the “Melt the ICE hat” pattern on Ravelry, the social
network for knitters and crocheters, and made it available for
download for $5, with proceeds going to the St Louis Park Emergency
Program [[link removed]] (Step), a group that is helping
people affected by ICE raids to pay their rent and bills.

“We thought we’d have a group of 10 people come and knit, and it
turned out to be over 100,” Mashaal said. “Then it started
spreading and it’s just been crazy.” Nearly 70,000 copies of the
pattern had been sold by Wednesday, less than two weeks after it was
first published online. It has been adapted for crochet and other
weights of yarn, and has become ubiquitous on knitting social media.
Local yarn shops across the country are offering specials on red yarn
and hosting knit-alongs of their own.

Mashaal is now planning to disburse the funds raised, which exceed
$250,000, to other immigrant aid groups in addition to Step.

“Red is the color of resistance,” Mashaal said. “Here’s our
chance to take the red back. Red doesn’t belong to Maga.”

Hand-knit red caps are just one example of the explosion of creative
expression inspired by the Trump administration’s deadly crackdown
on immigrant communities across the US. Online communities for
hobbyists, artists, crafters and collectors have seen an extraordinary
outpouring of anti-ICE messages, especially after the killings of Alex
Pretti and Renee Good. Scrolling through normally apolitical message
boards and social media feeds, it can feel as if the entire internet
is united around a single message: “Fuck ICE.”

That is the statement spelled out – one letter per nail – in
ornate silver calligraphy on a shimmery holographic base in one
popular post
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on r/RedditLaqueristas, a forum for sharing pictures of nail art.

“I’ve done more subtle political messages in the past (blue on
election night for example), but it just feels like we’re past the
point of subtle,” said the owner of the nails, a 37-year-old fintech
worker from Florida who asked not to be identified by name. “Living
in a deeply red state it always felt like subtle was safe, but I’m
pretty exhausted with safe at this point.” (The polish she used is
called “Melt ICE
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was created by the indie nail polish brand Pahlish to raise funds for
the family of Good.)

Nail artists have been particularly inspired by a viral photograph
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of a woman with hot pink extensions and a spider tattoo palming the
face of far-right influencer Jake Lang during his recent, stymied
attempt to hold a pro-ICE rally
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in Minneapolis. The image has been memorialized on a hand-painted nail
extension [[link removed]] by artist
Heather Buzzell, while others have attempted to match the color,
dubbed “resistance pink
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by the community.

 

[An embroidered circle that reads, “That’s fine dude, I’m not
mad at you. FUCKING BITCH.” There is what appears to be blood
splatter across the canvas.]
The final exchange between Renee Good and ICE officer Jonathan Ross.
Photograph: Sarah Gonsalves/@prettyrudethings

Anti-ICE fervor is spilling out in the most unlikely online spaces. On
r/americangirl, which primarily features photographs of the dolls in
particular outfits or locations, the most popular post
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over the past month is a snapshot of one of the original dolls holding
a sign that reads: “Kirsten Larson says FUCK ICE!” The exclamation
point features a little star in the style of the American Girl logo.
Even the NSFW side of the internet is getting in on the resistance;
explicit photos with anti-ICE captions soared to the top of some
X-rated subreddits over the weekend.

Handicrafts and the fiber arts have long been mainstays
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of resistance. In both the US and India, opposition to British
imperial rule was expressed through “homespun” movements; American
colonists in the late 18th century and followers of Gandhi in the 20th
produced their own cloth as an act of defiance to the British textile
industry. The tricoteuses of the French Revolution were notorious for
knitting during trials and executions; Michelle Obama’s portrait by
Amy Sherald paid subtle tribute to the African American tradition of
quilting
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an artform that preserved Black history and culture through
generations of enslavement and Jim Crow.

Anti-ICE sentiment appears to be especially strong among fiber
artists, who often joke online about “rage knitting” or “rage
quilting”, as if the process of plunging a needle into fabric can
relieve the feelings of anger and helplessness. Knitters and
crocheters have also published patterns to duplicate the blue
bunny-eared hat
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by Liam Ramos
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a five-year-old preschool student and asylum seeker detained by ICE in
Minnesota and sent to an immigrant detention center in Texas, and to
honor the inflatable frog protesters
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Fiber artist Sarah Gonsalves’s embroidery kits
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exuberant colors, but on 10 January, she posted an unusually stark
piece [[link removed]]
comprising black lettering on a plain white canvas: the final exchange
between Good and the ICE agent who shot and killed her, splattered
with flecks of red. “It looks different than my normal aesthetic
because I made it out of sadness and anger,” she said. “I
couldn’t believe how many people have said how it instantly made
them cry.”

Melissa Laranjeira, an “xennial” quilter from northern Virginia,
also used black letters on a white backdrop to channel her outrage in
a haunting quilt
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“WE KNOW WHAT WE SAW.”

“Seeing blatant acts of violence and then being told they were
something else entirely feels like an attempt to gaslight the American
people,” she said. The quilt is “a statement about refusing to
unsee what happened in plain sight”.

While piecing a quilt, painting your nails or knitting a hat might not
strike direct blows against the Trump administration, there is a
reason such traditions have endured throughout history.

The adoption of red hats as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi
occupation followed a period of brutal repression in the autumn of
1941, according to Mats Tangestuen, a historian and director of
Norway’s Resistance Museum
[[link removed]]. There’s a strong
connection because Minnesota is the US state with the largest
population of descendants of Norwegian immigrants, he added. Wearing
red knit hats was “a way to keep morale up at a time when many still
believed that Nazi Germany would win the war”, Tangestuen said.
“Such acts of resistance … sent a signal to other Norwegians who
might have been considering switching sides.”

[An exhibit of red knit hats in Norway’s Resistance Museum]
Red knit hats on exhibit at Norway’s Resistance Museum. Nazi
authorities banned the hats on 26 February 1942. Photograph: Mats
Tangestuen

The Nazis outlawed
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red knit hats in February 1942, but Norwegians continued making and
wearing them, and two samples are featured in the museum’s
collection of “the most important aspects of the Norwegian
resistance”, chosen by 25 members of the resistance, Tangestuen
said.

“It is no coincidence that two red knitted caps occupy a central
place alongside submachine guns, hand grenades and radio
transmitters.”

* anti-ICE
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