Pal/Gal/Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is coming up on February 14th, and although it’s a perfectly fine holiday, and we totally dig the chocolate, Red Hots, and candy hearts, we also love the idea of celebrating friendship. We’ve had Galentine’s/Palentine’s Day celebrations at the studio, and being in a room with so many wonderful groups of friends has been a real bucket-filler on those days. We even have a full palette of colors celebrating the Palentine’s / Galentine’s / Valentine’s Day holiday cluster.

Why Galentine’s Day? It’s no surprise to anyone who knows us that the Knitted Wit team are big fans of the television show Parks and Recreation. Leslie Knope is our secret best friend, and we are all huge fans of the whole Parks and Rec team and the ridiculous situations they continually get themselves into. Years ago, we started celebrating Galentine’s Day just like Leslie, with a small group of crafty friends, and our observation of the holiday grew from there. 

3rd Grade Valentine

Galentine’s Day is observed on February 13th, the day before Valentine’s Day, and it’s a day to celebrate your friends. As originally conceived on Parks and Rec, it’s a day to celebrate your female friendships. We’ll let Leslie tell us, as she says it best:

“Every February 13, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”

So then why Palentine’s Day? We are all about celebrating our friends, but there aren’t only ladies that benefit from a celebration of friendship. In our quest to be less gender-binary-esque and use more inclusive language, we started celebrating Palentine’s Day, and it just plain makes the most sense. We think Leslie herself would agree that opening the circle to include MORE friends on a day custom-made to celebrate non-romantic love is the best ever idea. 

Palentine’s Day

Whatever of the days you celebrate, we hope love and respect (and chocolate and yarn) are at the top of your ‘entine’s Day celebrations!

True Colors: 14 Months

14 Months was the length of time Lili Elbe (1882-1931) lived as her true self. Born in a body assigned male, it wasn’t until she was in her 30s that, due to a twist of fate (she was asked by her painter wife to step in as a female model due to a no-show), she realized she was a woman. Supported by her wife, she began to present as a woman more and more, and found that she wanted to transition medically as well. After a few terrible encounters with terrible medical professionals, she found a clinic in Berlin run by a doctor that supported his patients making physical transitions. She underwent 3 surgeries in 1930, and enjoyed success and happiness as a result. After a year, she decided that she wanted one more surgery: she wanted a uterus. The surgery wasn’t successful, and Lili passed away after a mere 14 Months living her truest self. This colorway was originally called Godrick’s Hollow.

14 Months Yarn

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: Conducted

Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995) was born into a musical family in Amsterdam, and was a noted cellist and conductor, eventually becoming the first woman to conduct a professional orchestra in 1937. In 1940, her orchestra had to disband because of World War II, so she put her efforts towards helping Jewish people evade Nazi capture. She forged documents for those targeted by the Nazis, and helped in plans to bomb Amsterdam’s city hall to destroy original IDs. It was during the resistance efforts that she realized she was gay, and she worked with gay and lesbian artists in the resistance. Belinfante went into hiding after that, dressing as a man to evade recognition (she was so successful that she passed her own mother on multiple occasions and was not recognized), and eventually made her way to the US, first to Switzerland, and then to Southern California. She was the founding artistic director and conductor of the Orange County Philharmonic, and passed away in 1995 from cancer. Our Conducted colorway pays homage to this wonderful woman who said “I’ve always helped people, whether they’re worth it or not comes out later. They haven’t all been worth my effort, but the effort was worth it.” This colorway was originally called Duel at the Ministry.

Conducted Yarn

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: Winner Winner!

Georgina Beyer (1957-present) was always female, even though she was assigned male and was punished for living her truth. When she was 16 years old, against the wishes of her bio family, she began living that truth full time. She began acting, and enjoyed success doing so in her home of New Zealand, but began to find herself interested in politics after moving to the small conservative town of Carterton. She became mayor there, and by doing so checked off so many “the first” boxes: she was the first out Trans mayor (of any town, anywhere in the world); the first female mayor of Carterton; the first mayor of Carterton of Maori descent. She inspired lots of youth involvement in politics, and she inspired so many people in her community. In 1999, she decided to run for Parliament, and won, becoming the first out Trans member of Parliament anywhere in the world (and one of a very small number of former sex workers to gain that height of political office)! Georgina has been an influential member of Parliament in New Zealand, making great strides for the LGBQIA+ community and for the rights of sex workers. She truly epitomizes her colorway name; Georgina Beyer is a true Winner Winner!  This colorway was originally called Rita Newspaper.

Winner Winner Yarn

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: Dualing

Julie D’Aubigny (1673-1707) was BOTH an opera singer AND a sword fighter. Hence the colorway name Dualing. She had dual loves, and she loved dueling. 😉 D’Aubigny was one of the most interesting people we have ever read about, and we’re only including a taste of her many many exploits. She was bisexual, super talented, and had a knack for getting in trouble. Throughout her short life (she died in her early 30s), and among many other adventures, she: set a convent on fire to help a girlfriend escape (the girlfriend was put into said convent to get her away from D’Aubigny); fled Paris because a boyfriend killed someone in an illegal duel; and was herself was challenged to duels by 3 separate men at one single party (and she defeated them all). She often dressed as a man, and one time, when someone questioned whether she was, in fact, a woman, because she was just too good at sword fighting, she took her shirt off to prove that she had breasts. The crowd, it was said, fell silent. She was also pardoned by the King of France and performed in the Paris Opera, breaking down barriers by presenting as androgynous.

This colorway used to be called Potion in the Cave.

Dualing Yarn

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: Ten Dollars

Albert Cashier (1843-1915) needed $10 to make the trek from Ireland to America, but even that was out of his reach, so he stowed away on a ship and sneaked his way into the country. Once he arrived, he enlisted in the armed services and fought gallantly for the Union during the Civil War. He then lived a quiet life in Illinois, and folks who discovered his “secret” worked hard to protect him and keep it. It wasn’t until he was an old man that he was outed as Trans and nearly sued by the government for “defrauding the government in order to receive a pension.” His fellow soldiers rallied around him and made sure his truth was protected. Researching Cashier’s life and the way he was treated once it was known that he was Trans made my blood pressure rise a bit. A bio on him on the National Park Service website continually dead-named him, and referred to him as “she,” and someone added a headstone to his grave with his dead-name on it. At the end of his life, as his health and mind deteriorated, he was sent to a mental institution and forced to wear women’s clothes. Let’s honor Albert and his legacy with this colorway and bio, because it seems that, at the end of his life, he was not honored as he should have been. Ten Dollars, our colorway honoring Albert Cashier, used to be called Whomp Shack.

Ten Dollars Yarn

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: Warrior

Nzinga (also sometimes written as Njinga) lived in Angola from 1583-1663. She was born into the royal family of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms and served as a diplomat to the Portuguese for her brother the King. Nzinga wore men’s clothing and had both male husbands and female wives throughout her life. She became ruler of her people (and was referred to as King) after her brother died (or was maybe killed by Nzinga – no one knows). Nzinga lived during a tumultuous time, when the Portuguese were invading Africa and kidnapping people to be enslaved. Nzinga is a complicated historical figure, as she negotiated and fought for her people’s safety (famously using one of her people as a chair so as not to be forced to sit on the floor during negotiations), but also allowed many to be sold into slavery. She is honored now as the Mother of Angola, and paved the way for many female heads of state. The colorway honoring Nzinga, called Warrior, used to be called Chocolate Frog.

Warrior

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

True Colors: High Five

Glenn Burke (1952-1995, USA) co-invented the High Five, and that was not even the most interesting thing about him! (I mean, it’s suuuuper interesting, because we can’t imagine a world without the high five, but…) In the 1970s, Glenn fulfilled his dream of becoming a Major League baseball player, and joined the LA Dodgers. He had to close himself firmly in the closet, because the 1970s were not a time in which it was safe to be out as gay, plus his manager, Tommy Lasorda, was super heterosexist (even though his gay son hung out with Glenn in the notoriously LGBTQIA+ Castro district). He never officially came out during his time as a baseball player, but the general manager of his team told him he needed to marry a woman or lose his career (and even offered him $75,000 to do so!). He refused, was traded away, and eventually forced into early retirement. Our High Five colorway is in homage to Glenn Burke, who stuck by his truth even though it cost him the game he loved. This colorway used to be called Knight Moves.

High Five

You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.

HerStory December 2020: Finding Hope

2020 has been… something else. There have been so many challenges this year, and at times, it has felt hopeless. Capping off this difficult year, election season here in the US has been very intense. 

BUT we are choosing hope. We are Finding Hope (which is, coincidentally, our colorway name this month). Because, even though this year has been TOUGH and ROUGH, there has been a lot to inspire us too. And for our final HerStory of 2020, we are using the hope we’ve gotten from the 2020 US elections to fuel our hope for the new year. So, we are sharing a snippet about some of the inspiring women who have busted out glass ceilings and forged new paths this year. These women are all firsts, but they are definitely not lasts. 

Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President. The first Black Vice President. The first South Asian Vice President. AND the first female, Black, Indian Vice President.

Cori Bush, first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.

Sarah McBride, the first openly trans state senator in U.S. history after winning her election in Delaware.

Marilyn Strickland, the first Korean American woman ever elected to Congress, and the first Black person to represent Washington State at the federal level.

Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, the first Black, openly lesbian woman to become an elected lawmaker in Puerto Rico.

Deb Haaland, Teresa Leger Fernandez, & Yvette Herrell, whose elections made New Mexico the first state in U.S. history to elect only women of color as members of Congress.

Stephanie Byers, the first openly trans person of color ever elected to a state legislature in the U.S. AND the first openly trans person elected to the Kansas state legislature.

Jenifer Rajkumar & Zohran Mamdani, the first two South Asians voted in to the lower house of the New York state legislature.

Taylor Small, the first openly trans person elected to the Vermont state legislature.

Michele Rayner, the first Black, openly LGBTQ woman elected to the Florida state legislature District 70.

Thanks for joining us as we spent this year celebrating women who were first. Please take some time to learn more about these absolute legends. We hope the whole year, and especially these women we’re showcasing today, have you Finding Hope.