When ICE raids intensified across Minnesota, a yarn shop owner saw an opening: turn anxiety into action, one stitch at a time.
Needle & Skein, a Minneapolis shop, released a crochet pattern for red hats inspired by resistance efforts in 1940s Nazi Germany. The pattern costs $5 to download, with all proceeds going to STEP St. Louis Park emergency assistance and the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund—organizations supporting people affected by immigration enforcement.
What started as a local response became a national movement. The r/crochet subreddit, home to over 1 million members, documented the impact in real time: Minneapolis yarn shops ran out of red yarn. Shops across the country followed suit, some donating their own sales to Minnesota organizations.
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The numbers tell the story. In just weeks, Needle & Skein reported raising over $400,000—far beyond what anyone anticipated. But the fundraiser's real power wasn't just the money. It was what Gilah Mashaal, the shop's owner, articulated to The New York Times: "I think this gave people a purpose and a way to channel — honestly — their rage and anxiety into something that they could actually create."
That matters. When you're watching news coverage of enforcement actions, it's easy to feel helpless. You can't change policy from your living room. But you can pick up a hook, follow a pattern, and know that the finished hat funds legal aid for someone who needs it. Yarn shops hosted virtual and in-person stitch-alongs so people could make the hats together—turning individual action into shared resistance.
The fundraiser reflects something deeper about how communities respond to crisis. They don't wait for permission or a formal campaign. They use what they have—in this case, yarn and skill—and they organize around it. A subreddit of crocheters became a distribution network. A single pattern became a symbol.
As immigration enforcement continues, the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund and STEP St. Louis Park now have resources to provide emergency assistance to vulnerable families. The hats themselves have become tangible reminders that resistance doesn't always look like a march. Sometimes it looks like someone sitting at home with red yarn, creating something with their hands.
