A call went out from the March for Our Lives, scheduled for March 24 in Washington, D.C., for gloves with “eyes” — but no fingers — and Santa Barbara is responding. A group of knitters is meeting at the downtown Peet’s Coffee on Monday, March 12 and 19, to produce the gloves, sew on the “evil eye,” and then ship them cross-country to Washington — to let lawmakers know they are being watched on gun control. They’ll then take up their needles for the rally and march in Santa Barbara.
Knitwear as protest symbol was an idea Krista Suh of Los Angeles first imagined not long after the 2016 presidential election as the Pussy Hat and a sea of pink. But even before that, she’d seen hands stretched to the sky with a huge eye drawn on each palm. After the Florida high-school shooting, she knew it was time for the Sea of Eyes, she wrote at her website.
The Santa Barbara group has been meeting to knit on Mondays to create pink hats and other knitted items for political marches, custom requests, and also for breast cancer patients, said Joan Vignocchi. Their wares have been sold at the Planned Parenthood booths at various rallies and marches. The knitters will also teach anyone how to knit or sew (bring your own needle) at the coming Monday sessions, which will be held between 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., 1131 State Street.
They’ll be at the Santa Barbara march scheduled for March 24, too, Vignocchi said. Organized by Rachel Ng of UCSB and Cristian Walk at SBCC, the march leaves De la Guerra Plaza at noon, with information booths set up and a rally planned, beginning at 10 a.m. Donations are being accepted to help cover costs, and rally T-shirts can be ordered through March 15, both at sbcallsbs.org.
