Awe Inspiring Notorious RBG and Dissent 2020

RBG Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Dissent

Today I’m chatting to a good friend of mine, designer Mary E. Rose. She has a pattern release tomorrow in honour of Ruth Bader Ginsberg aka RBG.

Hi Mary, can you tell us the name of your gorgeous new design?

Hi, Loraine, I would love to tell you. It’s called Dissent to honour Ruth Bader Ginsberg aka the Notorious RBG.

What inspired you to make the Dissent collar?

During the summer of 2020 a friend of mine was participating in an event for GISH, which is an international competition to do “strange” things for good causes.

The participants get a list of various tasks which range from art projects to things like collecting donations of hygiene products and dropping the off at your own local homeless shelter.

One of the fun challenges was to knit or crochet a collar inspired by RGB that contained either a portrait or a message to or about her.

I’ve been working on a lace alphabet for a long time, so when my friend asked if I could knit a collar on short notice, I could quickly come up with a plan. I wasn’t even thinking of making it a pattern until some people commented on my Instagram photos that they would be interested in buying the pattern.

I’m surprise and excited at the interest in the pattern and hope that RBG would love it.

What is it about RBG that makes her so important to women in the US?

The list is long! Some of the things she secured for women in the US were the right to sign a mortgage without a man, the right to have a credit card or a bank without a man, the right to get a job without being disqualified for their gender, and the right to keep or get a job if they were pregnant or had kids.

She also helped put in place legislature that protected the rights of people who aren’t women or don’t identify as women…the LGBTQ+ community along with protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Can you tell us more about the Dissent design itself?

The collar is worked flat, starting with the center panel, which reads Dissent in lace, to top edge is finished with a picot bind off and then stitches are picked up along the bottom of the panel and lace leaves are knit top down to either a crochet chain bind off or a plain lace bind off.

Three buttons are added when it is finished to make it easy to put on and take off. It has both charted and fully written line by line instructions.

What elements did you include in the Dissent Collar and why?

I felt I had to include the word dissent in the pattern as her most famous collar would be worn on days when no oral arguments were allowed and she would use her white lace collar to express her “dissent” to whatever was being discussed or had been decided. The crochet bind off is a nod to her “favorite” collar which is simple, white and very mesh like.

Where and how can we buy the Dissent Collar pattern?

The pattern, to remember RBG is called Dissent and will be available in my pattern stores on both Ravelry and Payhip on Monday, October 5th (and Love Crafts soon afterwards, their site takes a little longer.) so plenty of time for US knitters to make their own to wear while (absentee) voting from home.

I would like to note that as it is a political statement, poll workers will most likely not let in-person voters wear their Dissent Collar to the polls.

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From today through Election Day in the US…Tuesday, November 3rd all proceeds from pattern sales will be split between two groups.

The Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center and Planned Parenthood.

Mary E. Rose Interview

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