Project Thinking Cap

Craftimism has partnered with Project Thinking Cap to mobilize knitters, crocheters, sewers, and crafters to make GREEN and BLUE hats for the March for Science on April 22, 2017. We hope to turn the streets blue and green to honor the earth.

Anyone who wants to donate hats to the march in DC should check out www.ProjectThinkingCap.org for further instructions. Please also join in the Facebook group and Ravelry group.

Fun fact - the three organizers of Project Thinking Cap are all Postdoctoral Research Scientists. That means we have received our PhD's and are now researching semi-independently in order to get further training before starting our own labs (or whatever other path we choose). Crystal and Lauren co-founded Project Thinking Cap and asked me to join forces with them.



Crystal is at the University of Maryland and studies the development of the visual system. In particular, she studies how the disruption of vision early in life can result in permanent visual defects and she explores ways to reverse these defects to restore visual function to normal levels.




Lauren is at the University of Calgary and studies the mental and cognitive health of women during times of hormonal fluctuations (menstrual cycle/pregnancy/menopause). Her goal is to determine why women are more susceptible to dementia than men.


I (Heidi) am at Stanford University and I study bacteria that live together in communities called biofilms. In particular, I am investigating in what conditions these communities can provide protected niches that increase genetic diversity. I am also determining how evolution has acted on important classes of genes during the domestication of "wild" bacterial strains (from the environment) to those that have been grown in laboratory settings for decades.

Craftimism's knitting patterns for the March for Science: 

The following patterns are included in an ebook that will be free forever. I plan on adding a bit about the science that inspired each pattern in the next few weeks.

I also designed these stand-alone patterns for the March for Science:

• Beginner armband/headband 
• Space Shuttle hat (free pattern on Ravelry.com until the March for Science)
• Swimming bacterium knit hat (free pattern on Ravelry.com until the March for Science, test knit by Marjorie Stintzi)
• Mini flask and water drop pin (either could be sewn onto the beginner headband or an armband)
• Resistor armbands

Craftimism's sewing patterns for the March for Science:  

• Sew your own Resistor headbands
• DIY Resistor Headbands from a T-shirt

To see the Resistor and DNA hats in action, check out this video!

To see more of Craftimism's ScienceKnits, click here.

Other awesome patterns designed for the march are listed on Lovely Yarn Escapes here.

If you have any ideas for science-related knit hats, please comment below! Designing new hat patterns is my favorite thing to do!