By Kristen Griffith, The Whetstone

Professor Susan Bobby could not attend the Jan. 21 women’s march in Washington DC, but still found a way to contribute after one of her students messaged her on Instagram.

“She messaged me and said, ‘I know you knit, would you make us some hats? We’re going to go to the march,’” Bobby said.

Her student was referring to the famous pussyhat worn by millions of women during the global march.

The purpose of the hat was to “provide the people of the women’s march in Washington DC a means to make a unique collective visual statement which will help activists be better heard,” the mission statement on pussyhatproject.com read.

They also said they chose to call it pussyhat “because we want to reclaim the term as a means of empowerment.”

Bobby knitted four hats for her student and friends in support of the huge protests.

“And then I made my own, while the march was going on,” she said.

The Pussyhat Project website said the hats were also for people who cannot attend the march but wanted to support women’s rights, like Bobby.

She was unable to participate because she recently had knee surgery.

“I wear one in my living room,” she said.

Fuzzy pink cat-ear hats, like the ones Bobby made, were seen all around DC as well as in the marches around the country.

Bobby said her hands were sore from knitting the hats.

“Each one took two and a half to three hours,” she said.

Bobby said the construction is like making a rectangle.

“I found this fancy way to bind off the edge where it made it into a braid at the top,” Bobby said. “And then when you put it on the head, the ears sort of pop.”

Bobby said it’s encouraging to see how students are so politically aware.

“I have never, in 24 years, walked into a classroom and hear students telling me the headlines to the most recent stuff until now,” she said. “They’re reading, they’re watching the news and they’re mad.”

Bobby said the women’s march sparked more protests to happen, like the protests after Trump’s travel ban.

“I think that a lot of people, especially people who’ve now been in some of these protests, are like, ‘I’m going to do it again,’” she said. “Part of me now really wants to do something – hold a sign and scream.”