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Craftivism, or crafts-for-activism, has been around for a long time. The craftivism.com manifesto defines a craftivist as "anyone who uses their craft to help the greater good". Craftivism embraces political awareness, sharing ideas, and handmade goods. It seeks to subvert the often-undermined and stereotyped domestic work of knitting, crochet, and similar skills and uses them as tools of peaceful protest.

I personally have worked at craft centers and small businesses since 2014, including during and after the 2016 election. I was struck by how much people were using crafts as a means of coping. While crafts like knititng and crochet have wider benefits as well, during times of crisis they provide an outlet, and bring people together in their local and online communities.

Unfortunately, during the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, people were not able to gather at the yarn shop as they had in previous crises. However, the crafts continue in online forums, remote servers, and Zoom knitting classes. Time and again I have seen the community band together in support of their local yarn store, and it gives me hope for ongoing and future craftivism.