Five years ago, two women, mother and daughter, decided to knit butterflies to raise their voices against gender violence. They started after a demonstration and a great personal tragedy. They chose a “simple and colorful” pattern and set out to “make many.” In a way, the … knitting united them: the daughter, Itziar Prats, had learned to knit as a child. In the summers her mother taught her crochet or cross-stitch techniques.
Slowly, other crocheters joined them. “When we get together to knit, a space of trust is created where we can talk about any topic, worries and joys can come out,” says Prats. By sharing her creations, the idea spread by word of mouth and through social networks. Groups began to form to weave the threads. News also came from people who were shaping these winged insects alone. Images of those creations reached her by the thousands.
This heterogeneous group of women, spread throughout the country, met at the ‘Encuentro de tejedoras’ (Knitters’ Meeting), the ‘world day of knitting in public’, which was held on Saturday 15 July, with the presence of the two founders of El Latido de las Mariposas, Prats and Isabel Gallardo. For more than five hours (from 10:30 to 16 h) they raised their voices, crochet in hand, against machismo. You can make several in one day or work on a special one for months.
Itziar Prats, in 2020 (above), a ‘textile hangout’ in the urban garden of Ventilla (Madrid) and a butterfly woven over several days.
The heartbeat of the Butterflies
Some of the pocket-sized butterflies have a safety pin and land on clothing, others are larger, and one reaches the size of a person. «When I see someone with the butterfly it gives me satisfaction that the symbol is known and shared. “I think that the message is getting through and the change we want for equality and respect in society is being generated.”
Transformation and fight
The main idea of the meeting, held at the Nave de las Terneras in Matadero (Madrid), was to strengthen the ties between the women who knit butterflies. Also to take to the streets, to be seen, to make visible the cause that unites them. “Knitting is a way of claiming rights and transmitting messages,” explains Prats, after the event. “It was a great day, to get to know each other and show the work of the knitters. Change is a necessity and we are doing something to contribute to it happening.”
That idea that emerged five years ago is becoming more and more established day by day. “We never imagined the impact it would have,” Prats admits, explaining that butterflies serve as a symbol for their “capacity for transformation and struggle.”
These butterflies, and those to come, fly to educational centres, retirement homes, equality spaces or companies, to support the cause of the weavers. “There are still many things left to do,” says Prats. “Violence against women is not considered a problem in many cases, and a denialist message is being transmitted.”
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