This is the start of Virginia Scope Sunday interview series, The Personal Side, in which we talk to Virginia officials about something they do in their personal lives—nothing political. First up is Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi.
Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi
By Molly Manning
While some collect fridge magnets or snow globes from their travels, Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi prefers to return home with a new spool of yarn.
“A lot of times when I’m visiting a new city, I’ll do my best to find a local yarn store and then find some yarn — some wool or fiber — that’s from the region and bring that home with me, and that keeps the memory of the place that I visited as well, and I invariably will make something personal for myself as a reminder of the travels,” Hashmi said.
When she’s not busy in the office, Hashmi finds solace in knitting and crocheting — a hobby she’s held since she was about 11 years old.
“When life gets busy, sometimes I put it aside, but it’s been something that I always come back to,” she said.
She is self-taught, with the help of step-by-step books borrowed from the library.
For her, the craft is not only a way to make something with her hands, but to connect to places she visits, give back to the community and a form of political engagement.
More recently, Hashmi has been knitting for charity, making hats, scarves and baby blankets to distribute around Richmond for those in need during the colder months. She said she usually finishes these smaller projects — hats, scarves and baby blankets — in a weekend or even a day.
However, one of her favorite projects was a baby blanket she made for a friend becoming a first-time grandma. The large blanket was inspired by a tree of life and had a pattern of six trees representing life’s journeys; it took her over a year to make.
Recently, she also made a pair of mittens for the Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum in Wytheville, where an exhibit shows how people in the Southwest contributed to the WWI war effort.
Beyond this historical aspect of the craft, Hashmi noted other ways it has been used as a political statement.
“Knitting and a lot of the textile arts have always had some degree of political engagement and involvement. There’s a lot of historical representations of that,” she said.
She pointed to the Norwegian red resistance hats — an emblem of resistance still used today, the pink hats common at women’s marches (which she made several of in 2016,) and even the quilts enslaved women made as maps of the Underground Railroad.
“It’s always been very much a part of a long tradition of the work that women in particular can do quietly but as a form of political statement,” Hashmi said.
Now, she’s working on a “whole baby set” for a soon-due baby, complete with a cap, cardigan and blanket, as well as a scarf for herself made with yarn she bought in Washington state.