Headbands knit Racine woman’s passion and pastime

RACINE, Wis. — Carol Forbes of Racine is spreading her political message through her knitting and becoming known in the area as “the headband lady.”

Ever since the recall efforts against Republican Gov. Scott Walker launched in anger over his collective bargaining reform, she has been churning out headbands by the hundreds sporting “Recall Walker.”

The idea blossomed last fall as volunteers were getting assembled.

“I was thinking — this is Wisconsin in November — duh,” said Forbes, 71, a retired Racine Unified teacher. “I just wanted (the volunteers) to be warm on the corner.”

So the lifelong knitter took to her well-used workshop in the basement of her home and began cranking out headbands, which volunteers snapped up as they prepared to brave the Wisconsin winter to collect petition signatures.

Her family has a lengthy history with unions, Forbes said. Starting with her aunt in the 1930s, her dad, son and she have all been part of unions, so it’s an issue she is passionate about. So when Walker first introduced what is now Act 35, she said, she became very upset with his “shenanigans” taking away union rights that had been fought for so hard.

She brought some headbands to the recall volunteer center to “see how they would fly,” and they flew: “I sold every one I had with me, including the one I was wearing.”

It’s been a few months since then and she thinks she’s sold more than 300 so far at $5 each. She makes them one by one using a knitting machine, which has a carriage that she pushes back and forth across the needle bed.

Once she has the design set, she said each one takes between 20 to 30 minutes.

The headbands knit her beliefs and her lifelong pastime.

Visible traces of various ongoing sewing projects are strewn about throughout her home. On the kitchen table Saturday morning, a white ball of yarn lay next to knitting needles — a scarf in the making.

At an age when girls typically play dress-up or learn makeup at their mother’s knee, 8-year-old Forbes had learned to knit in her grandmother’s sewing circles.

She and her husband have had knitting businesses in the area since the `80s, doing custom knitting, offering knitting lessons, catering to dog lovers and more.

In honor of their Scottish heritage, she also knits Celtic designs, including family crests.

Now with upcoming elections, likely including recalls, Forbes plans to make more headbands supporting former State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, who recently announced plans to run against his Republican successor Sen. Van Wanggaard, and even President Barack Obama, who is up for re-election in November.