Palestinians encourage non-Palestinians to wear kufiyas as a show of solidarity. In 2023, when Israel began to ethnically cleanse Gaza as collective punishment for Hamas’ assault on October 7th, businesses quickly ran out of stock as people began to buy them to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. I purchased two kufiyas from KUVRD—one of the few places to buy kufiyas from Palestinian businesses—in November, but they were quickly backordered. While I waited, I decided to try knitting one. I was dismayed that no pattern was available on Ravelry. A few patterns were kufiya-inspired, but did not have a full pattern. I began to design my own pattern, using chart-maker.com, based on looking at kufiyas from Hirbawi and KUVRD. A knitted kufiya will be much heavier than a traditional woven one, but the symbol will carry as much weight.

Because of how large the pattern is, chart-maker.com can’t handle uploading it to ravelry. I’ve made smaller charts to show the key characteristics that will allow you to knit a kufiya based on your own knitting style/gauge/swatch.

Free Palestine!