Bernie Sanders went from a popular meme to a nearly $ 20,000 crochet doll in less than a week.
After an inauguration daytime image of the Vermont senator went viral, showing him on a folding chair, socially removed from other guests, bent against the cold in thick knitted mittens, Tobey King began crocheting in Texas. She turned the sensational meme that got married for days into a crochet doll.
It sold for $ 20,300.
‘It’s amazing because I knew Bernie was trending because of that photo, and I already had a Bernie pattern and a Bernie doll. So I just went and got it and I adjusted that super fast, ”said King.
It took King about seven hours of non-stop crocheting to reconstruct Sanders’s exact look that caught people’s eyes and laughed. Her attention to detail is evident, she nails the iconic mitts that stole the show on the inauguration day.
“The mittens aren’t that hard, it’s just a little color change, a special stitch,” said King.
King, 46, initially posted photos of the 23cm doll on her Instagram account and they garnered thousands of likes and comments. On Saturday, she posted the doll on eBay and auctioned it for $ 20,300, which she said will be donated to Meals on Wheels America.
Sanders himself used the meme to raise money for Meals on Wheels – his campaign sold sweatshirts with the image and donated the proceeds to charity. On Wednesday, the senator said he raised $ 1.8 million for the organization.
King said she might have found her target.
“This is my new path,” said King. “This is a new way of helping people in ways I’ve never been able to do before.”
King, who lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, said more than 30,000 people bought her Sanders doll’s crochet pattern at her Etsy store. She said she hopes Sanders approves of her efforts.
“I really hope he thinks this is something cool and that I’m doing something good,” said King.