Knitting Serenity

I was trying to think who could illustrate the post below ("Awakening..."), about being gentle with ourselves while we practice flying with our shields down, and I came up with Wash, the pilot of Serenity, the spaceship from the TV series Firefly.

Wash (played by Alan Tudyk) is a light-hearted guy, who goes all Zen when he flies.
He delivers the phrase, "I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar" right before...well, I won't give any spoilers here, in case you haven't watched the Firefly movie Serenity yet.

It probably wouldn't make it onto anybody's list of The Most Spiritually Affecting Buddhist Movies (link from Twisted Rib--thanks!), but it fits on a related list--Movies You Can Have Fun Untangling Spiritual Meaning From.

And also the far shorter list: Futuristic Space/Western Movies That Inspire Knitting Patterns.
Knitting is part of Firefly fandom. I love that.

Looking for an image of Wash, I came across a knitting pattern for his cable sweater (seen on picture from same site, above), posted by Yarmando on his blog.

I don't knit but I am sorely tempted to learn so I can make a Jayne hat from Firefly, like the couple, right. I photographed them at the local showing of Serenity this summer. (I kick myself for not having gotten their names--sorry guys!)

The young man here had made the hats, and I further regret not asking him where he got the pattern. There are a bunch of them out there, but I have no way of telling which would be best for a nonknitter to try.
Here's one pattern, from Craftster.
Here's another, from Quantum Tea.

Jayne Cobb (played by Adam Baldwin, left) is the gun-loving tough guy on Firefly. His mother makes and sends him this hat in one of the episodes, and he's delighted with it. He puts it on, saying,
"A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything."

So that's another model of bravery.

By the way, in case you haven't seen the show, Serenity is named after a devastating battle, not the frame of mind-- tension and paradox being part of the name of the Firefly game.