Monday, September 8, 2008

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.

10 comments:

deanna said...

Ah, Wash. *heavy sigh* And Jayne. Love his hat. The Firefly characters all must find ways to soar without shielding...what a good analogy.

Anonymous said...

OMG! I went to a knitting convention on Saturday and was musing on how similar it felt to what you conveyed about the Star Trek jamboree. Being in a room full of hundred of like-minded people. Amazing. And now here we have knitting and sci-fi in perfect union.

(Although of course there've always been patterns for Dr Who's scarf and there was the recent controversy over knitted ood.)

Obviously if you cannot contain your desire for the hat but can't master the needles I'll be more than happy to make you one :-)

Anonymous said...

hundredS of like-minded people

Anonymous said...

Jayne's hat...
Wash's sweater...
Dr. Who's scarf...
All objects of desire to the knitting challenged
(like me).

It seems like a great way for someone to make a killing as a vendor at a comic con...or mall of America.

Fresca said...

D: Yeah...sigh. Some meditation teachings suggest you think of someone toward whom you feel unalloyed good will--it can be an animal or a ficitonal character--anyone--the idea being to call up your own good heart. I find Wash and also Kaylee elicit those feelings in me!

E: Or even thousandS! : )
Are you kidding?!?! I would LOVE it if you made me a Jayne hat, if you are serious! I have tried knitting and it just hurt my elbow. (Really--like tennis elbow or something.)

I looked up Doctor Who's scarf. I'd only ever seen Tom Baker on b&w, years ago, so I didn't realize his scarf changes colors!

B: A Sci-fi Knit Goods shop? Great idea! I did notice a lack of craft items at the Star Trek con--I wondered why... (Copyright?)
But rummaging around on the 'net, I see there's lots out there.

Fresca said...

The copyright thing is real--read the controversy over the knitted ood link on evve's comment--it's about how the BBC stopped the sale of knitted Dr. Who monsters!
In a nice beeby way...

Anonymous said...

If the knitted ood causes the BBC to crack down...I can imagine that wouldn't look very kindly on miniature Daleks (knitted or stone-carved). So much for fan industry...

Anonymous said...

Of course I'm serious. Downloading the pattern now. Will communicate further re head size :-)

Anonymous said...

UPDATE: on ravelry (the knitting social website, a close runner-up to Facebook in social networking popularity... us knitters, we shall TAKE OVER THE WORD mwa ha haaaaa) there are ELEVEN different patterns for this hat.

Fresca said...

Bink: I still think you could make mini-Daleks for home use, couldn't you?

evve: Wow! I am sooo excited about this: I will e-mail you all about my head!

I kept running into references and links to Ravelry--thanks for clearing up my confusion about what that is.
You shall indeed take over the "word". : )