Want a scarf like Pippin's?

(link from a Knitlist poster).

knitters amaze me, they really do. I'm not sure if I could see something in a movie - even on a dvd with freeze-frame - and accurately reproduce it. Even something as comparatively simple as a scarf.

Actually, if you click around on that site, there are instructions on making all kinds of Hobbit gear, mostly sewn.

You know, I think for someone in Cultural Studies there might be an interesting paper, or perhaps even a Master's thesis, on looking at do-it-yourself and fantasy novels: the dressing-like-hobbits and all the Harry Potter knits are just two examples I can think of. (I suspect when the Narnia movie comes out this Christmas - unless it's abysmally bad - there will be people making Fair Isle vests or whatever to replicate the school clothes the Pevensie children wear. Or perhaps making suits of chainmail like Peter's.)

I know there are people who mock that kind of thing, and to be honest, it wouldn't exactly be my taste to suit up totally in garments recalling a particular movie or book character (the Bookworm vest notwithstanding). But it makes me happy that there are people who enjoy that and do it. Just like it makes me happy to know there are people out there who do SCA or Civil War re-enactments or things like that. It's not something I might do (although SCA sounds like big fun, there's no chapter near me) but there's something - I don't know, reassuring is not quite the right word - that there are people who have these intense interests that they spend time researching. People who care about historical accuracy (even if the "history" is based on a fantasy novel) and will go to the trouble to make sure they are accurate. I guess for me, because I see so many things done sloppily or half-assedly, it gives me hope that there are people out there who care enough to put a little trouble into something. Not because they get paid more for doing it, not because it has any value beyond the intrinsic value, but because having it "right" is important to them.

It reminds me of a story I read, way back when I was a doll collector, about how some nuns in a convent outfitted a figure of Mary as the Queen of Heaven. And how, although her robes totally covered her and she would rarely if ever have been moved or even looked that closely at, they made perfect, detailed undergarments - with good hems and appropriate decorative stitches and all that, and they made them of very fine cloth. Because, even though no one would ever see it, it mattered. It was part of their holy duty.

And so it makes me smile now to think of people to whom such things as the right houndstooth pattern on a hobbit's scarf matters, or making sure to use era-appropriate buttons matters. Maybe it's not a "holy" duty, but for some people it comes close to that. And I respect that and appreciate it.