2018 Geek-A-Long: Star Wars First Order

Star Wars is fairly under represented on prior Geek-A-Long blankets. We featured the Jedi Order early on the 2014 blanket, but haven’t revisited the series since.

Snaugyarnhoarder nominated Star Wars to the blanket this year* saying,

Star Wars should happen again because:

1. New movie this week!
2. New female leads
3. Clone Wars
4. You totally need a Sith/First Order square- after all, if one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. ;)

*If you’re reading this and thinking, “Um, I nominated it,” it’s worth noting that Star Wars had multiple nominations. When me and Jac, or a mod, catch duplicate nominations, we make a note for folks to move their votes to the original post and then we delete the duplicate. Snaugyarnhoarder nominated Star Wars first this year, and racked up tons of votes.

So, the reason it’s been somewhat under represented in comparison to other fandoms, is neither me or Jac are hardcore fans of the series. Don’t get me wrong. We both like it; I think it’s fair to say we both like it a lot. But it’s not one of those fandoms we sit around thinking about when we aren’t actually watching it. Clone Wars was great, and frankly, I think better than the movies. Clone Wars is the best of Star Wars. The Lego Star Wars show is a lot of fun too. The movies are good, but in the words of my hero, Becca:

The new movies got a lot of shade. We can just go ahead and ignore the fanboys that come crawling out of their basement lairs every time a fandom has a female or brown (or, and this one really kills them, a brown female) lead. They don’t have anything interesting to say. Much of the movie’s criticism got lumped in with that, because they’ve been alone in the basement for so long that most of them forgot how to speak with an indoor voice, and so they yell. Other things get drowned out.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Anyhow, there were some valid criticisms of the movie that shouldn’t be bundled with those. Was it a cop-out that Luke was off planet the whole time? Sure. Leia flew through space without a space suit, and was fine. I’m going to overrule that criticism because my Space-Mom can do whatever she wants.  Finn is kind of the worst. There’s so much material there with his storm trooper past, and instead of exploring that he bumbles around like the writers almost wanted him to be comic relief. Here’s the thing though: he’s still 100% better than Luke was in the old movies. I can’t remember who said this, but it really resonated with me

Star Wars will never feel the way it did when you were seven.

That’s true facts. If you loved the new movie, awesome, you should. If you wanted to love it, but got caught up in how it wasn’t enough like/or was too much like the old movies, I recommend you watch it again with the expectation that 30 years later it’s just totally different. It’s not the same series, and that’s cool. It can’t be what it was when you were a kid, when no one had seen anything like it. But it’s still really fun. And also, Rey is the best and makes up for any other flaws it might have. And finally, if you still aren’t convinced, I’d like to offer into evidence the national treasure that is Emo Kylo Ren.

I don’t know that we would have chosen the First Order for the square, because Space Fascists. But it was requested, and I have to admit, it looks really nice next to the Jedi Order square. Sometimes, it’s nice to just be matchy-matchy.

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Star Wars First Order pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong!

If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and a tutorial on crochet here. Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

~ Megan-Anne

“Hey girl you must be sand people riding single file, because I don’t know your number”-Emo Kylo Ren

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