Still working on the Smooth Sailing blanket. According to the pattern I am almost halfway through, but I will probably add another repeat or two since I have enough yarn, and I like baby blankets that are big enough to wrap them up in and continue to use once they're toddlers. I'm wishing now that I had made it a bit wider for that reason. Ah well.
I do like the way it bunches up and looks all squishy and textured right now. But of course I will be blocking it once it's finished; you can see what the lace pattern will look like.
None of these pictures does justice to this shade of blue, especially on a rainy day like today. But Malabrigo has a pretty good picture on their site, a touch greener than in reality.
Still reading all the same books, mostly A Dance with Dragons. It is good but I will be glad when it's over. I feel that George RR Martin is a very self-indulgent writer. There is no reason that this book needs to be so long. Why do fantasy writers do that so often? I once "met" (via NaNoWriMo forums) a writer who was baffled that anyone would write a fantasy short story--how could you build a world in so small a space?
The same way you build any world as a writer, fantasy or realism or any other sort. The world is created by the story itself, and anything that doesn't touch the story somehow--its plot, its characters--doesn't belong there. But I think that gets at one reason why fantasy can tend towards being so overblown; authors get lost in their own worlds at the expense of the story. I suppose it's understandable; world-building is heady stuff, and it's easy to get drunk on as a writer. But again ... self-indulgence. Well-written self-indulgence, but that doesn't change that there's so much in this book that should have been cut before it was published. A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were originally one book that got too bloated and had to be split in two, if I understand correctly. They could have been trimmed and stayed one.
All in my humble opinion. ;) If you are reading/have read this series I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts!
(As for Hatchling, it is still minus a sleeve. Clearly I hate sewing up sweater parts. But I bought some buttons!)
Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.
