Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL (Week Six)

Winter Is Here - My First Game of Thrones KAL

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones through the current episode, Season 8 Episode 6 (The Series Finale), then you may not want to continue reading this article. There may be spoilers contained within. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I am participating in a Marinade Designs GoT KAL at my own expense and just want to share my progress with our readers. No compensation is being received from the KAL designer.

Previous GoT Show Thoughts/KAL Progress Posts:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Game of Thrones is over. Finished. No more new stories about our favorite characters to look forward to (well, except for the ones George R. R. Martin will tell in the book(s) that will complete the novel series).

I haven’t read the books yet. I have all of the published books sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me. But, I wanted to watch the show before reading them. This is an odd sentiment for me, usually I like to read the book before watching any kind of visual adaptation. Therefore, I have enjoyed the series in and of itself without having the author’s version playing tug of war with the TV show version in my head.

However, I don’t typically have much of a struggle in that area anyway as I never go into a TV show or movie expecting (or even wanting?) it to be everything the book was word for word. It’s unrealistic, first of all. It’s just not do-able. Especially for authors like Martin (or Stephen King — and oh yeah, there’s a can of worms the little internet birdies love to fight over).

I’m not worried that I won’t enjoy the books now that the series has concluded. I will. As their own entity, entirely separate from the show.

I, personally, think that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (along with everyone else involved with the making of Game of Thrones for HBO) have done a stellar job!

Did I like every story arc? Meh. There were a few along the way I didn’t love. But, there were plenty I did get very invested in, and even some I wasn’t into in the beginning that grew on me over time.

So, final thoughts. I wish Varys hadn’t been executed. His story was one that didn’t grab me in the beginning. But, I came to love his character and his story very much! Sad to see him go. But, wow! Death by dragon breath… what a dramatic way to go if one has to go!

Tyrion Lannister is another example of a character that grew on me. Initially, my interest was captured by other characters’ stories (Jon Snow’s, Ned Stark’s, Arya and Sansa Stark’s, among others). But, as the seasons of the show progressed I became more and more interested in his character.

And Dany. Tragic. Just tragic in all the best senses of the word how her relative innocence at the start of our journey together with her shifted through the years and then semmingly so very sharply in this final season as she finally was about to claim her hard-fought for victory. As I mentioned, perhaps, in a previous post, I’d seen the flashes of her character along the way that hinted at potential madness, but hoped against all hope that the goodness of the people helping her to reclaim her family legacy would make the difference in how she progressed toward that goal. And I think they definitely did. She suffered too many devastating losses too closely together near the end of her journey, though. And I was sure it would be too great a toll for her to bear and recover emotionally from. So, as tragic as her end was, it was pretty darn perfect in my opinion. Great story-telling, even when it’s not where many wanted it to go. Can’t all have the happy ending, dear GoT fans.

I think this is why the fans that are upset enough to start a petition to try to get HBO to remake the final season irks me so much. Number 1, it was an awesome show start to finish. The writers cannot (nor should they be expected to) cater to everyone’s desires for what direction the show or its characters take. Number 2, I think it would have been a great injustice to the material and the actors to end the show by putting a fairy tale ending where everyone lives happily ever after on it. GoT was always known for it’s unexpected and shocking content. So, kudos to the creators and all involved for trying to wrap up some of the most important storylines, even though I think the show could have easily gone quite a few more seasons doing just that, wrapping up and leaving behind all the many, many stories of all the different people, locations, and happenings that we would all love to know about.

Too many characters to do a blurb on them all. That would be a blog series all its own. But, my personal conclusion is that this is easily the TV series that will top my list of favorites forever. It will be one that I re-watch and love all over again for all of its triumphs and all of its tragedies alike for time immemorial. I will, of course, move forward and read/watch new stories and love them — but, I think for many years to come Game of Thrones will serve as a measuring stick (however subconscious) that future entertainment will be measured by, in my mind.

Now, on to the books. I can’t wait to revisit some storylines (and discover others that never made it to the HBO screen)!

Week Six Progress

So, as I predicted, I was not able to finish the Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawlette GoT KAL by the time the finale aired. If you look to the upper left of the shawl, that bit of blue yarn sticking out is where I started this week’s work. Not a lot of progress. However, I did finish up Section 2 and start into Section 3 of the shawlette, the larger, all blue section that has the dragon scale design. And, as I have never done an intricate knitting pattern like this before, I did have some issues with following the more complicated pattern stitch combinations at first.

Week Six Progress

I had to watch some YouTube tutorial videos to learn, for example, how to do this stitch combination: sl1-k2tog-psso. That means to slip a stitch from one needle to the next, then knit the next 2 stitches together, and then go back and pass that first slipped stitch forward over the 2 that were knitted together. It’s not difficult, just took me a while to get comfortable with it.

I somehow got off pattern during the first row of the dragon scale lace section that included these stitch combinations and had to painstakingly (and oh, so slowly) undo the whole row of stitches at least twice to try to get it right. And, let me tell you, I am not experienced enough to just remove my needles altogether, frog back in the work, and then pick up the stitches again. It would be so much quicker if I could. But, I’m not to that level of proficiency yet. So, for me the work was painstaking and so very slow to go back and undo stitches one by one back to where my mistakes were so that I could fix them and then move on! That took me a lot of time.

It has been a challenge. I have only been knitting for a few years, and mostly stuck to fairly simple designs. So, moving into the dragon scale lace section has been a learning experience for me.

Week Six – the open spaces created to define the dragon scale design

That said, I am still very much enjoying the work as I progress ever closer toward the end of that project. And I find myself mulling over the show as I do it, which is very nice! I’m learning and getting better and now (6 rows into this last section of the pattern) I’m finally getting the hang of it. I expect the rest of the pattern to go much more smoothly and faster, too.

So, look for one more article in this series in about a week or two. I can’t wait to finish this project, not only to see it all done but also because I’m itching to get started on another Game of Thrones KAL from the same designer that she created for a previous season of GoT.

It’s the Stormborn Shawl, inspired by the character of Daenerys Targaryen and released in 2014 during a previous season of the show. It looks like it features a very similar (if not the same) dragon scale design element. I’m currently finding online retailers from which to buy the yarn for this project.

I’m very sorry that Game of Thrones is over. It’s been a great ride and I’ve enjoyed every single season of the show. I am looking forward to new projects that are in development at HBO set in the Game of Thrones landscape created by George R. R. Martin. I’m really hoping they create one that I’ve heard mentioned that is a prequel to GoT and focuses on events long before there was a Westeros or any of the powerful houses to rule it.

At least, for now, I still get to look forward to watching the HBO Documentary, “Game of Thrones: The Last Watch” later tonight (all about making the final season of the show). It’ll “almost” be like being back in the GoT world for a little while.

Are you looking forward to any of the HBO shows reportedly in development that are Game of Thrones-inspired? If you could pitch a show idea to HBO, what would you like to see — Arya’s adventures west of Westeros where the maps don’t go, how and why the children of the forest created the first White Walker? Even if what you’d like to see onscreen hasn’t been mentioned anywhere yet, I’m interested to know!

Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL (Week Four)

Winter Is Here - My First Game of Thrones KAL

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones through the current episode, Season 8 Episode 4, then you may not want to continue reading this article. There may be spoilers contained within. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I am participating in a Marinade Designs GoT KAL at my own expense and just want to share my progress with our readers. No compensation is being received from the KAL designer.

Previous GoT Show Thoughts/KAL Progress Posts:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Welcome to the Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL article series! First, we will check in on the progress I made this week on the Game of Thrones shawl knit along I’m participating in and then discuss thoughts on episode 4 of this final season of GoT.

If you’ve read any of the three previous posts in this Game of Thrones KAL series that I’ve published, then you will recall that my family has been dealing with some illness — stomach virus and severe sinus infections — over the last several weeks.

I think we’re all finally over the hurdle on the illness front. The stomach virus is long over and my son and I finished up our round of strong antibiotics for the sinus infections this week. Mostly, I feel pretty good. The antibiotics put a huge damper on my appetite, but I had to eat when taking them or risk them upsetting my stomach. So — mostly I lived on toast and oatmeal, with the occasional fried egg. And water. Lots and lots of ice water — because I like to chew ice (and that melting ice sliding down my throat soothed the soreness from all the coughing, too).

I’m moving right along on the Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Ice and Embers Shawlette KAL themed for the final season of the show. It’s an asymmetrical design, so as I work through the knitting pattern the rows progressively get longer and longer since an additional stitch is added about every other row.

I was pretty impressed with myself this week in terms of the amount of work I was able to complete on the project. I have felt better, so have spent more time working on it than previous weeks when I felt worse.

Here’s a quick recap of what my progress on the Ice & Embers Shawlette looked like after each of the previous three weeks of work:

Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL
Week One

Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL
Week Two
Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL
Week Three

But, check this out. Week Four progress really kicked it up a notch!

As usual, I started by weaving in all the blue yarn tails from last week’s work. Then I moved on to adding new rows to the length of the shawlette.

It may be a bit hard to see the new blue yarn tails against the dark countertop, but I hope you can see where they start and appreciate how many more rows I was able to complete this week than in any week before.

Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL
Week Four

Also, the pattern for the shawl is broken up into three sections. Section One starts at the small tip of the shawl (on the left here, where you see the purple stitch marker) and progresses upward, widening as new stitches are added periodically.

I was able to complete all of Section One of the pattern. Yay! I’ve just started into Section Two, which has wider sections of the dark blue yarn. Can you see that last blue stripe on the right hand side, at the widest end of the shawl? That’s the beginning of Section Two of the pattern.

It’s fantastic! Here’s a closeup of those wider blue stripes. It utilizes 4 rows of the dark blue (versus just two rows in each stripe in Section One) and creates a gorgeous design element with what I’m calling Little Peekaboo Holes. They have no name [“a girl has no name”, ha ha] by the designer, that I’m aware of.

I’ve begun Section 2 of the shawlette. Check out these fantastic openings created in the pattern!!

A closer look at the openings in the striping of Section 2 of the shawl.

I’ll admit. I was worried that my skills as a knitter had not progressed far enough to get this part of the pattern. I’ve only been knitting for a few years and not done many intermediate or advanced skills patterns. I figured that if I just couldn’t get it, I would do the simpler striping as it’s done in Section 1 and call it good.

But, I got it on the first try! I just went with the pattern and trusted that it would all go fine. And it did. So relieved — and proud of myself. New skills, accomplished! I am delirious with anticipation for Section 3 of the shawlette pattern which features a Dragon Scale Lace design. That’s gonna be so fun!

You’ll notice some of the photos were taken outdoors. We’ve had a couple of days of simply beautiful weather here in Kentucky. Sun shining, warm temps with a mild breeze. So, I took advantage and spent a little time outside sitting with one of my chickens, Khaleesi, to do a little knitting.

backyard chicken

Yes. Khaleesi. Clucker of the Backyard Grass Sea. Grazer of Chicken Grains and Grass Blades. Snacker of Diced Tomatoes and Apple Slices. Layer of Tiny Eggs. White Haired Queen of the Lands of Kentucky.

Of course we named the Queen of our flock after GoT! 🙂

After the epic battle with the Night King in last week’s episode, I was glad to scale it back a bit this week and join the North in bidding a final farewell to those lost in The Long Night battle.

Notable tidbits from the show for me this week were Dany’s teary goodbye to Ser Jorah Mormont, the tragedy of the decimation of House Mormont with little Lady Mormont among the dead (may the gods rest her pint-sized hero’s soul), Dany’s uncharacteristic begging plea to Jon to keep his lineage to himself (followed, of course, by his immediately telling all the sibs all about it), the tension-filled war council where Sansa and Dany squared off on whether to rest the remaining troops or get right back up on that horse and attack Cersei, and Jon’s lackluster goodbye to Ghost (that pup deserved a hug at least!). But, at least Jon did right by Ghost in sending him off to the far North with Tormund Giantsbane who will take good care of him. Ghost can lick Tormund’s face and snuggle with him on the long cold nights as Tormund heals from the heartbreak of Jaime stealing his longtime crush, Brienne.

And now we have Ser Jaime Lannister ditching his new girl, Ser Brienne of Tarth, to head to King’s Landing where his former sister-love is. Shame on Jaime for one-and-doning it to that sweet Brienne! But, the bigger question is, which side will he fight for now that the threat to all humanity has been vanquished? He may have semi-redeemed himself in recent seasons by making better life choices. But let’s not forget the bun in first love, Cersei’s, oven that Jaime put there (Euron is an epic fool to believe for even one second that it might be his, given her history when it comes to child paternity!)

And what the heck is Brienne gonna do in Winterfell?! Twiddle her thumbs? I think not. I think she’ll not be far behind Jaime on the King’s Road to the final battle for the kingdom.

Seems like a lot of regular variety drama, right? And then GoT does what it does so well. After kind of injecting some breathing room into the lungs of GoT viewers, they GUT-PUNCHED us with the horrific death of Dany’s second dragon, Rhaegal, at the hands of that disgusting pirate, king wannabe, Euron Greyjoy! Ahh!!! No!!!

I’m beginning to question if more than Jon knows nothing if you didn’t learn anything from the Night King tossing a spear into the air and taking down Viserion, Dany, Mother of Dragons. I mean, Westerosi forces did already try this tactic before, they just way underestimated their weapon, The Scorpion’s, capability. But, like all good villians, Qyburn returned to the drawing board and went all out in anticipation of Round Two with the dragon threat.

It is war, after all. Shew, okay, regroup. Nope, nope, another gut punch! Missandei has been captured. Poor Grey Worm. And now a parlay with the Westerosi, some back and forth about who deserves to rule, and then there it is — last words, “Dracarys”, and Missandei is no more. Brutal, GoT!!! But, I still love you.

Dany, girl, you better get your A-game on and don’t screw this up. Cuz, Missandei just flat out told you not to let her death be for nothing. And — psst, Dragon Queen, listen up — Arya of House Stark. A Girl With ‘The’ Name. Hero of The Long Night. Feller of All White Walkers. Maker of Kill Lists. Master Assassin. is on her way to help you out. You so lucky!

If you want to get in on the fun of the Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Ice and Embers Shawlette KAL, it’s not too late! Cast on and get knitting!

What hopes (or fears) do you all have about the remaining episodes? I hope Drogon makes it through the upcoming fray and roasts Qyburn alive for designing the weapon that killed Rhaegal. I hope The Hound puts The Mountain out of his misery. I hope Arya ticks a few names off her Kill List. I hope Jon and Dany come to some kind of peaceful resolution about their potential ruler statuses. I fear Cersei will prevail and some of our more notable heroes will end up in her and Qyburn’s creepy weird human experiment dungeon. In any event, I can’t wait to find out!

Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL (Week Three)

Winter Is Here - My First Game of Thrones KAL

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones through the current episode, Season 8 Episode 3, then you may not want to continue reading this article. There may be spoilers contained within. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I am participating in a Marinade Designs GoT KAL at my own expense and just want to share my progress with our readers. No compensation is being received from the KAL designer.

Previous GoT Show Thoughts/KAL Progress Posts:

Week One

Week Two

So, I’m not sure if I mentioned in my previous couple of posts about my participation in the Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Ice & Embers Shawlette Knit Along, that my household has been dealing with illness the last several weeks. But, I feel like I should maybe touch on that because it’s been an ordeal, and I’ve not gotten as much done on the KAL as I might normally have done.

Three weeks ago, my husband and I came down with a nasty stomach virus. We stayed away from the kids as much as possible and thought they’d escaped it, but at the end of the week our daughter was down with it too. Thank goodness it was after school on Friday so she had the entire weekend to recover from it and didn’t miss any school. But, literally, right on the heels of that (after I’d already wondered if death might be preferable to being that sick) I was slammed with a massive sinus infection. And I do mean slammed. Like a Mack truck just plowed me over. It’s been awful.

I don’t hardly ever get sick with these kinds of illnesses, so when I do it’s just so aggravating to me. Still, I’m not a run-to-the-doctor kinda girl, so I usually just try to dose up on OTC meds and suffer through it. I might still be doing that, except my son came down with a sinus infection, too. So, last week on Thursday I took him and myself to urgent care and got us both some strong antibiotics to knock this stuff out. It’s working, but we’re only a little over halfway through the antibiotic regimen and still suffering somewhat.

It’s clearing out the infection, but man … these meds are just zonking me out. They make me want to sleep, like, all the time; make me woozy and a bit nauseous; and they are taking my normal appetite for food away. Which is a conundrum because they told me that we need to eat some food with the antibiotics to prevent stomach upset. So, yeah, it’s been a struggle to force myself to eat when I take the meds, and then try to remember to eat in between doses too because I just don’t want food.

On the upside, I think I may have lost, like, 10-15 pounds through all this. Harsh way to do it, but there I am. LOL

Game of Thrones Season 8
A pic I took of GoT Season 8, Episode 3 projected on a wall in the studio of my husband’s business during a viewing party with friends.

Anyhoo, now that you’re good and bored. Game of Thrones. Battle of Winterfell. O – M – freakin’ – G! I don’t think I have ever vacillated on the precipice of emotional breakdown ever before in my life as I did the week before this big, mega battle for humanity episode! I couldn’t wait for it, but I was afraid to see who would die in the battle, too. Like, cover-my-eyes-and-peek-through-my-fingers-almost-DIDN’T-want-to-watch-it afraid.

I was afraid the Night King might be too strong for humanity to survive it and worried about what comes next if they did somehow manage to vanquish the seemingly endless undead army. And I just knew the NK would raise the Winterfell dead at some point. Just knew it. And I wasn’t disappointed when he ramped up the terror by doing just that.

My husband owns a small media production business. Quite a few of his employees are GoT fans, too. So, for this epic battle episode several of us got together and watched “The Long Night” with a kick-ass audio system and the show projected on the big white wall in the shooting studio. It was so much fun!

Spoiler Alert: They did survive. Arya. I knew it would be her. I just did. She is far and away my favorite character in the show and seeing the looks on the faces of everyone at Winterfell realizing what a badass she has grown into was just … priceless. So satisfying. My second favorite moment in the show was little Lady Mormont vs. the Giant. YASSSS!!!!! I spent the whole episode with my hand clutching my throat. So epic!

Other heart-pounding moments: when Melisandre gave hope to us all, but then the flaming scimitars of the Dothraki horde advance army were snuffed out and darkness swallowed them seemingly whole; when the undead army flung themselves on the fire trench and swarmed the outer walls of Winterfell; the beautiful dragon fight scenes; when the Night King emerged from the dragon fire blast that Dany hoped would end him; and when Theon gave his very last breath to the defense of Bran. Wow. So many great moments. Too many to list, thank goodness we can all go back and rewatch the series as many times as we want to!

But, now. The last three episodes to wrap up the series are a total question mark. Can what’s left of the survivors of the Battle of Winterfell defeat what awaits them in King’s Landing? How will Jon and Dany settle the issue of who will rule if they can defeat Cersei? Who will be the one to take Cersei down, because so many characters deserve the honor! Just a few of the biggest questions, so many more minor ones that must be examined to decide how the new landscape of the kingdoms and the survivors will be laid out. With so many great houses decimated (the Mormonts, the Umbers, the Tyrells — so many others [some deservedly so, like the Freys]) how does the kingdom hierarchy reorganize itself?

Since I’ve spent most of this season so far being sick, I’ve not spent as much time on the Marinade Designs GoT Ice & Embers Shawlette KAL as I would have liked (also had Easter in there, so I made my daughter a few household items that took some time away from this, too).

Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL

But, I’m not totally discouraged with my progress. This pic shows how much I’ve completed so far. In previous pictures I’ve tucked the dark blue strands that needed to be woven in under the shawl when taking photos so that you could see the work and not be distracted by all of that. This week, before starting to knit more on the shawlette, I took some time to weave in all the dark blue strands that were hanging out there on the work I’d completed to that point (during the first two weeks).

The new ones you see displayed out to the right side of the work here are representative of the new rows of work I’ve done this week. I think I’ve only maybe completed 30-35 new rows of work on it.

So, slow going. But, I’ll get there. As I continually feel better hopefully the work will go faster and easier.

Game of Thrones - Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawl KAL

I’ve been too sick to go to Ravelry and visit the page for this KAL to see what progress pics other knitters are posting to show their work. But, I will try to get to that this week. I’ll probably end up kicking my own butt for not being as far along as I think I should have been. But, whaddaya gonna do? Just keep moving, that’s what.

I will probably need additional time after the show is over to finish, but I’ll still come back and chat with you all about it and show the progress until it’s done.

I’m definitely relieved that the threat of the Night King is over. But, still filled with anticipation to find out how everything else works out. What was your favorite moment in the Battle of Winterfell? What do you think happens now?

Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL (Week Two)

Winter Is Here - My First Game of Thrones KAL-Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice & Embers Shawl KAL

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones through the current episode, Season 8 Episode 2, then you may not want to continue reading this article. There may be spoilers contained within. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I am participating in a Marinade Designs GoT KAL at my own expense and just want to share my progress with our readers. No compensation is being received from the KAL designer.

Previous GoT Show Thoughts/KAL Progress Posts:

Week One

So, winter is here. The Night King and his undead army loom large on the horizon. And I know many people have expressed some concerns about the first two episodes of this final season being slow. Well, I for one, am really digging all the characters coming together again. Many of them have been flung to the far reaches of the landscape for multiple seasons and have gone through a lot of growing and changing. So, I think it’s good to see them come back together again.

If you’re looking for an in-depth analysis, this ain’t the place. I love the show, but I certainly do not portend to be the most knowledgeable. For crying out loud, I haven’t even read the books! Not that I won’t. I have them. But, I didn’t hear about them in time to delve in before the TV series started. So, I decided to wait a while before reading them so that I wouldn’t get the book events confused with the series events, since they quite often can differ.

Now that the end of the series is near, I will be picking up the books and having a grand old time rediscovering the characters all over again.

So, what do you all think of the final season so far? Brienne got knighted! Yay! Jamie was forgiven (sort of?) for tossing Bran out the window. (Meh. Ok.) Arya became a woman, all the way. (Some viewers are confused by this turn of events — and I mean, it was a tiny bit awkward, I guess. But, in my view if you are developed enough to become a world-class assassin, you go get yours girl!) And Pod can SING; who knew???

Sansa’s backbone is steel in the face of Dany’s thirst for the throne. (I always knew it would be.) And Dany is …finally… thrown off kilter by learning Jon has a stronger claim to the throne than she does, should he choose to pursue it. Confusion isn’t becoming to Dany as a potential kingdom ruler, but they do love each other so if they survive the Night King (and Cersei) I think they’ll work it out to rule together. I really do.

Tyrion is clever and intelligent. But, annoying, too. Let the Night King have him. (gasp, my husband would be mortified to hear that. He loves Tyrion!) And then there’s Theon. Theon, Theon, Theon… I’ve loved him, I’ve hated him, and I’ve pitied him. But, he’s here to defend Winterfell (after everything he did to destroy it) and I think I like him all the more for it.

I’m totally with many others when it comes to Bran. He’s creepy now. Way creepy. And NO ONE uses his gifts in a way that is helpful or strategic or intelligent. Like, no one. Maybe he creeps them out, too, but damn, dude! The Night King. Human annihilation. The end of the Seven Kingdoms as we know it. Get over yourselves people and use this guy to your advantage!!!

I can not wait for the battle to end all battles to begin in the next episode. Who will rise to the occasion and who will wimp out? One theory I’ve not heard mentioned is one that has crossed my mind a time or two. Will Jamie deserting Cersei change her mind about joining the battle? Will she ride in to lend her army to everyone at the last minute like the Knights of the Vale did in the Battle of the Bastards? I doubt it. But, it could happen, right?

I don’t even want to think about who’s going to die and who (if anyone) might survive. It’s massively overwhelming to think that even if our heroes win the battle and vanquish the Night King and his army, the landscape of the power dynamic is likely to be forever changed by which people survive.

So, I (like every other GoT fan) wait with bated breath to see what happens next. I have high hopes and expectations for the remaining episodes.

Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice & Embers Shawl KAL

On to the knit along I’ve been participating in that is themed for the final season of GoT. It’s the Ice & Embers Shawl from Marinade Designs. The above pic is from the article I posted last week about episode 1 of GoT and shows the very beginning little bit I’d completed of the shawl. It’s not much, but I had to do some prep work to ball up the yarn from hanks, knit the gauge swatch to make sure I had chosen the correct size knitting needles, etc.

Also, during that week, I’d been dealing with having the stomach flu. So, I’d been pretty well sidelined in terms of having energy and frame of mind to get much done on it.

This past week, immediately on the heals of getting over the stomach flu, I was slammed with a fierce sinus infection. I mean, come… on… ! For someone who doesn’t get physically ill much, this has been a crappy month healthwise for me.

Still, I did manage to get some more work done on the shawl.

Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice & Embers Shawl KAL-week two
Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice & Embers Shawl, week two progress

Even with being sick and also working on a few handmade knitting and crochet items for my daughter for Easter gifts, I’m pretty pleased with the progress I made overall.

Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice & Embers Shawl KAL-week two

I really love the edging of the shawl that is created with Make 1 Left stitches. I think it really sets it off with this line of V’s along the edge like that.

Still got a long way to go on the shawl, but it’s introducing me to a new project type and some new stitch skills. Plus, it’s just fun. And I think that’s the most important thing.

So, share! What are your thoughts about the final season of Game of Thrones so far? How do you think it’ll all turn out? What fun activities are you doing to make the most of it? Are you crafting GoT-themed items, attending GoT watch parties, gnawing your fingers to the bone in anticipation? Let us all know!!!