Blogger is still having a problem. At least in the version of Firefox I use. When I go to make a new post, the little "loading" symbol (a small circle that turns in the middle of the post box) never goes away.

The solution is pretty simple: publish a blank post, and then immediately edit it, I can then go ahead and write my post.

I did get out yesterday afternoon. I did some grocery shopping, picked up some other necessities. I also went to the Hobby Lobby after some toy yarn.

There is a free pattern out there for a creature called an Alot. This is the creation of a blogger (not a knitter, as far as I know - there is a link on the Alot pattern page to the Alot post. N.B., language is stronger than what I use here) as a way of poking fun (in a not entirely nice way, but sometimes poking fun at misuse of grammar really isn't that nice) at people who, instead of writing "a lot" write "alot."

So, for example: "I care about this Alot." There are funny drawings that illustrate it, and the Alot is really kind of a cute creature - it sort of looks yaklike. And so, any distaste I may have for making fun of people who maybe use non-standard style in their "casual" writing aside, the Alot is pretty cute and I wanted one. (I was thinking of going out and buying that long-fur fake fur yarn and sewing one, but someone already had written up a knitting pattern, so...)

And someone created a pattern for one. But the pattern takes furry yarn, of which I had none. So I picked up some "Haute Fur" in a dark brown, and for the undercoat - the originaly pattern uses a smooth worsted-weight, but I decided I wanted my Alot to have a downy undercoat, so I got something called "Bamboospun," which is sort of fuzzy.

(Now if I could make up - or if someone else makes up - an Owlcorn pattern, I'd be set. (Owlcorns are unicorn-owls. A new online comic. I have a link in the side bar. It's more "awww cute" than really roll on the floor funny, but there is something endearing about Owlcorns).

One of the things I like about making toys is that you can use whatever crazy yarns you like, even (especially?) yarns you would not use in a garment.

I also bought a grey-with-ombre-stripe yarn because I had long been thinking of making the little amigurumi Erlenmeyer flask. I had never seen a color that quite grabbed me (I briefly thought of using yellow, but rejected that as too nasty). But this yarn looked right. The only thing is, the toy is smaller than I anticipated, so I will get at most one color change going on, unless I "engineer" (by leaving a big unworked loop of yarn on the inside or something). I liked the idea of the color-shifting yarn because I thought it might look a bit like a reaction in progress. (or like one of those "clock reactions" - like the one that shifts from black to orange, that all the chem profs trot out on Halloween).

I started that last night.

But right now (Well, not RIGHT now), I'm working on Thermal. I've divided the fronts and backs! I'm working on the armhole decreases for the back!

(And I realize that there is a large number of people out in the world who would remark on how hopeless and even pathetic it is that someone would feel so excited and energized by something like that. But THEN AGAIN, there is a sizable minority of people - or even not a "sizable" minority, but still - who understand that sort of excitement. And those are the people I'd choose to hang out with.)

I think I'm going to try to get all the armhole decreases for the back done today, because then I have a few more inches of just-knitting-in-pattern until I do the shoulder decreases. And then it's on to the fronts. (And then the sleeves. And I almost feel like a sit-com "wah wah wah waaaaaaah" should play when a knitter realizes s/he still has the sleeves to do. Because really, they do take as long as the back of a sweater. The "stranded on sleeve island" idea has some basis in reality.)