Om Nom Nom Studios First Contest - An Amigurumi Giveaway!

I can never apologize enough for how infrequently I blog these days. With The Dalek Project, working on items for my Etsy shop, and raising my little sweetheart Baby Nom, I'm pretty busy these days.

On March 30th, Baby Nom will turn 1. I absolutely cannot believe how time flew. Time obviously must be moving at quite an alarming pace for The Boy because just last night he made it clear that he would not mind another Nom child being on the way in the near future :O

This summer, we feel that Baby Nom will be old enough to enjoy the sites that come with a trip to the beach. Plans are underway to make that happen. As a matter of fact they are becoming a bit of a runaway train with more and more family members wanting to join in on the beach fun for Baby Nom and possibly even one of her even newer little cousins, Tarrin.

Months ago on Ravelry I came across the "On The Shore", a down-loadable pattern by Jana of Just Blocked.

This pattern is available in English and German.

This patchwork blanket is featuring one of M.C. Escher´s great tessellations.

The animals are shaped by various stitch patterns (rib pattern, seed stitch, stocking stitch, twice turned ribbing, garter stitch) and short rows. The tortoises, fish and ducks are completely charted out. So you need to be familiar with reading from a chart to work this blanket. The techniques used are explained in a detailed illustrated appendix. So don´t you worry. This pattern might look complicated, but it really is not. And each step is explained in the tutorials. This includes the seams and cutting/steeking.

Please note: The yardage given above applies to each of the colours. So you will need a total of 12 skeins (= 3871 yds or 3540 m).

Btw - gauge is not crucial. You might even decide to use worsted weight yarn or any yarn of your choice.

After working the animals separately they are then sewn together and the edges are cut to produce straight edges. There is this miracle about this tessellation that there still won´t be any bodyparts of the animals wasted. Instead you will find that both sides as well as bottom and top can be joined to a tube. That tube will be cut length-wise, and voilà, the blanket is perfectly rectangular!

When I saw it I immediately thought it would be a great keepsake gift for my little girls first trip to the beach (most likely to be used for the car ride, as a play mat while we are there, and for chilly beach evenings).

Although I love the look of the original blanket, I'd rather Baby Noms be a different color scheme. With as much as I have going on and the general haze that has settled over my brain meat, I have been having a dickens of a time - YES A DICKENS! Trying to figure out the perfect color scheme. Here's where you come in.

Basically whoever comes up with the color scheme I like best, will win this amigurumi from me.



Extra credit will be given to anyone who not only comes up with a beautiful color scheme but also provides me with
1) An affordable yarn brand containing colors from the scheme
2) A yarn brand AND color names for the colors in their color scheme.
3) Links to where I can buy said yarn at the cheapest online rates.

"Rules"
1) Acrylics are okay, natural fibers preferred. No brands that can be purchased at places like Wal Mart, Micheal's, or Hobby Lobby fall under the category of yarns that I'd consider
2) Variegated yarns and color shifting yarns are totally acceptable for this project
3) Yarn weight must be no smaller than sport weight (5 ply) yarn
4) If you suggest a yarn I appreciate it having a yardage of at least 150 yds. so that I can cut down on having to buy 100+ skeins of yarn
5) Yarn MUST MUST MUSH be machine washable!!!!!!!!!!

I was already considering using yarns from Knit Picks (quite possibly from the Brava collection) but am completely open to other yarns.

Here is an empty chart for the blanket that you can fill in with your suggested color scheme.



Entries should be sent to OmNomNomStudios@Gmail.com. This contest will close at Midnight, Monday, April 2nd, 2012. More than one entry per person is permitted just please feel confident in each entry to avoid a possible onslaught of entries that were haphazardly thrown together.

Pro-Portional Designs Has A New Little Sister

As I briefly mentioned on the Pro-Portional Designs Facebook fan page, I've begun a new sister site called Small Fries. If you follow the hypertext link you can read the first post and see what it's all about. I am also in the process of setting up the coordinating Facebook fan page. Because Small Fries is still an Om Nom Nom Studios project it's Facebook will be linked to the Om Nom Nom Studios Twitter feed.

21 Weeks & Counting

As promised I am posting about my most recent and (not so) mysterious last post.

My 2nd sonogram was scheduled well over a month ago for November the 18th at 10 AM. Or so I thought (I schedule every appointment I have these days for 10 AM if possible because it's when I know I can be awake, functioning, and wherever it is I need to be). I could be wrong. I lost the original paper I was given with the info about where I needed to go and when. Naturally, at my next appointment I requested another sheet so that I had something tangible to insure I arrive when and where I was supposed to be.

A cruel count-down began about a week before the fateful date. Cruel because I announced how many days until the 2nd sonogram via my personal Facebook but was not going to be telling everyone the info they wanted to know that day. The plan was to announce it to my family via text message as soon as we knew boy or girl and then to tell the boys family today.

Why wait the extra week? Because everyone here in Ohio wanted to be the first to know and no one can keep a secret. To make sure that no one got upset that they weren't the first to know and to keep our news our news we wanted a time when everyone should be together to be told at the same time (much like we tried to do when we announced my pregnancy.)

That Morning
November 18th (obviously) arrived and we. were. excited. The boy asked for part of his morning off from work to go with me to the hospital. I felt like we were cutting time just a bit shorter than we should. And once in the car, and not far from the hospital, with barely any time left (it was about 9:50 AM) - I decided to look once more at the paper. And oh. dear. gawd. The paper said the appointment was at 9:15 AM!!!

Now not only am I worried about our being late but very worried that they will refuse to see us. The only real consolation was the paper saying the appointment was for between November 18th and November 27th.

We arrive and manage to park on the wrong side of the hospital. I waddled (yes, I waddle now) as quickly as I could along with the boy to what we thought should be the correct side of the hospital. We rush into an elevator, hit "6", and wait for our floor. By this point I'm feeling less than "okay." I really hadn't eaten any breakfast, a quarter of a saltine (but I knew I was supposed to be getting Burger King after!), and was now feeling sweaty, dizzy, and a bit nauseated. Feeling victorious but still pretty lost we walk up to a nurses station and tell them what we are there for. The nurse informed us we were on the wrong 6th floor. Seriously!? That can happen!? The nurses take one look at me and ask if I'm going to be okay. Feeling like poop and definitely unable to focus on anything other than getting to see my baby again I tell them the only response I have to give them right now, "probably not but I'll make it."

Once on the correct 6th floor and speed waddling down the hallway to where we feel has to be the correct place the boy speaks with the woman at the desk. Who wastes no time in telling us we're late. In fact. She tells us the appointment was at 9:30! and the sonographer just left! I guess about then she finally got a look at me and realized I wasn't okay. Not okay enough she called for a nurse.

I was told I could sit down around the corner and she would see if anyone could do the sonogram. I was brought graham crackers (which can be seen on my chest in the photo in my most recent post) and apple juice and eventually a wheelchair (which I greatly appreciated because standing had stopped being my strong suit.)

They located a person to do the sonogram and checked me in.

The (Anatomy) Sonogram
The person who did the sonogram had admittedly not been doing this for very long but refused to say how short a time or where she went to school. She took what must have been at least 30 pictures. All pictures were blurry (Shown are the two best pictures we got. Also everything we got looks pretty creepy as you can see.) and she was rarely able to see whatever she was looking for.

However, for a few moments we were fortunate enough to see our baby's profile. And. I. Cried.

When she first began looking the boy and I thought we saw a flicker of "boy parts" but those possible parts were not in view again through the rest of our visit.

Tadpole was very obviously awake that morning. Every time the woman pressed down on my belly, Tadpole kicked right back where they pushed. Seeing and feeling a kick simultaneously is an interesting sensation, possibly more-so when I realized the sonographer could feel it as well.

The sonographer had such a difficult time that she went to get a doctor to look over her pictures and have a look at Tadpole herself. When the boy and I asked what would happen if the sex was not determined that day they told us we'd have to be surprised on delivery day.

Tadpole kept it's legs crossed through the entire sonogram. The legs moved but stayed crossed. When the doctor went around behind Tadpole to look to see if we have a boy or girl, we saw a clear view of butt cheeks and then those very butt cheeks decided to sit down on a foot and block anything.

In the end the doctor said from what she can see her "gut" says the baby is a girl, but for us not to go buying pink.

About Tadpole
From what we were told Tadpole (on that day) is 14 ounces, has 10 toes, 10 fingers, and looks healthy!

What Now?
I've been unhappy with the level of care at the clinic I've been going to and a month or three ago decided I was more than a little interested in switching the hospital at which I was to deliver.

Don't get me wrong, the ladies at my clinic are nice. But the care of a doctor instead of a mid-wife is something I prefer with our first baby and I would like someone whom when I tell them, "I've been sick for 2 days", will ask a better follow-up question than, "we gave you that paper of which medications you're allowed to take right?"

I see the new doctor on Monday and should be beginning the necessary steps to change delivery hospitals. We are also hoping for a more skilled sonographer to take another look to give us a better answer than a "gut" answer if at all possible.

Oh I Believe in Yesterday. . .

Things have been crazy, busy, and crazy-busy over here lately.



I plan to say more about this photo in about a week. Til then, I guess you'll have to hold tight. But please cross your everything that the things I am looking into that will have to do with all of this work out quickly and a little more easily than they have begun.

But no fears everyone, the above statement does not at all mean that anything is wrong with baby nom!