Ballyhoura Baby Blanket Origin Story

Though we had kept my second pregnancy a bit of a secret, I was knitting a baby blanket for the little Bee which would later be the basis of my Ballyhoura Baby Blanket pattern. I enjoyed trying out the stitchwork and this test knit helped me refine the design and choose the right yarn ultimately.

It Took Four Years

In full disclosure, I’ll admit I actually cast on this blanket in September 2012 when Optimus was less than one year old. It just took me four years to finish it. But it was done in my final trimester of pregnancy with Bumblebee to welcome him to the world with a light layer of hand knit warmth and love.

When I finished, it was only possible with the incentive of Ravellenics and major stress knitting during a difficult pregnancy. Here are my notes from the project:

A pattern I came up with for a simple baby blanket in 2012. I bought the yarn, jotted the repeat pattern down on a slip of paper, and worked away on and off for a few months. Then I had to have big surgery and took a break to basically sleep for a month. It hibernated until this summer because it is just too lovely to not finish. Ravellenics gave me the push I needed to knit for every spare minute for a weekend and IT IS FINALLY DONE! In the last four years, many other knit chevron baby blankets have appeared on the scene. This is not unique, but it is mine. I’ll fine tune the pattern and knit it again in the near future I’m sure.

Finished this for the WIP event for Ravellenics 2016. Finally cast off Sunday, 7th of August. It was a busy weekend for knitting while my son had playdates. I blocked and it looks great.

Even with a color catcher sheet, the red border yarn bled onto the neighboring rows. It is blocking now. Being for a baby, I am not being too critical. But will knit the final pattern with a different yarn.

© Visit Ballyhoura

Design Inspiration from Nature

Back when Optimus was a baby, I saw a photo of the Ballyhoura Mountains much like the one above. It struck me how the stacked mountains looked with the sun and shadows playing together. I wanted to find a way to have waves to emulate that in knitting stitches. The idea of bringing the complexity of light and shadow into the design was still just an idea at that point. I would later achieve that with color changes, which created a simple, effective, and easy design. This was in 2012 when I cast on the project initially.

Design Inspiration from Travel

Then in Autumn 2013 after a visit to Portugal, I had the mosaic sidewalks and plazas on my mind, especially the ones in Cascais. Seeing the design reaffirmed my desire to complete my design and perfect it with a second test knit. It was fun to have an idea in mind and see if exemplified in tile. I eventually named the completed first attempt at baby blanket, Cascais. It was the execution of the pattern that didn’t play with the light and shadow of the Ballyhoura Mountains though.

Knitting in Pisa

When I was pregnant with Bumblebee, we spent a week in Pisa with my dad which is where some of these photos were taken. It was one of the Ada Europe Conference weeks we cherished each June. We had a little AirBnB right on a park square across from the conference facility and, more importantly, on the same block as a lovely gelato place.

Fine Tuning the Stripes

As I knit the blanket, I played with different stripe widths. This helped me determine spacing and shifts in appearance. It helped me so much to play around as I knit. I try to remember that every stitch, every row is trying something out. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Messing up isn’t the worst thing ever and it is a safe place to make mistakes. I really do love the cream, aqua, and red color combination.

If you’d like to read more about the pattern itself and knit it for yourself, visit this post all about my Ballyhoura Baby Blanket pattern.