When it comes to designing, Linda Gavaldon sees herself as a problem-solver. She starts with an idea that’s a bit out of the ordinary and then gets to work — playing around with different stitches, layouts and colors until it matches her vision. She’s particularly creative when it comes to designing personalized baby blankets.
Linda’s “Baby Cakes” baby blanket is covered with a mix of textured cupcakes. The sweet design is actually made up of three different motifs, including cupcakes with ribbed or seed stitch holders and frosting with and without mini bobbles for sprinkles. Linda also provides two different layouts in her pattern for organizing the motifs. The blanket is knit as one piece with seven rows of five motifs, each separated by garter stitch. She chose Berroco Comfort for the project, which is perfect for babies because it’s so soft and washable.
How long have you been knitting?
I’ve been knitting off and on since I learned in my 8th grade home ec class. I started knitting more regularly about 10 years ago, when my nieces & nephews starting having babies.
How did you come up with this design?
Baby Cakes was designed when I learned that ‘baked goods’ would be the theme that my LYS, Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, would be using for this year’s yarn crawl. Because the designs are interchangeable, the knitter can place the designs in any order that suits them. The pattern uses only the basic seed and stockinette stitches, so the biggest challenge is making the cherries (bobbles) on the top of the cupcakes. The pattern includes both charts and written instructions.
What’s your favorite project you’ve ever made?
One of my favorites is the shore scene blanket I made for my great-niece. The family is into sailing and being at the shore. It was a combination of textured beige yarn for sand with an intersecting diagonal blue for the ocean. I took design elements from another of my patterns to add footprints and an Adirondack chair to the beach then waves, fish and sailboats to the ocean. I liked doing this one because it was a challenge but would never be a pattern for sale, so I could do a lot of designing on the fly.
Do you have a cool design you want to share? Or did you recently finish a project with Berroco yarn? You can email Ashley: apalumbo@berroco.com or post it to the Berroco Lovers forum in Ravelry.