Barbara MacKellar hardly sleeps. Every night she can be found sitting on her porch, reading whatever novel her friend has lent her. It can be imagined that she awakes this time of night to enjoy the quiet of a house that has witnessed the rearing of six children and the birth of one worldwide company.

When her first child was born in 1976 with a life-threatening heart defect, MacKellar assumed the role of at-home mother without hesitation. But the hours spent at the hospital, the days spent at home, and the nights spent rocking her child somehow turned MacKellar's hobby of knitting into a global enterprise.

The business began in September 1978 when MacKellar bought her first knitting machine, a sort of hand-powered loom. She made personalized blankets for her family, which by November 1979 included two children—son Mac and daughter Casey—with their names repeated on each one. Other family members and friends requested their own blankets, so MacKellar moved the machine to her basement and began knitting, never imagining how busy she would soon be. With her initial investment of $1,000, she broke even in the first year, helped by her sister-in-law's willingness to carry sample blankets in her children's clothing shop. MacKellar's immediate success, which she achieved despite her husband's initial cynicism, was a nod to her dedication to the project. “Frankly, when she showed me the machine she wanted, I bet her it would more than likely end up under the bed within a week,” her husband of 32 years, Steve MacKellar, says. “I guess she showed me, didn't she?”

He was not the only skeptic. MacKellar herself never thought the blankets would be as successful as they are. “When I bought my first two-pound cone of yarn, I thought I'd never use it all in a million years,” MacKellar says, pushing her pixie-cut, dark brown hair out of her eyes. She pulls her glasses down from her head, onto her eyes, focusing on the light-pink and white Jillian blanket she's stitching. “I now go through five a day.“

By 1981, strangers, referred by customers, were calling MacKellar, asking to speak to “the blanket lady.” MacKellar adopted the name, and later that year hired her first employee. The extra help was vital when MacKellar gave birth to her third child, daughter Amy, in August of 1982. The business kept running during and after each of her pregnancies with the blankets in high demand, but MacKellar never overextended herself at her children's expenses. Some businesswomen might feel the need for a balance between work and home, but according to Steve, that was not an issue. “There was no balance,” he says, a pink and navy blue Casey blanket covering his lap. “The kids always came first.”

The calls kept coming, and so did the kids. MacKellar had two more boys, Andrew in September 1984 and Trevor in August 1986. The couple thought the family was complete; yet, in 1987, they hired a 17-year-old British nanny named Josephine Jackson. Jackson returned each summer, no longer as a nanny, but as a member of the family. When she became a professional and no longer had lengthy summer vacations, she switched her annual visits to Christmastime. She now brings her husband, Andrew, and two daughters, Isabelle and Charlotte, to Michigan with her. Today she is their foster daughter and the full-fledged sixth child of the two parents, whom she calls Ma and Pa.

In addition to MacKellar's unfailing energy, which allows her to work full time and care for her children, she possesses an endless supply of love. She greets co-workers and friends—most whom she has seen the day before—with a tight embrace. “All good adjectives can describe Barb, but I'd have to say that ‘heart’ is [her biggest strength],” Steve says. “She would do anything for anybody. She feels others' pain and joy like it's her own.”

MacKellar's heart broke, though, when tragedy struck the family. In June 1994, their oldest daughter, Casey, passed away from leukemia at age 14. Although the Blanket Lady has always been a home-based operation, the loss brought an even greater focus on the family. MacKellar would not knit unless the kids were “in school or down for a nap,” she says. And, at times, she would “get up in the middle of the night,” to knit. Any time she could be with her children, she was.

Steve did the same. “I wasn't there as much as I should have been,” he says, his graying eyebrows furrowing as he talks about his daughter. “After Casey died, I never missed any of my kids' events again. I came home at 3 pm every Friday and seldom worked another weekend.”

Even with family as her primary concern, MacKellar's business outgrew her basement. In 1998, she sold it to her husband's corporation, MacKellar Associates. She moved her equipment to one of the company's buildings, located only 10 minutes from her West Bloomfield, Michigan, home, where she worked while her children were in school. Even though she has continued to make the blankets herself, she now has extra help. A secretary takes orders—baby blankets cost $65—while other employees help with invoicing and shipping. Because the Blanket Lady is located inside a factory that houses other divisions of MacKellar Associates, the number of helpers MacKellar has can vary depending on her and the other divisions' needs. Most of the time, MacKellar uses two other women for her operation.

The Blanket Lady primarily sells baby blankets, with pink-and-white or blue-and-white as the most popular color combinations, but MacKellar also offers two additional sizes for youths and adults, prices ranging from $140 to $160. “We sell afghans mostly for weddings, so summer is active with those orders. They have the couple's last name repeated all over the blanket and their first names and wedding date on the bottom,” MacKellar explains, surrounded in the factory by buzzing machines and colorful thread. “Holiday time is also a popular time for afghans for Grandma or Grandpa. Birthdays keep afghan orders trickling in the rest of the year.”

Baby Blanket
by The Blanket Lady

Even as the company expands into more of a corporation, MacKellar's triumphs and motivation always return to family. “I have to give Steve so much credit for being my biggest cheerleader and business advisor,” MacKellar says, her usual wide smile softening as she praises her husband. “He is really more responsible for the growth of the Blanket Lady. But the quality of the product is my baby.”

MacKellar's son Andrew, now 21, whose thick brown locks and oval face replicate his mother's, agrees that although the Blanket Lady is his mom's brainchild, its success is a joint effort. “My mother's first passion is definitely family. No matter the situation, family is first. Her business would not be what it is today without family,” Andrew says.

Andrew's statement is no exaggeration. Even though MacKellar dreamt up the company out of a desire to be with her children, now that her children are grown, they have followed her to work. Three of the six MacKellar children work for MacKellar Associates. Andrew's office is steps away from his mother's blanket station. Amy, now 23, sits at a desk directly outside her father's office. And Mac, now 29, is pioneering a new division of MacKellar that launched in Mexico in 2005. Witnessing their parents' relationship over the years has encouraged the kids to seek the same type of familial success. “Every time I came home from school, my mom was there. It helped me learn the value of family and show the importance of having a close relationship with family,” Andrew says. “Watching your parents all the time is the best way to learn values and morals.”

Life has changed for MacKellar since both her children and her business left home. She stands in her kitchen, leaning against black granite countertops, with a learn-Spanish-in-12-weeks CD playing in the background. MacKellar was inspired to study the language after Andrew spent the previous fall in Spain and Mac moved so close to Mexico. “I used to have what I called ‘phone friends’ or ‘blanket friends’ whom I only knew from taking their orders,” MacKellar says after completing her lesson for the day. “They knew my kids' names, and I knew theirs. Since my business has expanded, and I don't answer the calls anymore, I miss that aspect. I miss those people.”

Still, going corporate has not removed all the original features of MacKellar's homespun business. She still finishes the blankets by hand. Customer loyalty has not wavered, either. “One lady still writes me a card every time she buys a blanket. She always thanks me for it and asks about the kids,” MacKellar says.

Customer Bridget McMahon of Milford, Connecticut, illustrates the strength of MacKellar's word-of-mouth marketing. McMahon received a blanket as a Christmas present for her daughter, Madison, and in the past three months has bought two blankets to give as gifts. “These blankets have such a way of personalizing the experience of your new baby. You are able to put the date on the blanket to commemorate their birthday with the baby's full name on the opposite side,” McMahon explains, noting that the blanket comes gift-wrapped in pastel paper, complete with a bow. “They are different than just your average baby blanket. They are unique, also, because they are handmade with such loving care.”

Ironically, while Barbara MacKellar found comfort in knitting when dealing with the reality of her first son's heart condition, today, thousands of others find comfort in the blankets she creates for them. MacKellar is now making baby blankets for mothers and fathers who received blankets as children. With orders holding steady at close to 200 a month, the business is thriving, growing about 20% a year since 1998. “I never had aspirations about being a million dollar company,” MacKellar says. “I was just so happy doing what I loved and loving what I accomplished.”

MacKellar cradles her two-year-old granddaughter, Isabelle, on her left hip, while one-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte, sleeps in a car seat MacKellar has hanging from her left forearm. She picks up a diaper-stuffed stroller with her empty right hand and begins maneuvering her way down steep, cement stairs. “That was nothing. I used to have three more tagging along behind me,” MacKellar says when she has made it safely to the bottom. MacKellar may be an accomplished entrepreneur, but there is no question what she was born to be: a mother.

Lauren Maiman...