About Gaynor
Gaynor is a crochet-obsessed teacher and pattern designer from Wokingham in Berkshire.
She learned to knit and crochet as a child, trained and worked as a French teacher for over 10 years, and then picked up her hook again 10 years ago. Gaynor jokes that she is “lucky enough to call myself a full-time hooker…”
In 2012, Gaynor set up The Barkham Hookers crochet group with a few friends in her living room. They now run 4 group sessions a week as well as many regular private lessons with over 600 members on Facebook alone. You can find them on Facbook via The Barkham Hookers’ Charity Group, where many of their charity projects can be seen.
She is very proud of the fact that The Barkham Hookers raised over £60,000 for various national and international charities, £52,000 of that for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. Click here to watch Gaynor share a quick and easy method for crocheting a poppy.
Gaynor loves designing and making blankets, many of which can be found as free CALs (crochet-a-longs) on her blog: Confessions of a Barkham Hooker. During the pandemic, she designed the Coronavirus CAL, posting a new section daily then weekly with colourful pictures and detailed notes.
Signature Technique
Crochet Blankets incorporating a variety of patterns and colours
Top Tips
- Crochet is very forgiving. Don’t be afraid to adjust or change the pattern to suit your needs or likes. And remember, if in doubt pull it out!
- Use a larger hook to work a long foundation chain to avoid it curling up.
- If you work quite loosely choose a slightly smaller hook than advised and a larger hook if you work tightly.
- When working in rows do not forget to work into the last stitch – – which is probably the chain 2/3 made at the start of the previous row.
- Use military buttons as the centre in poppies to add something special.
- If you are working with several balls of yarn, chuck them on the floor and let gravity help you keep them untangled.
Videos
Patterns
Posts
Alzheimer Scotland pattern book
Ann Hill is a tireless supporter and fundraiser for Alzheimer Scotland; one of her recent projects was to arrange to cover the Hampden Park Football stadium turf with quilts -which she did!!!! (and we suggested a really quick and easy pattern for you to make: click here to enjoy: ) Another of her projects has been to produce this book of patterns entitled 'Scottish Quilt Patterns - which contains a wide variety of projects and patterns for you to follow.
Have I done enough quilting?
Modern waddings do not need to be as densely quilted as vintage quilts used to be - that's why the older quilts are quilted approx every 1"; check with the paperwork/washing instructions that come with your wadding but usually today's option is approx 7-10" apart. Question: I have quilted each (log cabin) block on the diagonal to make squares with the quilting line (does that make sense?).
I want to make a cot quilt – where do I start?
You need to start with the fabric: some for the top, wadding for the middle and backing fabric; The wadding and backing fabric should be the same size as each other AND they should be larger than the top fabric, by approx 4" all the way round. Layer together with pins or tacking ready for quilting. see layer quilt and bind Click here: You need to quilt the sandwich either by hand or machine: if you plan to work by machine you have two options: free motion: Jennie has a couple of workshops on the website - the first is free motion embroidery - but don't be put off by the title - it will help
and then the second is about free motion quilting: or using the walking foot.: this is really easy to use as it is just another foot and just sews, but fitting it can be a bit of a trick, so here is some help:click here and then you can sew in straight lines or use simple wavy stitching as suggested by Valerie.