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
Can I mitre the corners on my quilt?
Yes of course you can - BUT you need to be aware that you need more fabric at the corners to work with than you think you might - so not one to be attempted if you are short of fabric! You can also use more than one fabric - so a double or triple border with a mitre is also possible.
What can I use to hold up my quilt sandwich when basting?
If you are using the basting gun it is so much easier to have the quilt sandwich lifted up from the surface; there used to be a basting grate that could be purchased, but this seems to be a thing of the past; a tip from one viewer is to use the cake cooling tray, and another uses an upturned plastic cutlery tray - just a couple of lateral thinking ideas!
Take 9 a great success
Hi all Just giving an update on my king size quilt,I decided to try take nine for the side of quilt and cut all the pieces out ,this wasn't easy for me but I got there eventually,I purchased my fat quarters from Hobby craft in Havant & I just want to tell you not all of their fat 1/4s are good size some in the 6 packs are a bit smaller and I used some pieces from my stash.I have sewn 4 of my blocks together and am so chuffed with them - each 1 is exact size and went together so easily.Thanks Valerie for pattern and video couldn't have done it without you xxxxx from Sheila (learner) Want to know what Sheila was making?