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
Is a non-stick craft mat the same as an applique mat?
In reply to your question I am not familiar with the craft product that Create & Craft sell; however I can tell you that the Applique mat we sell in the shop is see-through so that you can use it to position your pieces accurately; if the pieces are coated in Heat n Bond (or similar fusing web) they will stil to each other but not the mat -although you may have to let the mat cool a little.
The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexander Palace, London
Fab day out with my friend Valerie; it is what it say with LOADS of knitting - and if you thought knitting was just for jumpers think again! A real showcase for new young stitching talent and great exhibitions, including one by E.A.S.T. whose exhibition 'Between The Lines; will be going on the road and we are hoping to catch up with then in 2015 in Suffolk: www.easttextile.co.uk Prism had more of their work on display - another talented group as you have seen from our films.
What was the pattern?
Sometimes the quilts hanging in the background of the workshops cause as many questions as the workshop itself. That was certainly the case with my Straight Stitched fused applique tutorial - the quilt in the background was made from a pattern called Flower Power designed by Geralyn Powers and available from www.thankfullysew.com