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
Festival of Quilts 2013
As usual this was a fantastic event and most of our contributors were there; Jennie was busy with her own stand and Val was helping out on the Creative Quilting stand. It didn’t leave much time for wandering around to either see the quilts OR get new product but Val wasn’t to be outdone on her shopping and you need to keep an eye on the ‘shop’ for the new bits; in brief here are the highlights: Jennie has a new DVD out –Texture in Sudoku Mary Gamester has a new book – Transfer Painting Hilary Beattie has a new book – Make it Personal Janet Clare has a new book – A Field Guide – available through the shop Jane Rollason has a new book – Fun, Fast & Furious – quick & easy applique panels New patterns from Daisy Chain include: Just Peachy by Lee Brown New patterns from The Stitch Witch include new Dog House needlebox and a new hanging system for your small projects.
Downton Abbey fabric from Makower
Well for once Twitter has come up trumps; just learnt about new range from Makower Andover Fabrics is delighted to announce that the first exclusive collection of licensed fabrics for Downton Abbey ® will be available to you this September. Playing on the strength of the upstairs women of Downton, this exciting premiere collection will be THE WOMEN’S COLLECTION, featuring designs chosen in collaboration with the award-winning Downton Abbey production team.
You need to defluff your machine regularly!
Superior Threads in America have a Dr of Threadology - Dr.Bob; if you go to their website https://www.superiorthreads.com it is full of wonderful information and here is a true and salutory story from their June 2013 newsletter: Lint is defined as an accumulation of fluffy fibers. We have lint in clothes dryers, clothing, and unfortunately, our sewing machines.