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
New Films in the can
Had a terrific day yesterday filming new content for the site: Matt and Dave were there of course and we filmed the various sections that will make up into Your First Sampler Quilt series; we used gorgeous fabric donated by Makower from their Botanicals range (for which we are very grateful) and we hope that the programme will appeal to both beginners and those with some sewing/patchwork skills as we give alternatives for each or the blocks.
Royal School of Needlework celebrates being 140 years old!
The Royal School of Needlework, the pinnacle of British craftsmanship, celebrates 140 years of keeping the traditional art of hand embroidery alive This year the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) celebrates 14 decades of teaching, practising and promoting hand embroidery. 140 years ago the RSN’s first student enrolled on 5 November 1872 and today over 1000 students a year learn traditional hand embroidery on our thriving education programme whilst our Embroidery Studio continues to offer a unique UK-based service for hand embroidery commissions and restoration projects.
September 2012
We start the month with part 1 of our wander [...]