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
Brad Maker used for scap brooch
Now that I know how to use the brad maker (see the video) www.justhands-on.tv/videos/brad-maker-for-quilters/ I am on the lookout for other ideas - other than my memory board - and I came across this great but simple idea for a brooch which uses up lovely pieces of scrap fabric; Don't forget to send pics for our Show & Tell page!
Textiles in Focus -17-19 February 2012
This 3 day textile fair is organised specifically for those with a passion for stitched embellished and constructed textiles; the show is held at the Cottenham Village Accademy (was College) postcode CB24 8UA; exhibitions, workshops, demonstrators, talk by Jennie Rayment, and we will be there with the Justhands-on.tv stand and goodies too. Hope to see you there - we really enjoyed it last year.
Alternative colourway for our Rosebud Fayre quilt
Dear Valerie and Jenny,
I tried so hard to get the same material as you for the block of the month but I couldn't find it anywhere. Somewhat discouraged I tried to find something similar but failed miserably. Half-heartedly I decided to try a completely different colour combination. However, by the time it came you were already onto block four and I was worried that I would be too late to join in (being a new member and unsure just how things worked).