50 Crochet World CROCHET-WORLD.COM OCTOBER 2018
Recently, I had the change to talk with Bonnie Barker,
whose latest book, Cable Crochet Made Easy, features
her love of textured cable designs and her unique
teaching style. What a joy to get to know Bonnie and
catch her enthusiasm for crochet cables!
Crochet World: Bonnie, tell us a little bit about
yourself. When did you learn to crochet?
Bonnie Barker: I’m a retired homeschool educator,
a mother of five wonderful young adults and wife to
a great guy. I learned to crochet when I was 7 years
old after watching my next-door neighbors’ mom
crochet a huge granny square afghan—the type that
is just one big square. I was mesmerized by watching
her hook and yarn move. After many days of watch-
ing her progress, she sat down and started a granny
square for me. I’ve been crocheting ever since!
CW: What types of projects did you first like
to crochet?
BB: At first, I worked on that big granny square
afghan, and finally finished it when I was 9. Later,
I learned to read crochet patterns with the help of
my best friend’s mom. At that point I would make
just about anything from any pattern I could get my
hands on, including a granny square bikini I found
in one of my Crochet World magazines back in the
’70s! (Well, I did live in south Florida, but this is one
design I promise never to model!)
CW: Crochet teacher or designer—which came
first?
BB: Definitely teacher! I’ve been teaching crochet
for decades to folks of all ages. It never entered my
mind to design my own until I couldn’t find the
patterns I really wanted to crochet.
CW: You are known for your Celtic crochet. What
influenced your love of cables?
BB: I’ve always loved the way cables look in knit
designs, but I prefer crochet over knitting. I think
that’s where it started. One day I found a couple
of Leisure Arts leaflets by Annie Ought, published
in the late 1970s/early 1980s that created lovely
crochet cabled designs. I made all the designs in
those leaflets multiple times. I wanted more designs
like them, but they just weren’t available. This wasAn Interview With Bonnie Barker
Designer, Teacher & Authorbefore the Internet, so the only patterns available
were what you could find in department stores.
CW: Tell us about the first crochet design you
ever submitted. What made you decide to
submit a design for publication?
BB: It has a lot to do with the county fair. The
first time I won “Best of Show” for one of my Aran
afghans I received a call from a woman in New
Jersey who had seen my afghan on display at the
fair. She called me to inquire as to where she could
purchase the pattern. I was flabbergasted because
it was my own original design and there was not
a written pattern available, at least not yet. This
prompted me to photograph the afghan, along
with four others and send an inquiry to Leisure Arts.
To my surprise they were interested in my work!
CW: Tell us about your first two books. What was
it like to work on a collection of patterns? Did
you enjoy the process?
BB: They both were a LOT of hard work, but I
enjoyed it very much. I was so thankful that the
editor of my first book allowed me to include some
photos I took of the beautiful country of Ireland,
which inspired the designs. In the process, I learned
a lot too—about yarns, designing, sizing, writing,
editing and communicating.
CW: You recently self-published a third book
featuring beautiful cable designs. Tell us what
prompted you to self-publish this time.
BB: I wanted to have more creative control of this
book in a few areas of the publication process. The
first was in choosing the models for the designs. I
wanted to include some of my friends and family,
especially those whose body size was more, dare I
say, “normal.” True beauty comes in all shapes and
sizes, and I wanted my models to reflect that. I was
especially blessed that Valerie “Valley” Ennis was able
to be one of my models. Valley was born with Down
syndrome and has the most contagious, beautiful
smile I have ever seen. Her beauty transcends what
can be captured with a camera, and she is a joy in
every sense of the word.
I also wanted more control over how the patterns
were written, especially since they needed to cor-
respond to the instructional videos. My two editors,
Becky Barker and Christy Barker—both with excellent
editing skills as writers and crocheters—did an excel-
lent job helping me to make this possible!
CW: I know you do a lot of teaching videos on
YouTube, so how did the idea come about to
add links to your new book with step-by-step
video tutorials?
BB: This is something I’ve wanted to do from the
very beginning. I didn’t want crocheters to be held