Hooked on crochet: Burnet man hunts, fishes, loops, and stitches

Bryan Barnett isn’t just good at crochet; he’s darn good at it. The Burnet native picked up the hobby after becoming fascinated with the complexity of the patterns and the excruciating attention to detail. Within a few stitches, he was hooked, even winning a top prize at the 2023 Burnet County Area Fair for his needlework.

“It’s like, ‘Here comes some guy out of nowhere taking the grand prize,’” Barnett said of his unexpected win.

The only man in Division 11-Needlework, Barnett took home Best in Division for a crochet tablecloth that took about three months and 3,400 yards of yarn to complete. That’s nearly 2 miles of thread woven into a chain of complicated loops arranged in interlocked concentric rings that would boggle the mind on closer inspection. It was those very details that drew him to the art.

Division 11 Supervisor Lynda French expressed amazement at Barnett’s ability in what is traditionally a woman-dominated art.

“It’s a surprise that any man would crochet to the extent he does because he creates his own patterns,” she said. “One of the judges last year was very critical. She looks over every piece carefully, looking for dropped threads. She could not find anything wrong with his product at all.”

Crocheting, at its core, is taking a piece of yarn and looping it in on itself repeatedly in a specific pattern to create anything from a scarf to a blanket. Its origins are rooted in the ancient art of weaving fishing nets and animal snares, something probably done by both men and women at the time. In today’s world, however, needlework is a decorative art dominated by women artisans. That hasn’t stopped Barnett.

Growing up in Burnet, Barnett was fascinated by his grandmother’s crochet doilies. He studied them closely, following the patterns and puzzling over the complex designs and details.

“I’ve always been one who likes to learn,” he said. “That’s the way I am. I want to figure out how to do it.”

Barnett grew up hunting and fishing around Burnet and graduated as a Bulldog. He then became a Wildcat at Abilene Christian University, where he got his bachelor’s degree and a master’s in wildlife biology. He did a stint in the U.S. Navy and worked in taxidermy prior to getting his teaching certificate. He taught in East Texas and around San Antonio before returning to Burnet High School, from where he retired after 18 years. His wife of 25 years, Stacy Barnett, is the Burnet County AgriLife Extension Office secretary. They have two sons, Marc and Greyson. 

“I always did have some kind of an interest, whether it was fishing or hunting, growing up,” he said. “I did a little more fishing than hunting because it was more available, but I’ve always enjoyed anything that has had to do with plants or animals.”

Barnett’s fascination with crocheting began in middle school. It wasn’t until he retired from teaching at Burnet High School in 2021 that he really got re-hooked on looping single strands of thread into increasingly intricate masterpieces.

His current project is making a dozen doilies for his son’s upcoming wedding rehearsal dinner, which he laid out across his desk at Longhorn Cavern State Park, where he works as guest services manager, to show this reporter.

Each doily is unique and complicated and takes about two weeks to complete. He gave a ballpark figure of 55 hours of focused, butt-in-the-chair work to finish each one.

“I like getting into the details, and these pieces are very detailed,” he said. “These aren’t what you’d call Grandma’s patterns.”

Ultimately, he likes working with his hands, whatever the project. To Barnett, crocheting is simple if detailed. 

“If you’ve ever taken an extension cord and made a loop and then pulled that through another loop, that’s all crochet is—pulling through the loop,” he said.

The fact that crocheting is not typically seen as a “manly” pastime is something he has come to terms with over the years.

“It’s not really the kind of thing that most guys do,” he said. “I’m not deterred at all, but I’m also not real crazy about the attention on it.”

His wife is supportive.  

“She ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ over everything I make,” he said. “She loves it. She brags to people about it. In some ways, it’s really embarrassing, but in other ways, it is very cool.”

Although he was the only man who entered a crochet project in last year’s Burnet County Area Fair, he has learned he’s not the only man in needlework.

“I remember when I was in college, somebody I worked with at a summer camp, her dad cross-stitched to help himself quit smoking,” Barnett said. “He just needed to concentrate on something else.”

Barnett visited his friend’s home one day, and she pointed out all the cross-stitched artwork on the walls. 

“She said, ‘Oh, yeah, my dad did that,’” Barnett said. “I thought, ‘OK, so I’m not the only one in the world.’”

dakota@thepicayune.com