The craft of crochet may well take its name from the French word meaning “small hook”, but there’s absolutely nothing petite about the smooth wooden implement Sarah Shrimpton is wielding. Nor the lime green bean bag I am sitting on.

For those of us with dusty memories of dark houses with lacy beaded dollies adorning ancient sideboards, Sarah’s designs are a gust of fresh air. Pouffes, pineapple cushions and chunky throws adorn her West Sussex home where, appropriately for this historically home-based craft, she produces her supersize crochet.

If traditional crochet is akin to a black and white television, then Sarah’s is wide-angle flat-screen, all colour and high-definition impact. Her contemporary designs subtly punctuate her home, while in her craft room upstairs the chunky yarn that has shaped her modern style fills the shelves. “I think people still associate crochet with something grannies do,” says ­Sarah. “But there are lots of people who are making really modern patterns. Just check out Instagram.”