The Origin of Tink



I learned to crochet young. I remember my Mum would crochet doll's blankets for me and my sister, but I think that was the extent of her talent and interest. Once my sister and I were too big for dolls, I don't think she ever crocheted again.

Her Mum, my Nanna, taught me and my sister to knit when we were perhaps six or seven years old. My Mum has a photo of that very day; my sister and I sitting on my Nanna's sofa proudly holding up our first ever pieces of knitting. Or rather, some straggly material which was mostly gaping holes with a bit of yarn around them.

I would love to be telling you that I've been knitting and crocheting ever since, but that would be a lie. I returned to it now and again over the years. I remember crocheting lap blankets for my nieces; a slight improvement on Mum's doll blankets, but then nothing else.

It really wasn't until, having worked full time all of my life, I took time out after having my baby that I got seriously into it. There's something about babies and making baby clothes that inspires even reluctant or occasional knitters to have another go.

Not that you immediately have a load of free time when you're at home with a small baby; for the uninitiated, it's actually the opposite. It was when she was about seven to eight months old, sleeping all night and in her own room when I found something I'd known and completely and utterly unappreciated before. Free evenings.

So having taken up the crochet hook, and later knitting needles, because of my little daughter, it's perhaps no great suprise that the items I focussed on and then the Folksy shop I created were based around woolly items for little girls. She is the Tinky Tonk, nicknamed since infancy because she is, well, quite a bit of a tinker. And she loves Tinkerbell. And her first name is Tonk*


*It's not.



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