Welcome to the Timble Tumbles. (@TimbleTumbles)

I accidentally invented the Timble Tumbles when I went to buy a tumble dryer for one of my sisters. My then two year old niece heard me saying "come on then, let's go get this Timble Tumble". She announced that she wanted to come and that she wanted a Timble Tumble. I said we could buy a Timble Tumble from the shop next door with the intention of fobbing her off with a cuddly toy. I soon came to see that I had underestimated the cleverness of two year olds.

We bought the tumble dryer and nipped next door to a toy shop. I picked up various toys and offered them to her. She looked at me and said variously with increasing astonishment at my stupidity: "That's a rabbit Auntie Karen", "That's a duck Auntie Karen", "That is a teddy Auntie Karen". In the end, I promised her I would bring her a Timble Tumble next time I visited.

It takes between 3 and 4 hours to drive home from her house, so I had a long time to think about Timble Tumbles. By the end of the drive, I knew what the Timble Tumbles were, what they were made of and what they looked like. I then set to with my trusty knitting needles and slowly, the Timble Tumbles came into being. I then wrote and (badly) illustrated a book for her.

She loved it and so I have continued to write little Timble Tumble stories. I have moved to photographing the Timble Tumbles to illustrate the books (my drawing skills are poor).