About RJK Crochet & The TinkerBall
HI my name is Rebecca Keddy and I’m a Yarn Addict. (Giggle).
I have always been a crafter. Growing up in a small town in New Brunswick, Canada, I never had enough to do in the winter time. So, when I was about 8, my mother and the other women in my family began introducing me to different crafts to “keep me out of trouble”.
The first craft I learned was cross stitch. Mum made it a competition--the winner got bragging rights. I won!!!
As a kid, I was sick a lot with bronchitis and walking pneumonia. This meant lots of time on the couch with nothing to do, so I learned how to knit. For years, I was a dedicated knitter, producing many wonderful items. A budding entrepreneur even at that tender age, I parlayed my knitting skills into a few small businesses, primarily making scarves on a knitting machine. RJK Knits was one of my first venture, creating “famous kid wizard” and themed football team scarves.
Being a highly passionate yarn creative, I’ve always been eager to progress my craft, even branching out into to knit pot holders, and even exploring new crafts such as stained glass production.
But my first love has always been yarn work because it’s so peaceful and calming – sort of a manual meditation which helped me though several difficult periods in my life.
In 2015 I was in Canada visiting my Brother and sister-in-law, an avid crocheter. I’d always wanted to learn crocheting, but to my great frustration, couldn’t master the stitching. The whole chain and turn thing always threw me for a loop, no pun intended. As for following a pattern phhewww—forget that!
But watching her, I got to thinking that maybe I’d developed the patience and discipline to finally master Crochet. In fact, I got so excited I went all in, buying many books and humongous amounts of yarn. I started crocheting baby blankets for every person I knew who was pregnant. It became an obsession—because, I rarely do things in moderation! I even started producing a daily blog focused on different types of stitches until I knew I needed a break.
A few years later, I discovered a chenille yarn that so tickled my fancy I decided to start a line of baby afghans. Along the way, I could see my cats loved this yarn as much as I did, so I made some cat toys. What I love most about crocheting with chenille yarn is how easy it is to create so many shapes in large quantities and quickly too. Think stuffed animals, tubes, balls, and larger round-shaped items like pet beds.
At this point, all I wanted to do was crochet after work, which eventually left me with a ton of inventory. So I decided to sign up for some shows where the cat toys really took off. In fact, a lot of customers started saying they could use a toy like this to for themselves.
Thus was born the TINKERBALL.
