I can very clearly remember the day when I first "met" Charlotte from Little Hankies on twitter. Discovering wonderful new products and small businesses on twitter is one of the things I most love about blogging and on this day in question I can remember the feeling of discovery. That little sparkle of something special that I just "knew" was going to be brilliant.
The other thing I remember is embarrassment. It felt very weird to admit that my two girls would have no idea what a hankie was. Growing up, I always used handkerchiefs and tissues were a bit of a rarity. But as someone who likes to make small changes that can make a green difference to the environment, it occurred to me that maybe I should rediscover the simple handkerchief!
Little Hankies make children's handkerchiefs. These aren't plain old white things, they are beautifully patterned printed hankies with designs to appeal to lots of different children's tastes. From dinosaurs to bears, from snowflakes to fairies. Each hankie is 24cm square and beautifully finished at the edges.
Lara and Holly sat with me online to choose their own designs of Little Hankies children's handkerchief. Lara chose a loom band design and Holly chose wild flowers. Each Hankie costs £4.49 which feels like quite a lot but a hankie can be used time after time after time. Just pop it in your next regular wash when it has been used too much and then use it all over again.
When our Little Hankies arrived in their gorgeous hand-wrapped packaging, I did have to explain to Lara and Holly all over again about how a Hankie worked. It's like a tissue, but you don't throw it away after you've blown your nose! Lara can just about comprehend this now and asks for hers when it has disappeared into the wash, but I don't think Holly has quite grasped the concept! But for Holly a hankie is so much more practical than a tissue; she has such sensitive skin that is easily irritated by a tissue... a soft cotton fabric is much kinder to the skin.
I have definitely been re-converted to hankies (and in fact I'm on the lookout for some groovy grown-up ones now). In the future, I'd love to see selection packs of 3 or more hankies from Little Hankies so that you always have one available!
