CHAPTER XVII

MARY MARIE COMES TO LIFE

THE next morning, after breakfast, Mary Frances hurried to her room, hoping to have another delightful lesson.

“Aunt Maria will be so surprised to see what I’ve done,” she whispered. “And mother will be so pleased.”

“You surely will surprise them,” said the Yarn Baby, “and if I am not mistaken we will have to work with all our might to get everything ready by the time they come home.”

“Indeed we will!” said Mary Frances, getting things ready for work. “I wonder what comes next?”

“Oh, excuse me,” she exclaimed after a moment, “I must go get my dolly. I put her to bed in the playroom last night.”

When she lifted Mary Marie out of her little bed and stood her on the floor, the little thing looked at her and said, “Mamma, my tootsies are told.”

“Oh, can you talk again?” cried Mary Frances. “Is it true, or am I dreaming?”

“’Torse it’s true,” answered Mary Marie. “’Torse it’s true. Fairly Flew tame in the night and tissed me.”

“What did she tell you, dear?” asked Mary Frances, lifting the doll in her arms.

“She said that I tould talk until the lessons were over.”

“Oh, I hope that they last as long as I live!” said Mary Frances, hugging the doll close.

“Toe do I!” Mary Marie said. “But my foots are told.”

“Oh, you darling!” cried Mary Frances. “You want me to make you a pair of slippers!”

“Please, Mamma,” said the little doll.

So Mary Frances dressed her in her bathrobe, and carried her into the sewing room and sat her on the table.

“How I wish I had a little ball for her to play with,” she said.

Then the Yarn Baby asked, “Why not make her one? I’ll give you the directions:

BABY’S BALL

(See picture opposite page 136—color plate)

Make the same way as the pompons on the Doll’s Toque (page 95), using circles 3 inches across with a 1-inch opening in the center. Wind until center is almost filled.

“Never throw away ends of yarn,” Wooley Ball added. “You can make them into a beautiful baby’s ball—no matter how many different colors there are; or you can make a ball for your mother to use as a—

HAIR PIN BALL[D]

(See picture opposite page 40—color plate)

Make in same way as pompons on Doll’s Toque, using circles of cardboard 3½ inches across, and a 1-inch opening in the center. Wind until opening is almost filled.

“Oh, I will give mother one on her birthday!” said Mary Frances.

Soon she set to work and made a baby’s ball for Mary Marie.

“Pretty ball!” said the dolly, trying to catch it in her hands again and again. Suddenly she began to cry.

“Why, what is the matter, dear?” asked Mary Frances.

“Foots told,” the baby sobbed.

Mary Frances laid the dolly’s shawl over her feet. “Is that better?” she asked. “Oh, how I wish I knew how to make you a pair of slippers!”

“You will soon learn how to do that,” said the Yarn Baby, and gave the directions for making—

DOLL’S CROCHETED BEDROOM SLIPPERS

(See picture opposite page 200)

Material: Pink or light blue Germantown zephyr. Bone crochet hook No. 3.

Directions:

The work is begun at the toe of the slipper. See “A” in the picture on page 109.

1. Make 8 chain stitches.

2. Skip 1 chain, and put 1 single crochet in each of 3 chain stitches.

3. Put 3 single crochets in the fourth chain stitch.

4. Put 1 single crochet in the next 3 chain stitches. Make 1 chain to use in turning. (In single crochet work, always make 1 chain in turning.)

5. Second row: Put 1 single crochet in each stitch, taking the back thread only of the stitch. (The first and second rows form a “rib.” The slippers are made of “ribs.”)

6. Third row: Put 1 single crochet in each of 4 stitches. Put 3 single crochets in the fifth stitch. Put 1 single crochet in each of the next 4 stitches.

NOTE.—The adding of stitches, as in the fifth stitch, is called “increasing.”

7. Fourth row: Put 1 single crochet in each stitch.

8. Fifth row: Increase as in direction No. 6 in sixth stitch.

9. Sixth row: 1 single crochet in each stitch.

This row completes the toe part, or front of the slipper.

10. Seventh row: This row starts the sides. Make 1 single crochet in each of 6 stitches. Make 1 chain to turn.

11. Eighth row: Make 1 single crochet in each stitch. Make 9 ribs for the sides of the slipper.

_To Join Side to Toe_

Hold the edge of the ninth rib (D) to edge of opposite side of front (C), right sides facing each other. (See picture page 109.)

Join edges with single crochet stitches, taking up 1 loop only of the stitches forming the ribs.

_To Form the Toe_

Fold tip of toe together, bringing A to B. (See page 109.)

Thread a darning or zephyr needle with yarn and sew tip of slipper toe together.

_To Make Top of Slipper_

Spaces for runners are made in this way: Starting[E] at corner at right side of top (A), make 2 chain stitches. Join them with a slip stitch to the point at the top of the nearest rib.

Continue in this way all around top of slipper.

_To Make Trimming at Top_

Make 3 chain stitches. Put crochet hook through the first runner space and make a slip stitch. Make 3 chains and put a slip stitch in the next runner space. Continue all around top of slipper.

_To Make Runner_

Make a chain of 45 chain stitches.

Thread this into the runner spaces just as in making doll’s petticoat (see page 90), and put tassels on the ends.

_To Make Tassels_

(See pictures on opposite page)

1. Cut a piece of cardboard 1 inch long and ½ inch wide.

2. Over this, wind a strand of yarn 10 times.

3. Thread a long-eyed zephyr needle with yarn. Slip it under the yarn on the cardboard and tie it together at the top.

4. Clip the yarn apart at the other edge of the card.

Hold the clipped ends between the thumb and fingers of the left hand, and tie the tassel with a piece of yarn, to look like picture No. 3.

Thread the ends of the tie-string into a long-eyed needle. Pull the ends down through the middle of the tassel and cut them off even with the bottom.

Thread a zephyr needle with both ends of yarn at top of tassel and pull needle through one end of the runner.

Fasten the ends by pulling needle through tassel from the top. Cut off ends even with tassel fringe. (See picture No. 4.)

_To Make Slipper Soles_

Lay doll’s shoe on a piece of light-weight cardboard and mark it with a pencil; cut it out. Or trace the outline below, and use it as a pattern.

Thread zephyr needle with yarn, and sew slipper to sole.

When the Yarn Baby had finished giving the long directions for the slippers, Crow Shay, who had been very quiet, could not keep still another second.

“Whew! Yarn Baby!” he broke in. “Whew! How do you know so much? You certainly are a woolly-headed know-it-all!”

At first the Yarn Baby did not know what to say to this impudent speech. Then her hair stood up stiff and straight.

“If I’m—if I’m a woolly-head,” she cried, “you’re an old bone-head! So you are! So there!”

Crow Shay grew pale, stood up on end and started for the Yarn Baby, when Wooley Ball just rolled in his way and Crow Shay pitched over her, head first.

“Mind your manners, Crow Shay! Mind your manners!” said Wooley Ball calmly.

All the Knitting People laughed merrily at Crow Shay’s silly caper, except poor Crow Shay, who looked a little ashamed of himself.