They were interested in the yarn. They were curious.
"Yarn is interesting," Mariah said. "It's so soft and squishy."
"But it's strong, too," Charlotte said. "What is it made out of?" she asked, pulling on a strand of yarn.
"Yarn can be made of many different kinds of fibers," Mandy replied, "but this yarn is made of wool." She explained that wool comes from sheep. The dolls thought about sheep....
The sheep they imagined were toy sheep, because they had never seen real sheep. They imagined the sheep were pretending to be grazing in a pasture, because that's what they knew real sheep do.
"The wool is their hair, only it's called fleece (FLEES)," Mandy explained. "It's what keeps them warm outdoors when the weather is cold."
She brought one of the make-believe sheep up on the work table where the two dolls could see it. "This is Rambo. He looks the most like a real sheep," Mandy told them.
"His fleece doesn't look like yarn," Mariah pointed out, picking up one of the balls of yarn.
"That's because it's still on the sheep," Mandy explained.
"This sheep's fleece is white," Mariah pointed out. "Did the fleece for this yarn come from pink sheep?" she asked.
"No," Mandy laughed. "Sheep come in some colors, like shades of black, brown and grey, as well as white, but white fleece can be colored with something called dye to make it pink or other colors."
"Feel how soft he is," Charlotte said. The girls all put their fingers into the fleece. It was soft.
"This wool is real," Mandy explained, "because this toy sheep was made with real sheep's fleece."
"The first step in making yarn is to give the sheep a haircut," Mandy said. "That's called shearing the sheep. Sheep farmers do this in the spring, when the sheep doesn't need its warm coat anymore."
"That's nice of the farmer," Charlotte said.
"Farmers take good care of their animals," Mandy agreed. "After the fleece, the sheep's coat, is off the sheep, it needs to be washed, then spun into yarn," she continued. "Some people who make yarn like to spin it just the way it is. Others like to comb it, to get all the fibers, or hairs, going in the same direction and to remove pieces of grass and dirt that didn't come out when it was washed. Sometimes they use a machine to do that, but we can do that with these hand carders." Mandy lifted two big brushes up onto the table and turned them so the other dolls could see the teeth. The teeth were made of wire.
"They look like dog brushes." Charlotte said.
"They are a lot like dog brushes," Mandy agreed, "and like dog brushes, the teeth, or bristles (BRIH-suls), the little wires that stick out, are sharp, so we have to be careful when we handle the carders."
"So then you spin it? How do you do that?" Mariah wanted to know.
"Spinning twists the fibers together into a long strand. This makes the yarn stronger and keeps the fibers together." Mandy replied. "People can use a machine that runs on electricity if they need to make a lot of yarn, or they can use something called a spinning wheel. People sit and use their feet to make the pedals go up and down while they control the fibers with their hands as the wheel takes the wool and twists it.
"It's a slower way to make yarn," Mandy explained, "but it's easier for dolls our size, especially with this small one of Veronika's. You use one hand to start it spinning." Mandy showed them.
"Then, while it keeps going, you control the wool with your hands," she went on. "You sort of pinch it and try to keep the same amount of fiber going through your fingers all the time."
"Then, before the spindle reaches the floor," Mandy said, "you stop spinning and wind the yarn onto the spindle. We think it's fun to spin to make yarn."
Mandy showed the girls another drop spindle that was larger. It had arms on it.
"I think it's interesting that making something useful can be fun," Charlotte said.
"Lots of things that are useful are fun to do," Mandy agreed. Then she went on. "When you have enough yarn made this way, you can put two or more strands together if you want. This is called plying. It makes yarn that is stronger and thicker and can't untwist very easily. You can knit with the yarn, or make fabric for clothes another way, like with a hook or weaving on a loom."
"Are there enough sheep in the world to make everyone's clothes?" Mariah wanted to know as she and Charlotte put the balls of yarn back into the basket.
"Sheep make wool, but we can make clothes out of other kinds of fibers" Mandy explained. "Some fibers come from other kinds of animals, but people also use fibers from plants. They even use fibers made by insects. Cotton (KAW-tuhn) is the most common," Mandy said, "Cotton comes from a plant. It's what cotton balls are made of." She showed them a cotton ball.
"People have even learned to make fibers from chemicals, too."
"It's very interesting," said Mariah. "What fun it is that there are so many different kinds of fiber to make clothes out of!"
"My favorite kind of fiber to knit with is wool. It's pretty, it's warm even if it gets wet, and I think sheep are cute."
Just then, Billy came in. He was wearing the sweater vest that Mandy had made for him.
"I love my new sweater vest, Mandy!" Billy exclaimed. "It's so soft and warm. I'm going to wear it to school tomorrow with my new shirt. Some of us are having our pictures taken for the yearbook, so I was trying everything on."
"Billy, you look very nice," Mariah said.
Charlotte nodded her head to show that she agreed. "That's a very nice outfit," she said.
"I'm glad you're here, Billy," Mandy told him. "I was just explaining to Mariah and Charlotte about different kinds of fibers for clothes. You can help me. Come up here for a minute."
Billy climbed up onto the work table. Mandy pointed to Billy's new vest. "What do you think this vest is made out of?" she asked the girls.
Mariah felt Billy's sweater.
"Wool!" she said.
"How do you know it's wool?" Mandy asked.
"Because it's soft and warm-looking," Mariah said.
"It looks knitted, too, and Billy said you made it," Charlotte added. "We know you like to knit with wool."
"That's right, of course," Mandy laughed, "and his shirt and pants are made of cotton. His socks are made from something called nylon (NYE-lawn). That's one of the fibers people make from chemicals. It's very strong."
The dolls were amazed that Mandy knew so much about fibers, but Mandy knows a lot about many things, because she reads a lot.
"This was very interesting," Charlotte said. "I should go do my homework now, though. I love that we have learned more about one more thing dolls can do for fun but that's useful, too."
"Yes," agreed Mariah. "Thank you for explaining about wool, Mandy, and thank you, too, Billy for taking most of the photos for this story," she said. "I especially liked how you used your tripod. You set the timer on the phone and ran to the door, so you could pretend to be just coming in!"
"We do a lot of pretending in these stories, don't we?," Charlotte said. "Now we should do our homework for real!"
Then all the dolls went to do their homework.
Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
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Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.
“The Doll’s Storybook” is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Our latest book is available from BookBaby and other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook. The Stories included are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After, and Money in a Jar.
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Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
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