"Mandy, I'm so glad you're home!" Mariah exclaimed as Mandy came in through the door. "I thought it would be fun to interview you about your trip for the school paper!"
Mandy dropped her suitcase down on the floor and took off her backpack. "Sure," she said. "I'm dying to tell someone all about it!"
"Did you have a good time?" Mariah asked. "Did you see lots of human people?"
"I had a great time," Mandy affirmed, "and I saw lots and lots of people. I would love to tell you all about it, but let me put my things away first."
"I'll help," Mariah said, picking up the suitcase while struggling to hold her notebook. She had already stuck her pencil over her ear, so she wouldn't have to carry both it and her notebook.
When the two dolls arrived upstairs, Mandy noticed that the workroom was empty. There were no dolls there. "Where is everyone?" she asked, dropping her backpack to the floor.
"The boys are at the park with the skateboard," her sister replied. "Jolena is in the kitchen, going through cookbooks. Charlotte and Veronika took Pippa to the library, so she could take her books back and get more. I'm glad she likes to read!"
Mariah put Mandy's suitcase down, and Mandy opened it up. She took out her green cardigan which was on top. "Here," Mariah offered, "I'll put the clothes away for you. Just hand them to me. It will go faster."
The two dolls had the suitcase empty in no time.
Mariah closed the suitcase. "I'll put this away," she said, "while you put your purse and backpack away. Let's meet on the day bed!"
When everything was put away, Mandy and Mariah climbed up onto the big day bed in the work room. Mariah brought her paper and pencil with her.
"What would you like to know?" Mandy asked when they were settled comfortably.
"Well," Mariah replied, thoughtfully, "first of all, how was your drive to Portland?"
"Boring!" Mandy laughed. "The Writer and her husband brought the dogs with them, and they took up the whole back seat. I sat in a bag on the floor. I tried to knit, but it was too dark."
"I'll bet you were glad to get out of the bag!" Mariah exclaimed, as she wrote something on her paper. She rarely needed to sit inside a dark bag.
Mandy agreed that she was. "It was worth it, though," Mandy pointed out. "We went to most of the shops the next day. That was a lot of fun!"
That was what Mandy's trip was all about: visiting most of the yarn shops in the Portland area. The ones she visited were all participating in a special event called The Rose City Yarn Crawl. Mandy told Mariah that in this event, human people who knit or crochet (kroh-SHAY) visit all the yarn shops that signed up. (Crochet is like knitting, except you use a special hook instead of two needles.)
Mandy said that it gives them a chance to buy supplies for their craft and have a look at what's new or interesting in the way of projects like sweaters, socks, scarves and hats, but sometimes other things, like little stuffed animals, blankets or home decorations. Maybe they need new bags to carry their knitting in, or they've lost their needles in the size they need for a project.
Mandy, The Writer and The Writer's daughter-in-law (the human lady who is married to The Writer's younger son) visited eight shops on the first day. "We finished late in the afternoon," Mandy said. "I was so tired by the time we got to the last shop, I had to sit down for a while."
"I would guess so!" Mariah exclaimed. "How did you keep up, crawling to all those shops?" she asked.
Mandy laughed. "We don't really crawl. We drove from one shop to the next, but it took me a lot more steps than it did for the human ladies!"
"Why do they call it a crawl, then?" Mariah wanted to know.
Mandy thought for a moment. "Maybe," she said, "it's because each shop was crawling with customers. That means there were customers all over the store, a lot more than usual." Mandy pretended to wiggle her fingers to illustrate all the people milling around in the store.
Mariah thought that made sense. She wrote something down.
"Each shop," Mandy explained, "has prizes that go to the human people who win something called a drawing. That means they pick one person at random to win each of the prizes."
Mariah made a note on her paper.
"I know what at random means," Mariah said. "It means the person doing the picking doesn't know who will win. That's to be fair to everyone, I think."
Mandy agreed. "Otherwise, they could just give it to their friends."
She thought for a moment before she continued. "After the first day, we only had two shops left to visit," she went on. "We did those the second day."
Mariah wrote that down.
"What do you think was the most fun?" Mariah asked.
Mandy thought for a moment. "I think being able to pick up the yarn and feel it," she replied.
"Also," Mandy continued, " it was fun to know I could buy some yarn for some special projects!" Mandy had been allowed to pick out some yarn from a big selection in stores, not just from The Writer's supply, which she calls her stash.
"I needed some notions (NOH-shuns). Those are special tools, or things like buttons and thread," Mandy said.
"The Writer has a great supply of needles, but I wanted some of those little stitch markers. I put one between each repeat of a pattern, so I know if I get off. The kind I wanted are like little safety pins," Mandy said.
"I also wanted some of that tape you can use to underline where you are in a pattern. It peels off paper easily, so you can move it," she added.
"It was a lot of fun to see the other kinds of things they have," Mandy went on. "I saw some things you can use to make pompoms.
Mariah thought for a moment. "Aren't pompoms those balls made from yarn with all the cut ends on the outside?" Mariah asked. She pretended to close her eyes so she could think. "I think Veronika has some sandals with pompoms on them."
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "The pompoms on Veronika's sandals are made from yarn wound around something, then tied in the middle and the ends cut. Usually you have to trim the outside, because some of the pieces of yarn end up longer. Then you can fluff them up so they look like balls of fuzz."
"Which was your favorite shop?" Mariah asked.
Mandy had to think for a moment. "Well," she said, "they were all lovely, but maybe I would have to say the last one we went to. There was another doll there. She knits, too. It was fun meeting her and talking with another doll about knitting."
"Also," Mandy added, "I knew we didn't have to rush. It was the second shop on the second day, so we had no place to go but back to the house."
"What did you do the other two days?" Mariah asked. Mandy and The Writer had been gone for four days.
Mandy laughed. "I sat on the dresser in the guest room," she replied. "I did some knitting and spent my time remembering all the yummy yarn I had seen in the shops!"
Mariah wrote that down.
"I was also dreaming of all the yummy yarn we were bringing home with us!" Mandy added with one of her smiles that almost wasn't.
Mariah wrote down a few more things on her paper. Then she looked up. "Thanks so much for the interview, Mandy," she said. "I think this will be an interesting article.
Just then Emil and Billy appeared in the doorway. They greeted her with "Hi, Mandy!"
Then the boys climbed up onto the day bed with Mariah and Mandy. Right away, they wanted to know about her trip, so she told them how she had visited a lot of yarn shops.
"Maybe I can go next year," Emil suggested. "I mean, boys can knit, too!"
"You are absolutely right!" Mandy agreed. "We saw lots of human men shopping during the Yarn Crawl. The children were in school when we went, so we didn't see any real boys and girls, but there were a lot of human women and men. It would be nice to see some boy dolls shopping, too!"
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
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Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart
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