The Doll Cafe - A Good Tale to Tell When Wet Felting with Young Children! by Suzanne Down

In this little tale, the innocence of a girl's play is threatened by a force in nature. Raven is hungry, and thinking he spots something good to eat, thinks only of himself as he tries to rob the blueberries and disturb the peace of the play.

There is a natural consequence for the Raven, as the blueberries are wool, and get stuck in his throat! It is a sweet comedy of events. The solution was simple and true to the substance and nature of the

felt. Cinnamon Rose, hardly disturbed, tidies up the table and a good time was had by all of her guests.

The clear imagination of the play served as a protection to the landscape of the Doll Cafe. I like to see how a natural consequence can take care of a problem, without asking the child to awaken from the dream of the play. The dark element of the Raven was cast out, without Cinnamon Rose being challenged herself.

                                         The Doll’s Cafe                                                               

Cinnamon Rose lives in an adobe house, in the ranch lands of Arizona. When she was born, the cliff roses were blooming, and they smelled like sweet cinnamon. That is how she got her beautiful name. Her Papa raises sheep, and her Mama spins wool into yarn, knits sweaters, and makes wool felt. Cinnamon Rose likes to make things from wool too.

Not far from the house there is a big sprawling Oak Tree, and under it is a large flat stone table Papa found and put there. 'This will make a wonderful Doll's Cafe', he told Cinnamon Rose. And together they made doll chairs from an old log to fit around the stone table.

It was August, and the days were sunny and warm. Cinnamon

Rose decided to celebrate a doll party at the Doll's Cafe. She put a cloth over the doll table, and put a tiny vase of wildflowers in the middle. Then she put out her dolly dishes and little cups, and set to work.

Cinnamon Rose asked her Mama for colored wool roving to
make food for the doll party. She started rolling blue wool into blueberry shaped wool balls by rubbing it round and round in her palms. She put white wool, with a bit of golden yellow in her doll sized muffin tins, and put warm water and a drop of soap in each tin. She rubbed each one with her fingers, and before you know it she had enough felted fried eggs for all the doll plates. Cinnamon Rose went on felting with her hands, making hearty, wooly, whole wheat bagels in her tiny bundt cake pan. ‘This will make a fine dolly breakfast for the Doll's Cafe', said Cinnamon Rose!

She put all her dolls in the chairs around the table, and served them all the grand breakfast. All the dolls smiled, and the table looked very colorful. There was a bowl of the wooly blueberries in the middle of the table for dessert.

What Cinnamon Rose did not know was Raven had been watching her setting the table with such good things to eat! Raven was sitting quietly up high in the Oak Tree, waiting for just the right moment to fly down to steal some of the dolly food. The bowl of blueberries made Raven especially hungry!

‘CAW! CAW!’ Raven called out as he swooped down from his branch like an arrow. CLATTER, BOOM, went everything on
the table! The dolls eyes were wide with surprise! Raven
grabbed a mouthful of blueberries and flew high to his branch! ‘CAW, CAW!’ As Raven tried to swallow the berries, the wool
got caught in his throat! ‘GAK, GAK....GAK, GAK!’ What kind of berries are these, he wondered with alarm! They were not sweet and juicy at all! ‘GAK, GAK!!’

Cinnamon Rose watched as Raven flew away from the Oak Treer
The dolls loved the breakfast, especially the fried eggs. There were still enough blueberries left for all the dolls to have one. And that old greedy Raven never ever returned to the Doll's Cafe ever again.

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delighted image of felted blueberries is from craftspring.com