A pretty trimming on your dress,
Your rompers or your smock,
I also make the blanket-stitch
For edging ’round your frock.”
“That’s the very thing for this dress!” exclaimed Margaret clapping her hands. “Oh, let’s begin, dear Crewel. I’ve some lovely pink wool thread here in my knitting-bag.”
She cut a length of the yarn and Sir Bodkin showed her how to loop it around Crewel’s head and then squeeze it between her thumb and forefinger so it would slip easily into his big eye. Crewel stepped on the back of the dress at the left side of the neck. He took two tiny back steps on the wrong side to fasten the thread. Margaret held the edge of the neckline over her left forefinger and held the thread down with her left thumb, so Crewel could slip over it when making the blanket-stitch. He then sang as they worked:
“Back from the edge
I step in, you know,
Towards you, ’neath the edge,
I stick out my toe.