different UK sheep breeds, shot fashion-model style.

Most of these are wool breeds. (For non-knitters: there are wool sheep and there are meat sheep. Some breeds produce lovely coats but apparently are not so good to eat. Others produce not so nice wool but have good meat). I know for sure that Leicester, Wensleydale, and Lincoln Longwool are wool breeds, because I have heard of breed-specific yarn from them. (I think you can also spin the Jacob's wool.)

(A quick check of Wikipedia turns up that the Border Leicester is a "dual purpose" meaning you can both spin from it and eat it. I think i was thinking of Bluefaced Leicester, which is a wool breed).

I always think this thing is so interesting...all the different "heirloom" breeds out there, all bred for different purposes (look at how different in appearance Wensleydale and Border Leicester are. Amazing to think how they all came from the same basic stock, and probably all of those different appearances arose over the course of a couple thousand years of selective breeding).

One thing I'd love to have a chance to do in my life is to knit with different breed-specific yarns, just to see how they differ in properties and feel. (Kind of like how people do wine tastings to see the effect of different grapes or different processes, or how they now have "single-source" chocolates where the cocoa beans all came from a single country and you can actually taste differences related to the soils they grew in and the climate).

And I don't know if Kerry Hill is a wool breed or not, but if I were raising sheep as sort of, you know, pets, I'd want Kerry Hill sheep. Because they're so CUTE. They look like they're wearing little shoes. (Apparently they are also dual purpose, at least when young. Interesting that OK State is the place to find out more detail about an obscure British sheep breed.)

(One thing I sort of daydream about is having a fiber-animal farm. Oh, I know, it's not something I'd probably want in reality, what with sheep tending to go into labor at 2 am and needing someone there to make sure nothing goes wrong, and with the noise they may (sheep are loud. I learned that one summer helping a grad school buddy do some work...we were working right next to an area where sheep were kept) and the smell and all the veterinary bills. But sometimes I think it would be nice to do something so connected to the land, so immediate. To be involved with the most basic level of the stuff you use to make clothes.)