Potter has begun

I think I am much fonder of the color I chose, than the rather bright yellow featured in the original garment. (And I like to think it would be more in keeping with the spirit of the sweater's namesake).



It does tend to curl a bit at this stage, so I had to hold it flat for the photo.

It's a pleasant yarn to knit with and it is more lightweight than a 100% wool would be, meaning it will be less prone to stretch lengthwise.

***

Another thing I remember about Herdwick sheep: they were one of the "heirloom" breeds threatened with extinction around about 2000, when hoof-and-mouth disease was a big threat in Britain and Europe. (I remember much discussion of it on the Knitlist, and talk of things like requiring people to step into pans of bleach when deplaning, lest they carry the germs for it on their shoes. (Funny, and sad, how our worries about shoes and flying are so different now)).

I also remember reading that some of the sheepdogs there, the ones on farms where most of the herds had been culled, were exhibiting symptoms that would be described as depression, were they human. The conclusion was that the dogs were so accustomed to working: herding was their purpose. And without their purpose, they experienced the dog equivalent of depression. (Some farms, I remember reading, opened to tourists, the attraction was that the tourists would let the dogs herd them - and the dogs perked up, even though those new "sheep" must have seemed surpassing strange to them.)

It's kind of remarkable - or perhaps a bit frightening - how much loosely connected information I have stored in my brain. It's a good thing human memory does not function like computer memory or I would probably have had a "Disk Full Error" a long time ago.

(I actually credit my shockingly good memory for a lot of my academic success. I do think a certain amount of what we call "intelligence" is actually just being able to remember stuff and connect it to other stuff. I'm not that innovative and not usually given to leaps of logic, but man, can I remember stuff. I don't quite have an eidetic memory but it comes close in some areas.)