Why “Black Sheep?”

Good Question….

Lot’s of reasons, perhaps not the ones you would think,but the truth is, it fits.

I married into a huge family, and as an only child…..well, you can imagine that I have never fit in very well. Even now, after nearly 28 years, I still feel, well, like the outsider. Let’s face it, when you’ve grown up in a small nuclear family and jump headlong into a family of 8, plus 5 step siblings, three sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles too numerous to count, the transition is not all sunshine on roses. I’ve always felt like the black sheep, not because I’m the naughty one,(not all the time anyway) but because I just don’t blend in with the rest very well.

I am in the midst of a love affair with wool, knitting and everything that fits in that basket. There are baskets of wool spilling over in my family room, a box full in the closet, catalogs and patterns and projects galore, books and magaziznes and links on my laptop……..you get the idea. When a knitter hears “yarn,” the thought of sheep can’t be far away, and what would be cuter than a black sheep? I used to drive by a house that kept sheep on my way to work each day and one spring they had tiny black lamb. I would slow down on my commute look for him, watch him graze and stare back at me, see him play in the grass and run to his mother for protection. The black sheep gave me something to look forward to. Even now, the thought of sheep makes me dream of wooly projects, the possibilities are endless.

Shepherds (so I’ve heard) use black sheep to keep track of the size of their flock. For every one hundred sheep, just one will be black, so if you count the black sheep in the field you have a pretty good idea of the total number of sheep. There is a story in the Bible about a shepherd who finds he is missing one of his sheep, he leaves the 99 to search for the one lost lamp and finding it, joyfully returns to the flock. I like to think that it was the black sheep that was missing. I think it speaks volumes, not only about our value, but if indeed it was the black sheep who had wandered off, it proves that it is the unique among us that leave a vacuum when they are missing. It is good to be one of a kind.

And so here we are, launching a new blog (scary thought) and opening a new door into the community of knitters, readers, mothers, wives, bloggers, anyone who wants to drop in and be a part of my life. Join the flock 🙂