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Black Sheep Continued...
Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,
Have you any Wool?
Yes merry have I,
Three bags full,
One for my Master,
One for my Dame,
One for my little boy
That lives in the lane.
(Opie, I. & Opie, P. (1997) [1951]. The Oxford Dictionary
of Nursery Rhymes (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
p. 88. ISBN 0-19-860088-7.)
It may well be because of this controversy, that Diana’s
black sheep sweater was never seen again until long after
her death.
In 1999, activists in Birmingham called for the banning
of the rhyme, and in 2006, in Oxfordshire a further attempt
was made. Although there are British nurseries and
schools which insist on singing “pink sheep,” “green
sheep,” “rainbow sheep,” “white sheep,” “happy sheep,”
etc, it is not, and has never been, an official diktat by local
or national government.
In Melbourne, Australia, in 2014 a similar unsuccessful
campaign to ban the rhyme was held. No doubt, there
will be other attempts in the future.
It’s interesting that, to my knowledge, Diana Princess of
Wales was never accused of racism for wearing the
sweater.
I wonder if, as I type, an eternally offended Craftsnarker
is currently banging out a post condemning the free pattern
(available below) for racism, or for the intersection of
being racist whilst not being size inclusive!
In the meantime, why not knit your own black sheep
sweater? The design is available for free at the link below
(use the sheep graphs on a different size-inclusive
sweater design if your size isn’t available):
Afterall, we blocked and cancelled knitters are considered,
by some, the black sheep of the knitting world.
Clickable Pattern Link
https://web.archive.org/web/20151126170154/http://www.p-hop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Diana-Black-Sheep-Sweater-download.pdf
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