Ixchel Angora Bunny & Funky Fibre Art

Hello and Goodbyes

2012-01-27T12:27:00.004+11:00

First of all some sad news: Max, our oldest , gorgeous smoke grey angora bunny passed away last Tuesday. She was the sweetest, silkiest angora bunny I have ever had and she will be sadly missed. She had been off her food for a day and I had given her some critical care just ion case, but she did not seem blocked at all nor was there any sign of the feared calici viral infection that had caused so much death and heartache last year on our little farm. On Tuesday midday when I went and checked up on her again, she looked at me , while I was trying to make her comfortable and give her water and then, with a few gasps and a silent little scream, she said goodbye. She will always be a special bunny in our hearts. RIP sweet Max.
Her sister Pippi (a year younger than Max, who was 8 and a half) has been with Max her whole life and although she was okay on Tuesday and Wednesday , I think it has really kicked in yesterday that she misses her a lot. She looks very sad , even with two sweet little girls , Sugar pie and Angel, that live with Pippi in her condo. She has not touched her food this morning so I will have to intervene and give her some critical care today and try and cheer her up with some nice treats and lots of cuddles. Fingers crossed Pippi will be strong enough.

The excitement of the week, apart from our wedding anniversary outing on Monday!, was ofcourse the official Sydney Royal go ahead on April 9th and web info on what is going on at the Easter show for us Rabbit fans ! Here is the link to what is going to take place but more will be announced by the Royal Sydney show next week and heaps of media will be contacted as well: it is going to be so exciting !!!!!

http://australianshowrabbit.tripod.com/id61.html

Now all we need to do is get our act together, train for fast spinning and knitting and for me as well, getting as much fluffy bunny yarn and fibres together for dispay and sale at the Sydney Royal Show ! (Trying not to panic…lol)

Also the race has already begun to organise and plan the Sydney Royal Show in April AND the Bendigo in July ! it is all going to be AWESOME !!! So much to do , so little time, but oh so much fun !

There have been some amazing nice yarns on my wheel and in the dyepost again : this time some lace weight pure angora yarn and last but not least the offering of this week! A SUPER SPECIAL 3 ply yarn that is just too amazing for words: last Saturday the bunny spin in visitors each had a feel of this yarn and there were lots of oohs and aaahs..lol It tales me a while to do but the result is stunning and sooo soft! It is spun on the Schacht Sidekick wheel, on a medium ratio and more importantly, plyed very relaxed: meaning there is flow, drape, super softness and a halo that is out of this world ! The blend? Here it is: 70% long dehaired mink and 30% super fine angora bunny ! one word: AWESOME! Now there is ofcourse only a very limited supply but I am working on more and there will be other colours available: I will be taking orders! So if you want this yarn in coal black or purples or greens (see colour list later on) let me know and I will put you on the order list and start spinning and dyeing. Again, this is super special yarn with an amazing yardage of +/- 350meters per 50 grams ! it is light, it is super soft, it is fluffy BUT because long fibres have been used the amount of pill or shedding will be 0 to hardly any ! Always a positive !

Last week I promised you information on classes in May and June as well: here it is:

MAY Classes

Beginner Spinner classes Tuesday May 8th, 15th and 22nd 10am-4pm $150

Learn how to spin in a day ! You will receive a bag filled with fluffy goodies to learn with and the use of a wheel! Different types of fibres will be covered from merino, to Shetland, to rare sheep breeds , angora , mohair, yak and alpaca !
Enjoy the relaxing environment of our little fibre farm and cuddle a bunny on your breaks from spinning. Lunch and drinks provided. Brochures on techniques etc will be handed out as well. Limited places available !

Art Yarns Saturday May 26th and Tuesday May 29th 10am-4pm $150
Make art yarns, dive into the world of creative yarns! Learn how to make the nip n tuck, coils, slubs, core spinning and adding fancy extras!
Lunch and drinks provided. Bring your own fluff or additions or dive into our shop to get your supply. Every student will receive a bag of surprise goodies to work with aas well.

JUNE CLASSES

Wire Core Spinning Saturday June 2nd 10am-4pm $150
Learn how to use jewellery wire in your spinning to make fibre sculptures , baskets, wearable art and more. !
Its an amazingly nice way to make adventurous, multi functional yarn !
Handouts , lunch and drinks will be provided a dn a bag of goodies, wire core and fluff to play with !

Plying Adventures Tuesday June 5th 10-3pm $100
Learn how to ply a balanced yarn, Navajo ply, flower power ply or do fancy boucle! Lots of new adventurous yarns !
Every student will be given a bag of goodies and lunch and drinks will be provided as well.

Tailspinning yarn Saturday 9th of June 10am-4pm $150
Learn the spinning technique in a day. You can create your own tailspun super soft mohair curls (fibre provided!) or even angora ! anything goes! It’s exciting to create yarn like this ! aand now is your chance to learn!
Every student will be given a bag of goodies and lunch and drinks will be provided as well.

Flower Power Art Yarns and Fancy Additions Tuesday June 19th 10-4pm $150
Learn how to make art yarns with your handspun that look like little flowers or beehives ! and how to add little bits and pieces, feathers, bling and more to your yarn to make it extra special !
Your imagination is the limit !
Every student will be given a bag of goodies and lunch and drinks will be provided as well.

To reserve a spot in any of these classes, email me or message me on Ravelry. I will send you all the details. It’s going to be FUN !

How To Order and reserve a spot for your classes:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Bunny Mink 3 ply Yarn 70% Long dehaired mink, 30% angora bunny rabbit
+/-50 grams AU$23 (this is an introduction price! Orders will be taken and those who pre order enjoy this low price for this stunning yarn as well !)

meterage: +/- 300meters/50 grams ( ndls 3.25-4mm) you will only need one to two skeins for a stunning scarf or shawl !

Natural

yarn overview jan 2012

a gorgeous trio

Olive

Dusky Puple

Icy Heather

Romance

Tasman Sea

pre order solid colours in the bunny mink 3 ply yarn. Pre order now and enjoy a lower price

Blue Faced Leicester Bunny + Seaweed Tops Hand dyed
(30%Seaweed, 5% angora, 65% Blue faced leicester)
100+ grams AU$23
can you tell I have watched Dr Who? lol

Novice Hame -meditative colour combinations to purr by-

The Tardis -it's much bigger on the inside-

River Song -free spirited zest for life-

Weeping Angels -the scary angel grey stone but combines with ochres and blues of happy endings-

the Silence -dangerous and I promise you will remember this combo! even after you look away-

Cassandra-just plain velvetty gorgeousness-

Alpha Centauri -sophisticated evil..lol-

Beep the Meep -just funny with some orange zestiness!-

Amy Pond -a gorgeous colour combination of dusky sensual colours..yum!-

Rory the Roman -happy chaos with love-

Mini Skein Selection January 2012
10 supersoft hand dyed miniskeins with an extra smiley face hexapuff chart !

AU$23

the January mini skein selection + some of the hexapuffs I made with this selection !

Close up of the mini skein selection January 2012

ATTENTION! ATTENTION !!!
I will be sending out all the clubs on Monday morning so if any of you club members want to order something it will go with your club shipment and you will save on postage ! yeah !

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in February 2012 !! Yeah!

Saturday February 18th, 11am-4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome as well ! : the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday February 23rd 11am-4pm

February 14th, Warragul Spinners and Weavers Group, Gladstone street
The Fireshed will be filled with fibre ! I will do a bunny talk and bring a bunny with me to “show and tell” and perform a bunny haircut !

April 9th, Sydney Royal Show
THE Angora Bunny Event of the year!!
Back to Back Bunny World Record
Join the fun and what better way to do it than visit all the Easter bunnies at the Royal Easter Show! Promoting the angora rabbits in Australia for the very first time ! and how ! More information on the Royal Syndey show website and here later !

April 28th
Mini Wool Show of the Hand knitters Guild
Time and place to be confirmed later.
I am preparing heaps of new yarns for that event that will be amazing !!!!!

MAY and JUNE: keep your calendar free for exciting workshops !

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the Flower (bunny) shed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J
This year it is even going to BIGGER and more HUGE than ever !!!
Join me in the fun !
The woolcraft schedule is published and the IxCHeL Fibre farm is sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word out . Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

The Rollercoaster ride has already begun !

2012-01-20T12:45:00.005+11:00

Amazing but true: the year has just begun and there are so many things happening already..no rest for the wicked they say eh?
The IxCHeL calendar is filling up fast with spin ins, shows, meetings and last but not least: WORKSHOPS! Yes ! I am doing some workshops this year so for all of you wanting to learn how to spin there are beginner courses and for those of you who want to dabble in art yarn spinning there are several classes set up! Dates will be revealed next week ! yeah ! Keep your calendar free in May , June and then in the second half of the year : October and November !

Also the race has already begun to organise and plan the Sydney Royal Show in April AND the Bendigo in July ! it is all going to be AWESOME !!! So much to do , so little time, but oh so much fun !

Last night I was at the Eat 7 Spin evening at a gorgeous Swiss restaurant in Lilydale , enjoying some amazing Swiss cheese and more ..YUM! with some great spinning and knitting friends. I had a ball ! and apart from chatting and spinning and meeting new fibre fans, one thing is absolutely clear: it is great to have friends in fibre ! It’s great to create together but yet separate, if you know what I mean. I saw the most amazing lace shawls (yes and beaded) last night, wonderful spinning and the most important thing is : everybody was sharing and having fun. And I ask you: isn’t that what craft is all about? Or anything else for that matter! I think the only way to have a better world is to share a positive energy and create and share, not protect and compete. The best inventions have not been made alone, the best inventions have been made by sharing and standing on top of the shoulders of our respected peers: by learning and adding something to their work that is uniquely ours. And by doing that you can create something special and new and you can make a difference to the ones that come after you or stand there beside you. It is exciting, puts a smile on your face and you can just feel the pulse of positive energy bursting through.
The reason why I am saying this..and I am not sure if this is true for others..is that I thrive on positivity : I come up with my best ideas when surrounded by friends and people who create with love. On the other hand, when there are negative energy clouds gathering it is tough. It seems to overtake every creative bone in my body and in such a way that it is hard to focus on creating something special.
I am sure we have all experienced things like that at some point in our lives: not feeling recognised, not getting just a simple and nice complement or worse being overly criticised, seeing that friends are not really friends, people talking behind your back or acting for their own benefit rather than the benefit of all. It is like inspiration can only flourish when there is positivity surrounding us.
It is human though to succumb to negative thoughts sometimes, but extremely important to fight against that with all your might. It took me a very very long time to try and figure out how to fight against it and be my own person despite other peoples negative energy and I am still learning. All I can say is that it is better to do your own thing and be the best you can be and not let yourself be dragged down by negative energy of others. Easier said than done I know! But well worth the effort. Everytime you feel yourself go down that path of wondering why or worry about things, pinch yourself and immediately focus on something of beauty, listen to good music, look at a photo or painting that puts a smile on your face or cuddle that special super fluffy happy looking top or yarn.
Have fun! Because let’s face it: Life is too short ! Smile and Rabbit on !

What is going to happen in a very short time though is that the IxCHeL fibre farm is going to participate in the Royal Sydney Easter Show on the 9th of April !!! Last year I made a suggestion to the organisers of the show that it woud be so good as a promotion for the angora rabbit breed to organise a world record attempt : a back to back Bunny . It has been approved and will be covered by all media !! it is going to be HUGE !!!! It means that 3 bunnies will be clipped, then prepped and spun and then knitted into a shawl/scarf in the shortest possible time. There is a team of 6 people that will do the clipping, the spinning and the knitting : 2 clippers , 2 extremely fast spinners and 2 super fast knitters ! There will be a lot prep and discussion with all the team members before hand ofcourse !! and a lot of practicing by all ;) More information on the back to back bunny event and the Royal Sydney Easter Show can be found on their website later and ofcourse I will keep you updated as well J If you want to be part of this event , volunteer, help or be there, please message me of give me a ring!

There have been some amazing nice yarns on my wheel for custom orders again including some core spun yarns ! which are great fun to spin and yes: there are workshops planned for wire core spinning as well ! I just HAD to share them with you because I am totally in love with them !

Kid mohair, merino, angora, gold thread, glitz and angelina and duck feathers

Wire core spun yarns

Wire core spun yarns: you can make the most gorgeous crowns, headbands, hats ! and wearable art with these yarns! Or even arty baskets or vessels! The only limit is your imagination !

Angorino blend tops are back.! A new harvest of this amazing blend is available again in new colourways that are out of this world. The blend is wonderful to spin, is supersoft because of the bunny blended in it thoroughly and I am thrilled with the colour combos. I hope you will be too and some amazing deep deep DEEP black pure angora 3 ply yarn with an amazing yardage ! 400 meters per 50 grams: enough to make a scarf with one skein ! yes one skein!

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Angora 3 ply Yarn

50 grams AU$22

the deepest most beautiful black ever !

Black purl bunny

a fluffy close up

Fluff Bun 4ply sock yarn

94-100 grams ** +/- 360meters per 100grams ** AU$23

the softest 4ply yarn ! Great for socks : your feet will love you forever!

Mimosa

Star Struck

Dolphin

Enigma

Autumn flowers

Angorino Tops Hand dyed
(18 micron superfine organic merino 95-5%)

100+ grams AU$20 !!!

peppercorn

Velvet

outback sky

Waterlilies

Ocean Grove

Brazil

(such a happy combination of colours ! Makes me think of oranges, samba, carnival and summer)

Baby Talk

Heather Blooms

Blue Sky

Faery Princess

Forest Spirits

Mini Skein Selection January 2012
10 supersoft hand dyed miniskeins with an extra smiley face hexapuff chart !

AU$23

the January mini skein selection + some of the hexapuffs I made with this selection !

Close up of the mini skein selection January 2012

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in February 2012 !! Yeah!

Saturday 21st of January : FULL HOUSE

Another exciting week...

2012-01-13T10:54:00.005+11:00

The flu is still hanging around with a vengeance, with total disregard to the fact I am absolutely not interested in having it stay for much longer ! and just when I thought the electricity issue was sorted and the weekly dyeing day would be without any exciting things happening, the power went OFF.... Again......for a whole day and more.... Now, for all of you living in suburbia or a city, this may sound a bit strange. For all of us living in the bush and in the country these things happen more often than not. Especially in the bush or , where we are , where there are trees and wild life in abundance. One gush of wind in wet conditions can send a tree down or a branch or a koala treads where it shouldn’t and “Poof!Bang!..”no electricity. Why? Because all the powerlines are above ground. Not only is this asking for trouble but it can be very disastrous (for example the Kinglake horrendous bushfires started by a short in the powerlines on a very hot day). I’m not an expert but hey, why not dig them in eh? I know it’s probably not very cost effective for the power companies who have to fork out millions, but I think they make more than enough money already.
Also , after being without power for the whole day on the Wednesday and knowing that this is not the first nor will it be the last time, we are sooo tempted to find a way to be totally off the grid. Solar power here is not really an option for the whole kit and caboodle because of the trees, mountains and , let’s face it, the less than normal hours of sun we are getting, but there must be other ways and it is definitely worth looking at. It’s a long term plan…

What is going to happen in a very short time though is that the IxCHeL fibre farm is going to participate in the Royal Sydney Easter Show on the 9th of April !!! Last year I made a suggestion to the organisers of the show that it woud be so good as a promotion for the angora rabbit breed to organise a world record attempt : a back to back Bunny . It has been approved and will be covered by all media !! it is going to be HUGE !!!! It means that 3 bunnies will be clipped, then prepped and spun and then knitted into a shawl/scarf in the shortest possible time. There is a team of 6 people that will do the clipping, the spinning and the knitting : 2 clippers , 2 extremely fast spinners and 2 super fast knitters ! There will be a lot prep and discussion with all the team members before hand ofcourse !! and a lot of practicing by all ;) More information on the back to back bunny event and the Royal Sydney Easter Show can be found on their website later and ofcourse I will keep you updated as well J If you want to be part of this event , volunteer, help or be there, please message me of give me a ring!

Apart from all the power outages and flu , I have been busy again with making this update a very nice exciting one: there is the January selection of mini skeins that are super cool ! and come with a very nice extra: a smile hexapuff chart ! Also two types of sock yarn: my new design “morse code dyed sock yarn” and super new colour combinations in my hand dyed merino/nylon 4ply sock yarn !

There have been some amazing nice yarns on my wheel for custom orders and I just HAD to share these two with you because I am totally in love with them ! One is a Wood Elf Art yarn: Australian bush bird feathers, paperbark spun with blue faced Leicester, merino, cashmere, angora bunny, glitz, gold and silk all dyed with walnut.

Wood Elf Art Yarn for a custom order

Peachy princess Art yarn: Lace, spun with blue faced Leicester, merino, cashmere, angora bunny, glitz, gold and silk.

Peachy Princess Art Yarn for a custom order

Last but not least , Navajo Churro Bunny Blend tops are back! A new harvest of this amazing blend is available again in new colourways that are out of this world. The blend is wonderful to spin, is strong but still soft because of the bunny blended in it thoroughly and I am thrilled with the colour combos.

One last thing before I let you drool and snaffle: your support means a lot to us here at the farm. You are not only buying yarn or fibre, you are supporting a small farm with happy animals raised with love and attention and care. It is not easy as a small business to survive these days and for a small farm it can be even harder. So, I want to thank all of you loyal readers and supporters out there. This week know that you are not only supporting us, but also the Navajo Nation, who have been instrumental in saving the beautiful Navajo Sheep from extinction.

One last thing: be creative, be yourself and most of all: do not try and do the same as others. Be brave enough to be Different. Never compare yourself to others and be proud of what you can achieve by doing the best you can. Have fun !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Hand dyed Navajo Churro Bunny Tops
Navajo Churro - angora(95-5)
100 grams AU$20

Ned Kelly Revisited -SOLD OUT-

(one of my favourite complex colour combination that works amazingly well !)

Honey Suckle -1 left-

Wild River -SOLD-

Peace & Love -1LEFT-

Honey Bear-SOLD-

Morse Code Dyed 4 ply Sock yarn
(merino + nylon 85-15%) 95-100 grams AU$26

Joyride-SOLD OUT-

Nemo-SOLD OUT-

Kookaburra-SOLD OUT-

There is only a very limited supply of this morse code dyed yarn, so please be quick if you dont want to miss out !

Hand dyed Merino nylon sock yarn
(super fine merino – nylon 85-15) 100 grams AU$23

Bush Ranger Party

Bush Gem

Coral reef

Pilbara

Purple love

Ned Kelly -my favourite colour combo at the moment and fairly similar to the sock club December that had the very special Sock blank and pattern Ned Kelly Socks)

Ned Kelly -my favourite colour combo at the moment and fairly similar to the sock club December that had the very special Sock blank and pattern Ned Kelly Bunny Socks) See what great stuff you get when you are an IxCHeL sock it to me Yarn club member! :-)

Mini Skein Selection January 2012
with an extra 2 skeins AND a smiley face hexapuff chart ! AU$23

This months selection of exclusive hand dyed yarns is: blue faced leicester bunny, bamboo bunny, super fine merino/nylon and a luxurious 50/50 merino/silk ! I will also add some mink to the mix to make your smiley face extra smiley :)

the January mini skein selection + some of the hexapuffs I made with this selection !

Close up of the mini skein selection January 2012

smiley face chart and hexapuff

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

BUNNY SPIN INS at the IxCHeL Fibre Farm

Saturday January 21st, 11am-4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome as well ! : the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday January 26th..it's Australia Day….cancelled ..sorry !

Warragul Spinners and Weavers Group, Gladstone street
14th of February in The Fireshed. It will be filled with fibre ! I will do a bunny talk and bring a bunny with me to “show and tell” and perform a bunny haircut !

April 9th, Sydney Royal Easter Show
THE Angora Bunny Event of the year!!
Back to Back Bunny World Record
Join the fun and what better way to do it than visit all the Easter bunnies at the Royal Easter Show! Promoting the angora rabbits in Australia for the very first time ! and how ! More information on the Royal Syndey show website and here later !

April 28th
Mini Wool Show of the Hand knitters Guild
Time and place to be confirmed later.
I am preparing heaps of new yarns for that event that will be amazing !!!!!

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the Flower (bunny) shed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia :-)
This year it is even going to BIGGER and more HUGE than ever !!!
Join me in the fun !
The woolcraft schedule is published and the IxCHeL Fibre farm is sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word out . Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

A Hoppy 2012 !

2012-01-06T10:34:00.002+11:00

First of all I want to wish you: all my loyal bunny blog followers a very happy hoppy and successful 2012 ! Yeah! May the year bring you lots of creativity, fun and happiness !

Second: well, how to put this? The new year has begun for me pretty much how the last one ended: chaotic with a trickle of “let’s give her another challenge to deal with and see how she can multi task this one”: Paul was nice enough to give me another unwrapped present : the flu (yeah! ..please note cynicism...) and then when I wanted to use my birthday present (THE Toaster ! he bought me for my birthday! ( Yeah ! .again, please note my cynicism ...) it blew up the electricity in half of the house just when I had my dyeing day! (I love presents that keep on giving..again, please note cynicism)

So, no power, no water (the water pump was on that line as well) and no dyeing! Fortunately for Paul, he could still watch the cricket happily, because that was on another electricity line…. So lucky ….(again: please note my cynicism…)

Anyway, hauling buckets of water from the other tank and doing my dyeing elsewhere which involved a lot of heavy lifting and walking, I got a little bit of the planned dyeing done (only 3 kilos instead of the planned 10). I had some great yarns planned for this update but after a whole day of heavy labour like that AND the flu attack, I had to get out my white flag and surrender…I had yelled out to the forces that be all day “NO! I will NOT give in ! You can take my electricity away from me, then my kettle died BUT I will NOT give in! (can you tell I am stubborn? ) All this time Paul looked at me struggling, saying: “why don’t you just give up?”Which ofcourse only made me more determined…lol Besides, watching the cricket would just mean slow death. So folks, there’s no yarn, but there is some very luscious fibre !
Next week, electricity willing, there will be more fibres and yarn and most importantly : the january selection of MINI SKEINS ! excitement will rule !

I was going to talk about bunnies (they are all doing very very great ! by the way! And to all you bunny foster mums and dad: your bunny wishes you a very hoppy 2012 and asks you to check your mail next week for a special delivery ! ) and also, I was going to talk about the copy cat syndrome that some people have made into a fine art , which irks me but people around me say “be flattered”….it still irks me though…lol but I won’t at this time..the flu has taken over this brain of mine.

I wish you all a very happy, creative, fun, healthy 2012. May your dreams come true and may you always have new dreams to add to your list, may your friends warm your heart and your life be filled with love and lots of laughter. Who knows what this year of the dragon will be, but let’s hope it is a very good one !
From all of us here at the IxCHeL Fibre Farm
HAPPY HOPPY 2012 !!!!!

This week the IxCHeL clubs are still open for sign up and that goes for the new club as well : the MINI SKEIN CLUB ! For all you hexapuffers and sock blanket fans out there. All the info for all the clubs you find below. Please let me know if you have any questions: always happy to help.

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Cashmere Fling Tops
Cashmere-tencel-glitz-bamboo (4-40-40-15)

100 grams AU$22

Isolation permutation

Wallaby Party Dissection

Russian Rocket reaction

Wombat Implementation

Shiny trinket illusion

Singing bowl synergy

beekeepers quandrum

Copycat Conundrum

the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club

a selection of my “stress-a-gones”/ hexapuffs fiilled with lavender and the December miniskein selection of last week

For all of us hexapuffers, sock blankie addicts and stress-a-gone knitters out there I have set up a monthly selection of mini skeins.
I already started it up in December with a wide range of very smooshy yarns but in 2012 the fun is really going to start FULL ON.
Every month I will be offering a monthly exclusive IxCHeL mini skein selection for everybody. In that monthly selection I will give everybody who orders 10 miniskeins that are hand dyed and or hand spun not available anywhere else and awesome to add to your mini skein projects. Once the Monthly mini skein collecction is announced anybody can order as many as there are available and they will receive a nice colourful pack of ten miniskeins for $23+post.
However, for all the Mini skein fans out there that would like to commit to just hop in and out, I would like to offer something evenn more special:
For those committing to the Mini Skein Club there is a membership of three months and they will receive the monthly selection of miniskeins AND a surprise skein not available to oters PLUS -yes there is more!- 4 more extra mini skeins! that is 15 miniskeins for the price of 10 ! Now how can you say no to that??
Here are all the details for the sign ups for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club:
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $69+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (=even a better deal!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$69+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (even a better deal!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$69+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$69+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club is January 8th.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Fibre Club

fibre club december is all ready to be packed and sent out end of the week ! Yeah ! and the new sign ups for 2012 are now open as well ! Here are all the details:
Sign up for the IxCHeL Fibre club january-february-march 2012 is now OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!
All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #12 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:
For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #12 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #12 is january 8th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
the IxCHeL Sock-it-to-me-yarn Club

THE SOCK YARN CLUB SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN ;-)
What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (january-february-march 2012) you will receive:
enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);
Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is January 8th.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

the IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club

sign up for the funky bunny batt club #12 (january-february-march 2012) is now officially OPEN :)
Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !
All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !
Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !
Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #12 :)) for three months is :
For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)
For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)
For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)
For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#12 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #12 is January 8th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January 2012:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in January 2012 !! Yeah!

Saturday January 21st, 11am-4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome as well ! : the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday January 26th, 11 am – 4pm

February 14th, Warragul Spinners and Weavers Group, Gladstone street
The Fireshed will be filled with fibre ! I will do a bunny talk and bring a bunny with me to “show and tell” and perform a bunny haircut !

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the Flower (bunny) shed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J
This year it is even going to BIGGER and more HUGE than ever !!!
Join me in the fun !
The woolcraft schedule is published and the IxCHeL Fibre farm is sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word out . Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Goodbye to Year of the Rabbit and bring on 2012 !

2011-12-30T11:48:00.004+11:00

Bear with his Zoolander look…lol..see him posing with his little pouty lip? rofl

Well, it’s almost over…the year of the rabbit 2011 has come to an end and the new year of 2012, that has been foretold to be cataclysmic by so many fortunetellers , Mayan Calendaar interpreters and the like is knocking on our door. Well, I say, bring it on ! At the start of 2011 I was actually very happy: how could a year of the rabbit possibly have bad things happen? Especially to rabbits. The year of the rabbits should be good for rabbits. Except, it wasn’t when 75% of our fluffy bunnies were wiped out by a mutant calici virus in June. Heartbreaking. We could have said no more , but instead the fight was on: the fight to rebuild, to fight together with friends to make this terrible injustice of releasing viruses into the wiild known to the general public and believe me it still is. We are still fighting and we are still rebuiding and we coud not have done it without you all, without your support and your friendship.
It has also been the year of eye openings: recognising who your friends are. A year of getting stronger on the one hand , but weaker on the other. Recognising that I have been working too darn hard. 2012 will have to be the year that I will have to find a balance in both work and play, eating regularly and taking better care of myself. I am not making a list of what I want to achieve because I feel that you can do that anytime in the year not just at the start and also : lists are restrictive. Better add on or strike off at will ..
There are many creative ideas brewing in my head and new blends and new yarns coming up in 2012 as well: among others a very yummy mink/angora yarn that is just to die for !! and a 3 ply gorgeous angora yarn as well !! It is all happening in 2012: lots of shows: the Bendigo show ofcourse in the Flower (Power) Bunny Shed …lol, the Royal Sydney Show THE event of angora rabbits of the year !!!!! , lots of bunny spin ins, the mini wool show of the handknitters guild I always LOVE to go to and heaps and heaps of guild gatherings and more ! It is all very exciting ! Also because there are new creative things on the horizon: wearable art ,, classes in spinning, new Felting and Embellishing creations. 2012 will be a year to remember !

I want to thank al of you who have stood by me this year, who have helped me through with your comforting words, your laughter, your creativity, your wonderful gifts !, your awesome heartfelt warmth and friendship. Thank you all so very much! I feel very , very blessed !

Siobhan Colley made this awesome beaded !!! lace shawl for my birthday ! Thank you so much !! what a work of art !

Lindy Winnell made this gorgeous xmas book filled with lots of treasures and poems: so beautiful ! Thank you Lindy !! I love it!

the birthday gift to me..lol…a HUGE glass bowl for my hexapuffs and stress a gones ;)

I wish you all a very happy, creative, fun, healthy 2012. May your dreams come true and may you always have new dreams to add to your list, may your friends warm your heart and your life be filled with love and lots of laughter.
From all of us here at the IxCHeL Fibre Farm
HAPPY 2012 !!!!!

This week the IxCHeL clubs are still open for sign up and that goes for the new club as well : the MINI SKEIN CLUB ! For all you hexapuffers and sock blanket fans out there. All the info for all the clubs you find below. Please let me know if you have any questions: always happy to help.

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Fibre Art Badges , NEW ! see nrs 60 to 83 !

AU$2 per badge or 6 for $10

badges 1 - 20

badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

badges 60-83 NEW !

the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club

a selection of my “stress-a-gones”/ hexapuffs fiilled with lavender and the December miniskein selection of last week

For all of us hexapuffers, sock blankie addicts and stress-a-gone knitters out there I have set up a monthly selection of mini skeins.
I already started it up in December with a wide range of very smooshy yarns but in 2012 the fun is really going to start FULL ON.
Every month I will be offering a monthly exclusive IxCHeL mini skein selection for everybody. In that monthly selection I will give everybody who orders 10 miniskeins that are hand dyed and or hand spun not available anywhere else and awesome to add to your mini skein projects. Once the Monthly mini skein collecction is announced anybody can order as many as there are available and they will receive a nice colourful pack of ten miniskeins for $23+post.
However, for all the Mini skein fans out there that would like to commit to just hop in and out, I would like to offer something evenn more special:
For those committing to the Mini Skein Club there is a membership of three months and they will receive the monthly selection of miniskeins AND a surprise skein not available to oters PLUS -yes there is more!- 4 more extra mini skeins! that is 15 miniskeins for the price of 10 ! Now how can you say no to that??
Here are all the details for the sign ups for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club:
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $69+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (=even a better deal!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$69+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (even a better deal!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$69+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$69+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club is January 8th.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Fibre Club

fibre club december is all ready to be packed and sent out end of the week ! Yeah ! and the new sign ups for 2012 are now open as well ! Here are all the details:
Sign up for the IxCHeL Fibre club january-february-march 2012 is now OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!
All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #12 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:
For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #12 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #12 is january 8th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
the IxCHeL Sock-it-to-me-yarn Club

THE SOCK YARN CLUB SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN ;-)
What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (january-february-march 2012) you will receive:
enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);
Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is January 8th.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)
the IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club

sign up for the funky bunny batt club #12 (january-february-march 2012) is now officially OPEN :)
Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !
All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !
Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !
Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #12 :)) for three months is :
For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)
For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)
For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)
For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#12 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #12 is January 8th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January 2012:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in January 2012 !! Yeah!

Saturday January 21st, 11am-4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome as well ! : the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday January 26th, 11 am – 4pm

February 14th, Warragul Spinners and Weavers Group, Gladstone street
The Fireshed will be filled with fibre ! I will do a bunny talk and bring a bunny with me to “show and tell” and perform a bunny haircut !

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the Flower (bunny) shed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J
This year it is even going to BIGGER and more HUGE than ever !!!
Join me in the fun !
The woolcraft schedule is published and the IxCHeL Fibre farm is sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word out . Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Friends in Fibre

2011-12-23T00:37:00.003+11:00

Snoozing Bear thinking what will be under the Christmas tree for him

Cross roads, doors open when others close, making choices which way to go or not to go : it’s all true. When you make a choice to head in a certain direction, even when you do so in total objectivity and clarity –which I sure haven’t done- even then, you have no guarantee or exact idea what Life will give you back for it. One thing I do know is that if I hadn’t turned into this path of fibre creativity, I would have missed out on meeting and getting to know so many of you wonderful, generous, loving friends: You ! Yes : YOU!
I mean – and I know this for a fact although all of you will get tears in their eyes and roll down the floor laughing- I am quite ..and here it comes…shy… yeah yeah….keep laughing…….recovered yet? What I mean to say is that , well, what all of us have in common is Fibre and craft, and without that common denominator we might not even have met..ever! because everybody is different , but we all have this fibre gene in our system which somehow made us meet here in the blog, on ravelry, at shows, at guilds or at markets, eventhough everybody si different in their way of expressing this fibre gene in their system: some knit, some spin and knit, some love lace, some love art yarn creations, some felt or weave and some like to do everything. Fibre is what holds us all together, it is what we love and I am extremely grateful that I have opened my heart and soul and my home up to each and every one of you. In all the years I have been selling at markets, on line, at shows and writing this blog faithfully every Friday, there you are : you have experienced my pain , my laughter, my doubts, my love; you have gone through the disasters that have struck from raging bushfires to the bunny calici disaster and you have been part of my life every week when I fire up the dyepots and prepped batts and offered you my yarns. It was and always will be “personal” because what you see and read every week, whether it is an offering of hand dyed fibres and yarns or a story about our bunnies: it is part of the fibre that makes up my life and yours. Thank you and from the bottom of my heart I wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with Love, Compassion and heaps of fibre fun ! Enjoy !

Fifis Kits growing bigger by the hour. No escapes anymore since they all got too big . Spock and Kirk were still escaping on Monday but not anymore ! ;)

Enjoy !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Bunny Sock Yarn
+/- 100grams hand dyed , 4 ply , yardage: +/- 380meters /100grams AU$25
lambswool 50%, Angora 10%, Silk 30% Nylon 10%

Circus –4 available-

Mermaids –4 available-

Wood Elves –4 available-

Godess –2 available-

Lush Bunny Tops

100grams+ hand dyed , AU$24
60% superfine organic merino, 10% cashmere, 10% angora, 20% Tencel

Northpole

velveteen Rabbit

Little Red Riding Hood

Fairy Tale Ending

the Shire

Carnival revisited

Soul of Venice

Hoppy

Outback Sunrise

Fibre Art Badges

NEW ! see nrs 60 to 83 !
AU$2 per badge or 6 for $10

badges 1 - 20

badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

badges 60-83 NEW !

the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club

a selection of my “stress-a-gones”/ hexapuffs fiilled with lavender and the December miniskein selection of last week

For all of us hexapuffers, sock blankie addicts and stress-a-gone knitters out there I have set up a monthly selection of mini skeins.
I already started it up in December with a wide range of very smooshy yarns but in 2012 the fun is really going to start FULL ON.
Every month I will be offering a monthly exclusive IxCHeL mini skein selection for everybody. In that monthly selection I will give everybody who orders 10 miniskeins that are hand dyed and or hand spun not available anywhere else and awesome to add to your mini skein projects. Once the Monthly mini skein collecction is announced anybody can order as many as there are available and they will receive a nice colourful pack of ten miniskeins for $23+post.
However, for all the Mini skein fans out there that would like to commit to just hop in and out, I would like to offer something evenn more special:
For those committing to the Mini Skein Club there is a membership of three months and they will receive the monthly selection of miniskeins AND a surprise skein not available to oters PLUS -yes there is more!- 4 more extra mini skeins! that is 15 miniskeins for the price of 10 ! Now how can you say no to that??
Here are all the details for the sign ups for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club:
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $69+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (=even a better deal!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$69+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (even a better deal!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$69+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$69+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club is December 31st.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Fibre Club
Sign up for the IxCHeL Fibre club january-february-march 2012 is now OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!
All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #12 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:
For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #12 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #12 is December 31st! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Sock-it-to-me-yarn Club

THE SOCK YARN CLUB SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN ;-)
What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (january-february-march 2012) you will receive:
enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);
Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is December 31st.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-4pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in January 2012 !! Yeah!

Saturday January 21st, 11am-4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome as well ! : the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday January 26th, 11 am – 4pm

February 14th, Warragul Spinners and Weavers Group, Gladstone street
The Fireshed will be filled with fibre ! I will do a bunny talk and bring a bunny with me to “show and tell” and perform a bunny haircut !

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the Flower (bunny) shed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J
This year it is even going to BIGGER and more HUGE than ever !!!
Join me in the fun !
The woolcraft schedule is published and the IxCHeL Fibre farm is sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word out . Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

A Wonderful Life

2011-12-16T01:38:00.004+11:00

Spock nibbling

For most this time of year is a time of packing up work, going on a holiday or a well deserved rest, the kids are on holiday, we start thinking of Christmas presents and relaxing, or cooking for a huge amount of people for Christmas lunch –well, not so relaxing maybe- and most of all contemplating what went on in 2011. For some though it is not the holiday season at all. For all of you stubborn, creative, work a holics, farmers, small businesses, it never stops. And sometimes you think to yourself why did I ever think that working with me as my own boss would ever be better than a 9 to 5 job working for somebody else?
I have been asked questions tonight and other days as well as to why I do what I do and is running a fibre farm viable or worth while money wise, and I guess that when you really do the math, well, it just plain isn’t, but there is more. You do what you do because you just cannot live NOT doing it, it is not so much as a job but it is a passion. It is the same reason why there are painters, writers, composers who do what they do. And although not everybody can be a Chopin, a Steinbeck or a Rembrandt, even they knew one thing: they would not be “them”without what they do passionately, without compromise. There are easier ways to make a living probably. But sometimes you just have to admit that Life is not meant to be easy and that you have to make choices, even the hard ones. And most of the times its those hard decisions and the choices you make, that will define you as a human being, no matter what you do. The media or rather certain products want to make our life “easier” by signing up so you do not even have to make decisions aas to what to make for dinner or eat for lunch or breakfast, because in their view, our lives will be much easier if all those decisions will be made for us without hassles, but maybe , just maybe, Life is much better with a bit of chaos, decision making and well, let’s face it: surprises and risks and following a dream or your passion.

So, you want to be an actor? A painter, a musician a fibre artist a crafts person a designer? Will it be “viable”, will you make money? In all truth? No, not likely, but the most important question you have to ask yourself is not “will I make money”. The most important question you have to ask yourself is “Will the passion I have to do this, carry me to do wonderful things, live my dream and make me feel proud of what I am as a human being, no matter what?, without compromise or the need to compare yourself to anyone else, with hard work and with love?” My Answer? A full hearted “yes!” I could not imagine a life without fibre, painting, teaching or designing and caring for beautiful fluffy creatures. It is a wonderful life.

Well, now that I got that off my chest..lol..I just have to showcase the beautiful, quirky, amazingly artistic work of Siobhan Colley of SoulCrafting, who has made the most gorgeous two Feltoonies ™ for me: a Dracula Bunny and a Frankenbunny. The artistry of her felting is sublime ! and these lil creatures put a BIG smile on my face everytime ! Any requests? I am sure that Siobhan will be more than happy to enable : I have heard her Etsy shop will be having a grand 2012 opening in January so stay tuned ! I know I will, because I think I might have to fight over a certain Ms Frankenbunnies’Bride..ahem ahem …lol here are some links: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SoulCrafting and do “like”her facebook page as well for some special stuff and inside information ;)

Here are some photos:

Frankenbunny close up

Dracula bunny with his harem of Batts

and for all of you bunny fans out there: some new photos of the babies and Bear ;) also a new video will be uploaded onto YouTube! soon of Fifis babies feeding: sooooooo cute !!!

just nibbling

such a cutie!

Bear in a contemplative mood

This week the IxCHeL clubs are still open for sign up and this time I started a new club as well : the MINI SKEIN CLUB ! For all you hexapuffers and sock blankie fans out there. All the info for all the clubs you find below. Please let me know if you have any questions: always happy to help.

For this weeks fibre offer are two new products: hand dyed Sock blanks with a free pattern of anti second sock syndrome socks AND Shawl blanks: Loooooooooong repeat fabulous 4 ply weight sock yarn in Bamboo bunny silk and nylon. Which is Soooooooo nice to work with. For all you spinners out there: BFL Bunny Kid mohair tops! Drool, Snaffle and Score ! have a great holiday season !
Enjoy !

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies for extra close up photos of the hand dyed felts, yarns and fibres !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Sock Blanks
100grams+ sock blanks hand dyed , 4 ply , yardage: +/- 400meters /100grams AU$29, comes with free two at the time toe up sock pattern!!

Rainbow sockblank

Ghost of Bunny sock blank

Cool Tidings

Optimism Sock blank

Emu walkabout sock blank

Shawl Blanks
150grams+ Shawl blanks hand dyed , 4 ply , yardage: +/- 400meters /100grams AU$39, perfect to make that rainbow Citron shawl you always wanted ! Bamboo, angora, silk+nylon

Rainbow

Blue Faced Leicester Bunny Kid mohair Tops
A super soft hand dyed top blend of Blue faced Leicester 70% , Kid mohair 25% 5%, Angora 100gram tops AU$21

Reindeer at the party

Cranberry wine

Reindeer Rave

Yule Tide

Hoppalong

Fibre Art Badges

NEW ! see nrs 60 to 83 !

AU$2 per badge or 6 for $10

badges 1 - 20

badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

badges 60-83 NEW !

the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club

a selection of my “stress-a-gones”/ hexapuffs fiilled with lavender and the December miniskein selection of last week

For all of us hexapuffers, sock blankie addicts and stress-a-gone knitters out there I have set up a monthly selection of mini skeins.
I already started it up in December with a wide range of very smooshy yarns but in 2012 the fun is really going to start FULL ON.
Every month I will be offering a monthly exclusive IxCHeL mini skein selection for everybody. In that monthly selection I will give everybody who orders 10 miniskeins that are hand dyed and or hand spun not available anywhere else and awesome to add to your mini skein projects. Once the Monthly mini skein collecction is announced anybody can order as many as there are available and they will receive a nice colourful pack of ten miniskeins for $23+post.
However, for all the Mini skein fans out there that would like to commit to just hop in and out, I would like to offer something evenn more special:
For those committing to the Mini Skein Club there is a membership of three months and they will receive the monthly selection of miniskeins AND a surprise skein not available to oters PLUS -yes there is more!- 4 more extra mini skeins! that is 15 miniskeins for the price of 10 ! Now how can you say no to that??
Here are all the details for the sign ups for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club:
Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $69+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (=even a better deal!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$69+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (even a better deal!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$69+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$69+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club is December 31st.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Fibre Club

fibre club december is all ready to be packed and sent out end of the week ! Yeah ! and the new sign ups for 2012 are now open as well ! Here are all the details:
Sign up for the IxCHeL Fibre club january-february-march 2012 is now OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!
All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #12 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:
For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #12 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #12 is December 31st! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club
sign up for the funky bunny batt club #12 (january-february-march 2012) is now officially OPEN :)
Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !
All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !
Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !
Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #12 :)) for three months is :
For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)
For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)
For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)
For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#12 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #12 is December 31st! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January 2012:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in December !! Yeah! And the December ones are all in the spirit of Xmas. Please let me know beforehand if you are coming and how many are in your p arty so I can let Santa Bunny know

Our electricity provider SP Ausnet had the ultimate wisdom to let us know that our power will be off the whole day on Thursday the 22nd of December. That is the bunny spin in day !!!! So, I thought it best to let you all know that the Bunny Spin in of Thursday the 22nd of December is unfortunately cancelled …I know it is sad but ther will be plenty of bunny spin ins again next year !!!

Saturday December 17th, 11am-5pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday December 22nd, 11 am – 4pm CANCELLED DUE TO ELECTRICITY OUTAGE

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the flowershed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J Join me in I the fun BUT before hand the woolcraft schedule is published ! The IxCHeL Fibre farm is actually sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word and other than merino fibre out there. Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

To Go Where No Bunny Has Gone Before...

2011-12-09T11:30:00.004+11:00

Some bunnies just show so much personality and willpower, apart from being absolutely super cute ofcourse, that they get their names early. Bear was one, because of his survival tactics and exploration skills and getting himself into trouble. In Fifis litter there are two characters that are just, well how to put this, out of this world…I call them Kirk and Spock. Not that I know if they are actually male bunnies yet, but they deserve their names with pride no matter what sex they turn out to be I say..lol
The baby bunnies are tiny. So tiny that they can squeeze through the openings of the bunny enclosure, so , from previous experiences of this phenomona, I have taken precautions and added some extra grills so no one can go a-wandering. Think again! I have no idea how they do it, but there are always two that escape. And it is always the same two ! I know this because I marked their tiny ears with a little dot and a little stripe. While I am in the studio and keeping an eye on them they are all little angels pretending to eat, sleep, binkie in the enclosure and annoy mum for more food. I only have to turn my back and presto! Only four in the enclosure and two out. I looked for gaps..no gaps that I can see so my best bet is they are beaming themselves out of the bunny run to explore where no bunny has gone before…..the Studio, the final frontier….
So, they have earned their names with pride: Spock and Kirk. You can often see Spock meditating in a corner separate from all the others and thinking up other scientific plans to maybe explore even further.. Spock is a thinker and a loner. As long as Spock can be alone , away from his siblings and mum and more efficient thinking can be achieved, Spock is a Happy Bunny, athough I have never seen Spock smile. Spock is probably practicing the “live long and prosper”with its paws….Kirk on the other hand is totally different, Kirk beams out of the enclosure only to hang out with Bear at the bar. Typical, a bunny who wants to drink with a mate and have some fun exploring what is going on in the world.
This happens every morning and every night. I stopped panicking where they have gone, they can easily be picked up and they don’t seem to get themselves into trouble like Bear….yet…

Fifi is a happy bunny, just not happy when she is with her kids. She wants out and go gallivanting and flirting with Bear. Bear and Fifi share the free run of the studio, just at separate times, otherwise there will be more babies in a months time and that will definitely not be a good thing, since we are almost at full capacity at the moment and to tell you the truth , with three litters in such a short time, I can use some rest….lol

Here are some photos:

bunnies galore

eating clover hay

Capn Kirk in the enclosure for once

two lil white bunbuns

The Victorian Feltmakers show was great and I will defenitely be back to do some more felting ! very inspiring and left me with so many ideas I want to construct into new garments. I have been so busy these last years with dyeing and spinning and recuperating from the cancer mayhem, that I just didn’t make time to do the garment making and designing and weaving, which I love ! I will just have to MAKE time…I will ask Spock about that later when it has finished its meditation time.

This week the IxCHeL clubs are open for sign up again and this time I started a new club as well : the MINI SKEIN CLUB ! For all you hexapuffers and sock blankie fans out there. All the info for all the clubs you find below. Please let me know if you have any questions: always happy to help.

Also, some super LUSH organic merino, cashmere, angora and tencel tops and some new variegated blue faced Leicester bunny 4 ply spun and hand dyed yarn.
Enjoy !

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies for extra close up photos of the hand dyed felts, yarns and fibres !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Blue Faced Leicester Bunny Yarn

100grams+ skeins hand dyed , 4 ply spun , yardage: +/- 330meters /100grams AU$26

Amazing to knit with. A gorgeous lustre and softness with an amazing yardage !

Toy Soldier -2 left-

Odd Jobs -4 left-

(my absolute favourite colour combo at the moment:

rich oranges, rusts combined with light and dark blue tones,

this combination works amazingly well! )

Sanctuary -2left-

Fairytale -2left-

Hellboy -SOLD-

Troll Witch -2left-

Forest Creatures -2left-

Soul of Venice -2left-

Lush Bunny Tops
A super soft hand dyed top blend of 18micron organic merino 60% , cashmere 10%, Angora 10% and Tencel 20%

100gram tops AU$24

Abe Sapien -2left-

Carnival -2left-

Makoma -2left-

Hydra -2left-

Penanggalan-2left-

Every month I will be offering a monthly exclusive IxCHeL mini skein selection for everybody. In that monthly selection I will give everybody who orders 10 miniskeins that are hand dyed and or hand spun not available anywhere else and awesome to add to your mini skein projects. Once the Monthly mini skein collecction is announced anybody can order as many as there are available and they will receive a nice colourful pack of ten miniskeins for $23+post.
However, for all the Mini skein fans out there that would like to commit to just hop in and out, I would like to offer something evenn more special:
For those committing to the Mini Skein Club there is a membership of three months and they will receive the monthly selection of miniskeins AND a surprise skein not available to others PLUS -yes there is more!- 4 more extra mini skeins! that is 15 miniskeins for the price of 10 ! Now how can you say no to that??

Here are all the details for the sign ups for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club:

For Australia : single serve $69+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (=even a better deal!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$69+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (even a better deal!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$69+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$69+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (even a better deal!)+AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the IxCHeL Mini Skein Club is December 31st.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

the IxCHeL Fibre Club
The new sign ups for 2012 are now open !

Here are all the details:
Sign up for the IxCHeL Fibre club january-february-march 2012 !

Every month for three months (january-february-march 2012) you will receive:
enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);
Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)

Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42
Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is December 31st.
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

the IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club
sign up for the funky bunny batt club #12 (january-february-march 2012) is now officially OPEN :)

Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !

All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !
Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the first three months of 2012 !

Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #12 :)) for three months is :
For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)
For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)
For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)
For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#12 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #12 is December 31st! And the first installment is going to be shipped out end of January 2012:)
Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in December !! Yeah! And the December ones are all in the spirit of Xmas. Please let me know beforehand if you are coming and how many are in your p arty so I can let Santa Bunny know

Our electricity provider SP Ausnet had the ultimate wisdom to let us know that our power will be off the whole day on Thursday the 22nd of December. That is the bunny spin in day !!!! So, I thought it best to let you all know that the Bunny Spin in of Thursday the 22nd of December is unfortunately cancelled …I know it is sad but ther will be plenty of bunny spin ins again next year !!!

Saturday December 17th, 11am-5pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Thursday December 22nd, 11 am – 4pm CANCELLED DUE TO ELECTRICITY OUTAGE

The Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show 2012
Friday 20th-Sunday 22nd of July
I will be in the flowershed again this year with heaps of new fluffy stuff and in full bunny regalia J Join me in I the fun BUT before hand the woolcraft schedule is published ! The IxCHeL Fibre farm is actually sponsoring a catergory this year in the handspun yarn classes in Natural Animal Fibres class 23 and 24 !!! We feel it is very important to get the word and other than merino fibre out there. Angora fibre and cashmere and mohair and alpaca and baby camel is amazing to spin, felt, weave, embellish and crochet with! Start planning and working on your entry for the show and get your art work out there for everybody tot admire and win prizes !! yeah ! What could be better eh?
Check out the website here for more details : www.sheepshow.com and for questions relating to the woolcraft schedule and ore contact Dot Vallence at Dotv5 at optusnet dot com dot au

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

First Steps into a new world, Felt & Hexapuff mini skeins

2011-12-02T11:50:00.004+11:00

First things first: Fifi is doing well and so are all of her baby bunnies. Mum Fifi wants to go galavanting around the studio more than anything though and given the chance, she jumps out of her door to leave her bunbuns safely sleeping and goes off flirting with Bear. The babies are doing great and are looking very healthy and finally they had the courage a couple of days ago to venture into the wide world outside of their safe nestbox….to quickly hop back in and snuggle up to their siblings… their uncertain wobbly steps and funny bunny binkies are hilarious..so cute !

Here are some photos:

first steps

wobbly

snugglebuns

I have been working overtime trying to finish as much felt and hand dye it in time for this weeks update and the Victorian Feltmakers Mini show and Talk I will be giving tomorrow ! I have written up instructions on how to felt pure angora and will be taking loads of fibre and felt with me. I am over the moon with my new product : the angorino (=95% superfine merino+5% angora) Prefelt : it has a gorgeous handle, soft as and takes the dye beautifully. I ofcourse couldn’t resist and had to make myself two hand and armwarmers oout of 1 angorino prefelt lap ! and needlefelted a zombie bunnie on it and finished it off with some lush angora hairs on the edges.. I call it my superBunny Klingon Armwarmer ;)

The angorino prefelt come in two sizes: a lap which is appr 40x40 (more like 45x50cm! And the angorino wrap size which you can see can is an amazing length and great width: 30+cm wide by +/- 250cm long. All hand dyed and did I have fun doing it. It looks stunning ! and it is so nice and warm as well : Yumm! Weight of the Superfine angorino prefelt is 150 grams per meter by the way, so nice and thin with a beautiful drape. An excellent base for your embelleishing, needlefelting or wet felting. I know I might be shot for this, but I think it is even very nice to wear as it is...lol

Also some miniskeins on offer to get you going on hexapuffs. The selection I made is for 10 skeins ranging from bfl bunny hand dyed sock yarn to merino with lurex and mink and silk ! One of the skeins is enough to make a hexapuff . I had so much fun making mine and filling them up with lavender: I actually started calling them stress-a-gones because it is so soothing to make and well, after you fill it …sniff to your hearts content.

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies. There are also extra close up shot sof products and this weeks dyed felts !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Angorino Prefelt Lap Cones
150 grams per meter, super soft prefelt, size per lap is at least 40x40cm most are 45x50cm. One of these laps makes a pair of good sized armwarmers (see my superbunny klingon armwarmers) and even more gloves ;)

Hand dyed , 95% super fine organic merino, 5% angora AU$9.50

my SuperBunny Klingon armwarmer /finger less glove with needlefelted zombie bunny

Rainbow dark -sold-

Rainbow light -sold-

Bush sunset

Dusk

Purple Magic

Seascape

Bush Country

Seahorse

Angorino prefelt LapCone

Dusk

Nice Bouquets

Mini Skeins December 2011 selection for your hexapuffs or stress-a-gones ...
every mini skein makes a hexapuff and there are a total of 10 different unique hand dyed skeins. The fibre selection is : Mink/silk !!!! Angora/merino, blue faced Leicester bunny, bamboo bunny, merino nylon, merino lurex (to make a twinkly hexapuff ! shiny !).
In total you will receive 10 mini skeins for AU$23

a selection of my “stress-a-gones”/ hexapuffs fiilled with lavender

and the December miniskein selection.

December selection of miniskeins -sold-

Close up of the stress-a-gones/ lavender filled hexapuffs

hand dyed Angorino Prefelt Wraps
Each angorino prefelt wrap is hand dyed individually and unique. Size : 30+cm wide x 2.50meters long (unless otherwise stated)

ready to be embellished, needlefelted or wet felted or be worn as is...amazing !

Price per angorino prefelt wrap is $28

ready for a night on the town wrapped in an angorino prefelt hand dyed wrap

Supernova

Glow

Fireworks

Energy

Hollow Earth

Enigma

Kangaroo Sun

Autumn Sun

Fire Within

Spirit Fire

Firestar II AU$26 30cmx220cm -sold-

Firestar I AU$26 30cmx220cm -sold-

Phoenix II AU$26 30cm x 220cm -sold-

Phoenix I AU$26 30cm x 220cm-sold-

Crushed velvet II AU$26 30cm x 215cm-sold-

Quest

Crushed Velvet I-sold-

Galadriel -sold-

Indigo Swirl-sold-

Heaven-sold-

Aurora Borealis-sold-

fern Forest

Woodstock-sold-

Quest

Gecko on my shoulder -sold-

Wild days rainbow-sold-

Wallaby Magic-sold-

Dolphins magic-sold-

Wombat Universe -sold-

Calypso-sold-

Galah Dreaming

Galah Dreaming II -sold-

Mermaid Light

Mermaid dark -sold-

Natural also available 30cmx2meters AU$20 and 1m x 2.5meters for AU$48

New projects and eyes open !

2011-11-25T11:55:00.004+11:00

Only 11 days old, still sleeping and cuddling each other all the time with breaks of high enthusiasm at feeding time. It always amazes me how fast those wrinkly little pink piggies, who are so fragile when they first enter the world, grow so amazingly fast ! after a couple of days you can already see fluff forming and I can honestly say now: they are all looking pretty white ! so chances are that all of these gorgeous bubs are going to be what they call REW or red eyed whites, like their mum.
It is going to be very hard to teoll them apart at the start and especially when we want to keep an eye on them at weighing time so I will mark them with a tiny marker pen to keep track.

Fifi in the meantime has been a very patiet mum although eratic in feeding. Somehow she seems great at giving birth in a very organised and clean manner but come feeding time, she shows a bit of panic (who wouldn’t I may ask with 6 hungry mouths sucking the milk out of you at the same time eh?) but Fifi –when she does finally get herself in position- stands there patiently for about 5 minutes so the lil ones can get their share. Normally mums stand over the nest and feed their babies, but not Fifi. Fifi is a true believer of if you want it , come get it, kind of mum. She stands far away from the actual bed in the nestbox , budges the babies a bit with her head as if to say: Ï’m here, but you will have to put some effort into it babies!” . At the start I had to persuade her to stand a wee bit closer because there were always 2 of ythe little ones who couldn’t jump the queue so to speak and they were not getting enough feed, now , I must say her tactics have really paid off! The babies look very strong, determined _practice makes perfect- and two of them have actually already started opening their eyes !!! just as a comparison: bubbles, buttercup and Bear only started opening their eyes at day 14 and 15 ! big difference!

Anway here are some photos of the cute babies:

11 days old and their eyes starting to open! See? !

wide world of fluff

This week I have super spesh hand dyed tops for sale that will make your mouth water. Get it while you can because ethere is a very very limited supply of this yak camel blend tops ! there are also GAGA belnd tops (Blue faced Leicester- angora bunny and glitz!) and some semi solid sock yarns as well ! this time in bamboo bunny blend !(angora, bamboo, nylon and silk! With an amazing yardage). Also for those of you looking for an extra special gift for a knitter, crocheter , weaver or spinner: I have an amazing gift voucher package available ! Read more on that later on on this blog entry . Enjoy!

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Christmas Gift Voucher Package

Want to give somebody something special and still let them pick out their fav colour or fibre blend? Well, search no more: I offer an IxCHeL gift voucher package that is so hard to resist you even want to buy one for yourself ..lol

Here’s the deal:
AU$25 Personalised Christmas giftvoucher Pack
Comes with a personalised Christmas giftvoucher., free post for the receivers first order in Australia ! and a badge

AU$50 Personalised Christmas giftvoucher Pack
Comes with a personalised Christmas giftvoucher., free post for the receivers first order in Australia !, a badge, a bunny photo and last but not least some amazing fluffy stuff in a gift pack

AU$100 Personalised Christmas giftvoucher Pack
Comes with a personalised Christmas giftvoucher., free post for the receivers first order in Australia !, a badge, a bunny photo and last but not least some amazing fluffy stuff, yarn and felt in a gift pack!

Bamboo Bunny Yarn

90-100 grams Special Thanksgiving price AU$22 instead of $26 !!!!

Hand dyed semi solid colour ! and 4ply spun with an amazing yardage of 425 meters per 100grams

Sunny Day

Butterfly Bush

Mars

Blue Jean

Flax

Antarctica

Blue Berry

GaGa !! Bunny Tops Hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester Bunny Glitz (60% BFL, 20% glitz, 10% angora) Tops

100 grams AU$24

Orion

Taurus

Crab Nebula

Perseus

Andromeda

Nebula

Venus -sold-

Exodus

Yak – Baby Camel tops (30-70)
50 grams AU$19 Super amazing to spin and even better to knit and wear ! Feels so soft it is out of this world!!!! Super luxurious !

Ursa Major

Cassiopeia

Capricornus

Eclipse -sold-

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in December !! Yeah! AND VERY SPECIAL ONES AT THAT! Please email me beforehand to secure a spot and to let Santa know how many he has to cater for because everybody wiill receive a special Santa gift :)

Saturday December 17th, 11am-5pm
Thursday December 22nd, 11 am – 4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D I have made up parking signs so everybody know where to park on our property.

Saturday December 3rd, 10am-3pm
Victorian Felters Guild
Corner of Highfield Rd and Milverton street-off Toorak Rd, Camberwell/Hartwell in the Hartwell Church Hall
Bunny Talk and Bunny Feting and IxCHeL products for sale ! Exclusive new product not to be missed : feel it to believe it : a super awesome Angorino Pre-Felt (95% organic merino 18micron 5% angora bunny absolutely amazingly needlefelted and ready to be the base of your work of art!!!

Next week:

MINI SKEINS! for hexapuffs or beekeepers or knitting quilt fans)
Great Xmas gift ideas for stocking fillers ! hey and why not hang some hexapuffs on your tree !!!

I am scared to say it, but I have caught the hexapuff bug….I know! I tried to stay away ! I did! But I gave up! So next week! Heaps and heaps of special mini skeins are on offer in very special packages as well !

If you do not know what hexapuffs are or the beekeepers quilt check it out on ravelry or google it: you will be amazed how much fun it is :)

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

On Time..

2011-11-18T11:26:00.003+11:00

Fifi about to start labour and biting on some straw

Fifi, our rescue bunny, has delivered 6 gorgeous healthy looking pink naked little babies on the 13th of November at 8.30am. I was right there to witness it and it was amazing. She was super organised getting the kids room/nestbox ready , very early, and when it was time, she just hopped in and sat there, cleaning the babies as they popped out one by one. It was a bit gross to see her eating the after births but hey, its part of nature and it does give her some strength back as well. So all good. (although I do wonder if they serve up a nice placenta cocktail in the hospital to the new mums after they have delivered their babies ..lol).

I managed to take some photos and some sneaky videos. Watch my YouTune Channel (ixchelbunny1) for those soon !

Here are some photos of the gorgeous Fifi and her babies:

Fifi in Delivery position

Still giving birth

Fifis Babies 1 day old

Babies 4 days old

Close up of the babies after 4 days: they all are going to be white judging by the fluff and the skin colour: although they all look like little pink piggies now …

This week I have very special hand dyed tops for sale that will make your mouth water. Get it while you can ! there are Blue faced Leicester bunny Seaweed tops, Cashmere Fling that is just out of this world! And I have finally succumbed and dyed some semi solid 4 ply spun yarn for you. Enjoy!

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Blue Faced Leicester Bunny Yarn

100 grams AU$26

Hand dyed semi solid colour ! and 4ply spun

an amazing yardage of 325-330 meters per 100grams

Blue Jean

Flax -2 left-

Butterfly Bush-2left-

Red Rose

Blue Faced Leicester Bunny Seaweed Tops

100 grams AU$21

Dreamy

Bush Flowers

Steel -sold-

Moss

renaissance

Dragon Lair

Wizard

Fantasy Dreamboat

Cashmere Fling Tops

Cashmere-Tencel-Glitz-Bamboo (5-40-40-15)
100 grams AU$22

Amazing tot spin and even better to knit and wear ! Feels so soft it is out of this world!!!! Super luxurious !

Channeling the Force

Cthulu chilli con carne cook off -sold-

Han Solo

Nazgul

Steel Bashaw

Endor

Galaxy -sold-

–my absolute fav colourway this week in the cashmere fling: complex and astounding in its tones and colours: wow! Love how it came out !-

Droids

Daleks at the Party

R2D2 at the Luau

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in November !! Yeah!

Saturday November 19th, 11am-5pm
Thursday November 24th, 11 am – 4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Saturday December 3rd, 10am-3pm
Victorian Felters Guild
Corner of Highfield Rd and Milverton street-off Toorak Rd, Camberwell/Hartwell in the Hartwell Church Hall
Bunny Talk and Bunny Feting and IxCHeL products for sale ! Exclusive new product not to be missed : feel it to believe it : a super awesome Angorino Pre-Felt !!!

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Wearing it on your sleeve…

2011-11-11T11:39:00.004+11:00

Perhaps it’s me, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a “normal”, quiet week. I wouldn’t exactly call my life adventurous but it sure is jam packed with something happening all the time. Take the wild weather for instance on Wednesday night, when the sky came tumbling down ith such force our gutters couldn’t cope and to avoid any more damage than had already happened ( the studio started to look like it was under the Niagara waterfall with buckets of water starting to come down IN the studio !) Paul started to try and save what he could outside, while I was juggling buckets and containers and keeping fibres and bunnies dry (Fifi and Bear are still in the studio you see).

Now we need new gutters and we need truckloads of soil. This is just because the back of our garden is so wet,Shrek would even have a hard time making it into his swampy home. Something needs to be done but it’s a huge job and hopefully it will be dry enough sometime this summer so we can actually do some substantial earthmoving and getting heaps of veggie patches going to feed the ever growing bunch of hungry mouths here at the bunny farm.

Now on that faithful Wednesday, apart from visiting a friend at Pomburger farm close by to do some emergency bunny care on a rescue rabbit there, I drove off with a design in my wallet I had carried with me for years and wanted to get tattooed. Now the time never seemed quite right, but now everything felt good. I had already talked and looked through some art work of a tattoo artist Matt at the Valley Custom Tattoo shop in Seville and I wanted to surprise Paul. The design is TrueLove and you can read it from either side and it will always read true love. Apart from it being a reflection of how I feel about Life, Love and art .....it’s idea also sprouts from one of my favourite movies The Princess Bride , celebrating its 20th anniversary ! …it was meant as a statement to my husband Paul, because after years and years of heartache, miscarriages and the overcoming of cancer (fingers crossed I am now two years cancer free! Yeah!) I felt that not only do I love my soulmate but also I really am stronger and more sure of myself as a person. Well, about time since I am almost starting to get to what is so pleasantly called middle aged…lol Somewhere in the last months I have become more aware that, although I value other peoples opinion and will take them into consideration, I will not be debilitated anymore by what other people think. That lies in the past. Besides , who is sure what other people think anyway?

Anyway, I digress..lol…Matt did a wonderful job and at the Valley Custom Tattoo shop in Seville there was a great vibe so I felt everything was right.
The ink hurts a bit, but its only like little pin pricks or mozzie bites without the scratchiness after..so all in all a very pleasant and fun experience. I was extremely excited to show it off to Paul, who knew I wanted a tattoo because I talked about it (lots) but what he didn’t know that it was going to be the true love one and not a bigger fluffy bunny tattoo I was still designing.

Well, peeps, you should have seen the look on his face….”what did you do? Why there? (on the inside of my forearm, true love on my sleeve so to speak..lol) what will people think? It looks a bit tribal? (it’s calligraphy)” Ï thought you were okay with ink” I said. “yeah fluffy cute bunnies but this?…” hmmm oh well, its not like I can take it back …lol…I love it! I love the message, it’s there to stay. . and Im not going to hide it either. When you truly believe in something or love something or someone, c’mon, don’t hide it: wear it on your sleeve…(not meaning everybody will have to get a tattoo..lol…but you know what I mean).

Matt tattooing me..see it doesn’t hurt , Im smilling ;)

the outlines

True Love Filled in and healing

And as Monty Python would say, now for something completely different:

I have received the most amazing gift from a good friend Lindy: she has been working ion a spirit of the Southwest Shawl by Evelyn Clarke for over a month in my hand dyed cashmerino in indigo : it is amazing ! Butterflies flutter in the sunlight above mountains, rows of corn and a river nearby where rabbits play in the grass. A order of Squash blossoms and an amazing edging ! It is a beautiful work of art and the photo can never do it justice. I will love it for ever and it is truly an heirloom piece ! Thank you with all my heart Lindy Winnell.

Spirit of the southwest shawl

This week I have very special hand dyed tops for sale that will make your mouth water. Get it while you can ! there are Teeswater Tops , a breed closely related fibre wise to the Wensleydale with heaps of crimp and shine! The Teeswater are classified as a vulnerable breed.

A small flock of Teeswater sheep

Another special I have is Gotland tops, hand dyed and natural. These Gotland sheep also provided the fibre for the handwoven cloaks in the Lord of the Rings. It is an amazing fibre to spin !

a Gotland ram

First Baby Fleece Auction
Last but not least: Tilda has received her first haircut on the 7th of October. Her hair is caramel gold and absolutely stunning. This first fleece will be auctioned off. May the one who offers the most win. I will start the auction now for the total fleece weighing 100 grams. The starting price for this awesome once in a lifetime first clip is $32. The colour of Tilda will get lighter and lighter the older she gets, so this is a great opportunity to get a very special first clip. Email me on ixchel@rabbit.com,.au or put your bid in on my Ixchelbunny fibre and yarn forum thread called Tildas first fleece on www.ravelry.com/groups/ixchelbunny-fibre-and-yarn. The auction ends Sunday night at 8pm est.

the winner will not only receive the first special baby fleece but also a nice First Baby Fleece gift pack. All proceeds go to building bunny runs and bunny veggie patches :)

the cute Tilda

Part of Tildas baby coat

Bunny Foster Programme
the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

This week I also received some amazing Bunny heads felted by the super talented Siobhan Colley of Felt Inspired! They are awesome works of art and soon to be incorporated in something spectacular ! Thanks Shevi!

Bunneeeeehs!!!!

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Teeswater Tops
100 grams AU$20

Fezzik

Inigo -1 left-

Dread Pirate Roberts -1 left-

Buttercup -sold-

Cliffs of Insanity

Gotland Tops

100 grams AU$19

Natural Gotland Tops

Miracle Max -1 left-

The Fire Swamp

Vizzini

Wesley

The Angora Bunny Event of the Year in 2012 !!
Something very special is going to happen in April: it is THE Angora bunny event of the YEAR!
I am very proud to announce that the Ixchelbunny farm together with Rivkah Rabbit Stud will be at the Sydney Royal Show in April next year with a huge Angora bunny display in fibres, yarns but also a HUGE amount of bunnies ! You cannot miss it and if all goes well, I will need a team to help us win the Guiness World book of record attempt at a Back to Back Bunny event! Which means clipping bunnies, spinning it and then knitting the yarn intot a scarf in the shortest possible time! More on that event later ! Exciting ! Get your ears on and RABBIT ON! J

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in November !! Yeah!

Saturday November 19th, 11am-5pm
Thursday November 24th, 11 am – 4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Saturday December 3rd, 10am-3pm
Victorian Felters Guild
Corner of Highfield Rd and Milverton street-off Toorak Rd, Camberwell/Hartwell in the Hartwell Church Hall
Bunny Talk and Bunny Feting and IxCHeL products for sale ! Exclusive new product not to be missed : feel it to believe it : a super awesome Angorino Pre-Felt !!!

Here’s the natural product but I am busy working on hand dyeing the Angorino prefelt at the moment! Stay Tuned!

a super close up of the luxurious angorino prefelt coming sooooon !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

PS !!! Just heard that Paul got into an nasty accident : a big Kagaroo hit his ute. Back end of the ute gone but Paul is okay and the kangaroo hopped off as if nothing happened. Paul is getting very good at hitting wild life : a deer 2 years ago, a kangaroo now. Im happy there are no Rhinos around or Im sure he would hit that as well.....He attracts wild life apparently ;)

Bear becomes a Monk and more Bunny Antics at the farm

2011-11-04T10:18:00.004+11:00

Fifi all ears

Bear, as all of you who are reading the blog know, is quite a character, hence his name: after Bear Grylls.

He is an adventurer extraordinaire and not only that, but also as nimble as a cat and not afraid to tackle climbing straight up the fence hopping over and …I would not have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes- jumping straight back into the cage, after dabbling in the box of fresh hay outside of the run.
Now this whole SAS adventure type thing he is into, had a dramatic effect on his look just at Halloween (as if he did it on purpose, the sweetheart).

Very early in the morning I heard some rumbling and thumping in the studio, I leapt out of bed (well tried to) , ran into the studio and found Bear in the corner near Jazz’s bed on a pillow in the shape of a heart covered ( and I mean covered totally!) in hay, straw, food and what's more important , my recently finished handspun baby camel bunny yarn….the yarn did not survive….and neither did the hair on Bears back, which got caught in yarn on the run when Bear tried to jump back. When I came into the studio Jazz was just there it seems trying to get Bear back into the enclosure by licking his back to get the yarn and hay climps out of the way. In the process ofcourse making the bare spot on Bears back look like a little bald spot: from Bear Grylls to Bear Monk……

So, it took an hour to clean Bear up, while he was sitting on my lap , looking here there and everywhere and trying to get into some other naughtyness. I put some aloe vera on his little bald spot to settle things down , since he managed to rip out whole clumps of hair …. I definitely think Bear likes the commando look, but he will just have to wait for his first haircut….lol

I now have put a “ceiling”on the run in the studio so when I am not here so he cannot get into trouble. (one can only dream....) During the day when I am in the studio working, I leave part of the ceiling open and every now and again, I can hear a tiny noise and yep, there he is, climbing the wall in stealthmode and then as soon as his paws hit the ground, doing a high binkie. Little Monk Bear…

Monk Bear after SAS training

Another bit of big news is that Fifi, apart from calming down a lot! And really settling in well, is that she has indicated she was looking for a nice spot to build a nest. I put a nestbox in her run, lots of hay and some of the hair I cut off her the other day when I groomed and gave her a clip. And with a vengenance she started to organise and make it happen. The action stopped now and the nest does not look ready for action yet, but it sure is the earliest nest building I have ever seen. Normally to be mums only start a day or two before they give birth. Fifi is normally due around the 13th or 14th this month. (so all of you planning on coming to the bunny spin in that weekend will really see something special).

Fifi also “said”she wasn;t happy with the amount of light in her condo, so I draped some “curtains”over the nestbox part so it is now a cozy safe place…she is content..at least that’s what I think , because she hasn’t put any more requests in. Now it’s a waiting game.

I give her lots of greens and grains, and have cut down on her lucerne pellets . Lucerne and clover have an effect on the growth of female foetuses especially in the latter part of the pregnancy. It appears that lucerne and clover leach iodine from the foetuses. Female foetuses need lots more iodine to develop than male foetuses, so in the last two weeks of the pregnancy it may help the females along if you cut out the lucerne and clover part in the pregnant does' diet. This is not only the fact in rabbits by the way, it also happens in cattle.
One year a farmer changed his pasture to clover and lucerne and he did not get any females at all come birthing time. Changing the diet definitely has an impact on foetus development. The commercial feeds for rabbits though is about 80% lucerne…so hand mixing and growing organic veggies is clearly necessary.

Fifis nest condo

By the way, Boy Blue, the other rescued bunny and Fifis dad, who was residing next to her in the studio so I could keep an eye on him, has now moved to the Bunny Bunker with all our other fluffy ones and is feeling very happy. I don’t know whether it is because he is living next to Millie and he has an eye on her…lol Here He is looking gorgeous on the grooming table. He is such a cute boy with gorgeous eyes and the most amazing blue grey hair.

This week I have very special hand dyed tops for sale that will make your mouth water. Get it while you can ! This is the last batch of Twinkle Bunny Tops for a looooong while : go get ‘em !

the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of 2 weeks ago or email me for information! There are still bunnies waiting for a foster mum or dad.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Twinkle bunny Tops

18micron organic merino 70%, angora bunny 10% and 20% tencel

100 grams AU$24

Teddy Bear Picnic

Mystery

Honey Bunny

Cadbury -sold-

Jungle Drums

Spring Time Smile

Rose tinted glasses -1left-

Snakes and Ladders

Heather Mist

Sunny Day

Rainbow Warrior

Sea Foam -sold-

Sunspots

Bush Essence -sold-

Golf Bunny on the Green

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in November !! Yeah!

Saturday November 19th, 11am-5pm
Thursday November 24th, 11 am – 4pm
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Saturday December 3rd, 10am-3pm
Victorian Feltmakers Guild
Corner of Highfield Rd and Milverton street-off Toorak Rd, Camberwell/Hartwell in the Hartwell Church Hall
Bunny Talk and Bunny Feting and IxCHeL products for sale ! Exclusive new product not to be missed : feel it to believe it

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Halloween and Attack of the Zombie Bunnies !

2011-10-28T11:13:00.003+11:00

Bear has grown so much ! still standing on his hind legs AND sniffing as if to say "you lookin at me?! Huh!?” and, what's more:…did you see his red eyes!? ..hmmmmmmm

There was a very strange message on my answering machine this week and I could not quite figure out who it was or even what it was about. It wasn’t so much as a message but a series of sounds that could best be described as a mix of anguish, surprise and laughter? It was eerie and haunting: the only thing that I could make out was a kind of yell in the middle: “Charly !!!!!”.

A friend in LA did tell me that she thought there were some very strange things happening lately involving bunnies. Maybe that was her???
Apparently, in the last couple of weeks, her bunnies, had totally changed their behaviour and in a very strange way, started to stand up on their hind legs more. She had contacted me immediately after she read my blog update about the bunny meerkat phenomenon, because she was worried.

“Charly! What you call the bunny meerkat phenomenon is just the beginning!”, she said at the top of her voice.
“But it’s so cute! What could possibly be wrong with that?”, I replied. There was a silence on the other end and I could just pick up her whispering “They are not what they appear to be …..shhhhh”.

Her phonecall had me totally intrigued. I just thought that Bear and the new surprise bunnies were extra intelligent and cute and cuddly. Natalie insured me it was not and here starts her story that filled me with absolute terror:
Natalie and her friends have a large amount of rabbits in the high desert in LA. It is a beautiful place and remote: hours away from LA itself, but close to the mountains, where it is cooler and very quiet.
She started noticing something strange happening a couple of weeks ago with one of her 8 week old babies, just the same as I had noticed with our surprise babies: What I called “the meerkat phenomenon” in earlier blog entries. It took her a week to realise that something was going very wrong.
The bunnies displaying this Bunny Meerkat behavious, were also showing an extremely high intelligence and what can best be described as a heightened empathy or , how should I explain this? , well, it was almost like they were communicating with you on a higher level. Almost mesmerizingly so.
Natalie said that the baby bunnies also were growing much much faster! In a weeks time, 8 week old babies were already the size of their mum! This was bizar!
The next morning when she checked on them again, they had grown so much she had to take them into a bigger cage and separate them from their mum. Up to that point it was all pretty okay but what was really bothering her was that these bunnies just did not act like bunnies anymore: they stopped hopping and doing binkies even, all they wanted to do, was stand on their hind legs and look you in the eye and sniff! Sniff! SNIFF!
She called me again in the middle of the week saying that she had to put most of her baby bunnies in dog pens because they just couldn’t fit in their cages anymore, especially because they wanted to stand up all the time. Her partner tried to force them to “act like bunnies” and hop around like normal, but all he got was a scratch and a bite on the hand. He figured just to let it be and that they would grow out of it. Little did he know that on Thursday night things would get a lot worse.

The scratch and the bite he got on Wednesday was not a huge pain but it did started to hurt a bit so he drove off to see the doctor and get it looked at, just to be on the safe side. That left Natalie alone Thursday, but she figured “what could possibly go wrong?” Just like me she loves bunnies : they are cute and cuddly. Yes, cute and cuddly………until they start standing on their hind legs, look you in the eye and ….and…..sigh….sorry , it’s getting a bit too much for me…

That’s when I got the phonecall late on Thursday. The bloodcurdling screaming of my name and there was nothing I could do!

I tried calling back but all I got was a dead line. I called friends that lived a hours drive away from Natalie and asked them to check on her. They did…and what they found was horrifying !

They could not find Natalie immediately……there was blood….cage doors broken and bent like match sticks, huge footprints of “things” walking and running out towards the farm gate ….their flashlights showed no sign of cougars (which they thought were the cause of all this mayhem) but there, in the shadows, at eyelevel, were huge eyes staring at them and they could hear sniffing sounds coming from all around them. They ran to their car, locked the door and in an instant something was hammering on the doors and the bonnet: no cougar or mountain lions, no wild boars…..they were huge! Enormous! Their eyes wide open and ears moving like wild snakes around their heads and all the while, their noses constantly sniffing and white, big teeth ! Oh ! those teeth ! Wait! Is that blood? OH NO!!!!!
Wait! What was that?! Can you see that?! Can you hear something? Oh no!!!!!!! It’s the attack of the KILLER ZOMBIE BUNNIES !!!!!!

Soon invading a city near you………….

(names and events are fictional and no bunnies or humans were hurt while making up this story. Happy Halloween !)

Ofcourse its fiction…or is it? ……..

Bubbles thinking up evil attack plans…..waahaa haa ha……

This week I have some art yarns for sale which I could only have made with the help of a fabulous Fibre artist and friend: Siobhan Colley or evil-mcweevil. Here’s her blog: http://evilmcweevil.blogspot.com. Please check her stuff out : what she does is amazing !

Here is a OOAK bunny head going through the Majacraft Spinning wheel orifice : or should I say "Zombie bunny attacking Majacraft wheel?"

My good friend Chantelle, owner of the wonderful Fiberific ! and an amazing crochet artist made me this amazing top: I hand dyed the silk yarn and she crochet the top : it’s a Jenny King design “Mooloolaba shells” It drapes amazing and is a joy to wear ! Thanks so much Chantelle ! I finally got Paul to take a photo of me wearing it yesterday at the Spin In ;)

The IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short , is still open and there are still bunnies waiting for a wonderful foster parent. For more information on the foster program please visit my blog of last week or email me for information!

Bear, our cute chocolate angora bunny, has now been adopted by his loving Foster mum Sheridan :) Thank you !

Tribble, our gold fawn angora bunny, has been adopted by a loving foster mum Koren :) Thank you !

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

This weeks fibre and yarn update is here: Zombie Bunny Art Yarn and Camelbunny Silk Tops ! Get ready to Stalk and Snaffle !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Zombie Bunny Art Yarn
Slubby Spun yarn with great yardage and amazing needlefelted OOAK Bunnies !

Pink Zombie bunnies spun in a slubby yarn with angora, merino, tencel, cashmere and novelty threads. +/- 120 meters , +/- 110-120 grams. In two colours: blue/brown or Morticia black /grey AU$55. Each zombie bunny is needlefelted and a OOAK! A work of art in its own right!

Bear Blue Zombie Bunnies art yarn -SOLD-

Bear Blue Zombie Bunny Art yarn close up

Morticia Black Zombie Bunnies art yarn -SOLD-

Green Zombie bunnies spun in a slubby yarn with angora, Blue faced leicester, glitz, cashmere and novelty threads. +/- 100 meters , +/- 110-120 grams. In two colours: Rainbow or red/purple/yellow/orange AU$55. Each zombie bunny is needlefelted and a OOAK! A work of art in its own right!

Sunset Zombie Art Yarn

Happy Zombie Art yarn -SOLD-

Happy Zombie Art Yarn Close up -SOLD-

Camelbunny Silk hand dyed tops

50+ grams AU$19

Dawn

Blood moon

Witch Bunny Mountain

Bunnies at Dusk

Happy Zombie Bunnies

Bunny Bear Witch Project

Beware of Pink Bunnies !

Happy Halloween !

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in November !! Yeah!

Saturday November 19th

Thursday November 24th
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

December 3rd, Saturday
Victorian felt Makers , melbourne
I will be doing a bunny talk , showcasing angora fibres and yarns AND also launching a new IxCHeL product that will blow your mind ! More info on times and location next week.

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

The IxCHeL Sponsor a Bunny Programme is a go!

2011-10-21T11:41:00.005+11:00

We had a very special week: Last Saturday we had the Bunny Spin in and our good friend Christina brought us some rescue bunnies: Boy Blue and Fifi. Both of these bunnies were very underweight and had gone through a lot! Being the survivors of a myxo and calici outbreak when they were living with another breeder. Apparently after they survived it all went pearshaped for their owners and that is how Christina rescued them and brought them to us. They are now living in the studio so I can see how they are doing at all times. Fifi especially seems to be very skiddish and has probably been through some majot trauma but I am sure she will be settling in just fine. In a weeks time she has already calmed down and is showing a very sweet personality. She might also be pregnant? So I am keeping a close look on her and giving her lots of attention and fresh greens and snacks.

Fifi

Boy Blue

On the Sunday I visited a wonderful Stitch n Bitch /spinning and Knitting group in Gippsland and was made very welcome when I took over Dawns house filling it with heaps of yarns and fibres for the ladies to dive into.. We had a great time and there was lots of enabling done! I was amazed how gorgeous all the projects were that everybody was working on and I was introduced to a whole new world of sock blankies ( it’s like quilting with gorgeous handknitted hexagons! Made from sock yarn scraps –at least that’s what it started out as ..lol…and now everybody is swapping MINI SKEINS ! _ its so cool! Also amazing shapes that reminded me of Eschers work only knitted into an African inspired blanket made all of what seemed to me like little bow ties ! and then there were socks ofcourse: magical gorgeous socks. I had a fabulous time!

The rest of the week was super busy grooming and clipping and taking care of all our bunnies. There was also heaps of spinning and I am very happy with the super fine natural coloured English angora yarn I spun on the Schacht Sidekick wheel. The more I spin on that wheel the more I think: yeah, I really think I need that wheel….it is an amazingly nice wheel and allows me to spin super fine. The Majacraft is great don’t get me wroing and I won’t be able to survive without my Majacraft spinning art yarns, for spinning fine yarns however, the Sidekick is amazing and so light!

I have also done a lot of batt making ! Going batty just before Halloween was definitely on the cards and I am very happy with how these batts came out ! lots of gorgeous fibres put together with some bling will make for the most amazing yarns or felt !

Bunny Naming Competition
As you know , one of the bunnies in Tawnees last litter had not been named yet. Bear and Buttercup had a name but the big golden fawn bunny just did not seem to want to own a name yet.

Saturday , Christina and I tried to see if it was really a boy or a girl just to be on the safe side, but it seemed to be more of a mystery than anything else. Sexing a bunny can be quite hard. When they are very young they will not have all the "appendages" so to speak and it can be very deceptive. So the jury is still out. As promised a name has been chosen although it was a hard call.

We had names like Aurora, Beauty(from sleeping beauty) , Narcolepsia (lol..because the bunny was showing great joy in just rolling over and falling asleep a lot), Blossom, Jemima, BamBam, and many many more.

It was a hard decision but here is the winner of the naming contest: drumrolllll……the winner is

Sally Gridley from Victoria, with the name BUBBLES.

It just has a nice ring to it and lets face it: applicable to a boy or a girl and it just describes the bunnies’personality: from rolling over in a sleeping position to a bubbly binky-ing bunny in a flash ! Sally your special bunny prize pack will be in the mail to you next week !

Thank you all so, so much for your enthusiasm and support ! and don’t worry if you have not won the bunny naming this time, there will be plenty more opportunities in the future!

Bubbles

the IxCHeL Bunny Foster Sponsoring Programme or BunFoSP for short

We have had a lot of requests of people who wanted to support our little fibre farm and our special English angora bunnies. Here is what we have come up with for all of you who would love to sponsor/virtually adopt/foster an IxCHeL bunny.

When you decide to foster/sponsor an IxCHeL bunny you help in covering part of the costs to provide a safe, comfortable home for your bunny for a year. This includes grass hay, straw, grains, seeds, vegetables, fruit, food supplements, snacks, clipping and grooming, housing and any medical supplies/assistance needed.

You can feel good knowing that you are supporting a small farm in which your bunny can live out the rest of his/her life in a friendly and loving environment. On the IxCHeL bunny farm, our bunnies are treated with respect, love and great care.

Once you pay your adoption fee I will immediately send you your bunny adoption pack: a Bunny Foster Parent Certificate, the name of your bunny and a photo plus a special lock of its hair, a personalised bunny badge and a birth certificate.

In the course of your year of sponsorship you will receive monthly email updates of your bunny with stories and photos. Twice a year you will receive 50+ grams of your bunnies fibre, a batt or roving/top or handspun yarn ( you will have to tell me what you would like: yarn, batt, fibre depending if you are a spinner, knitter or crocheter or felter) together with some special bunny gifts.

When you want to adopt a bunny that is younger than 1 year , the yield of fibre we get off the bunny in that first year is minimal: we only start clipping them after 6 to 8 months and the quantity of the fibre is very low (about 60 grams at most). You will receive grooming fibre and still receive your 100 grams of fibre per year, but it will be from a surrogate bunny. For bunnies older than a year you will receive your bunnies’ fibre. You can enjoy your bunny fibre throughout the year and know you are supporting your bunny at the same time.

All shipping charges are included in your adoption fee! And you can opt for yearly or half yearly bunny sponsorship payment.

The cost of an IxCHeL Bunny Adoption is AU$250/year or AU$125 per 6 months. You can pay via direct bank deposit, credit card or Paypal.

To secure a spot to sponsor your special bunny you need to commit for at least 6 months. You can opt out of your adoption at any time and then the bunny will be made available for sponsorship again.

The bunnies that are available for sponsorship are:

Mickey: our oldest bunny (born in 2005), a gorgeous buck with a floppy ear and so affectionate and cute. He has a silver white coat and is just adorable

Gandalf: Dad to Elvis and an amazing silver buck. Born in 2006 and totally gorgeous and always wants a hug.

Tribble: son of Topping and Chewie. Born in 2009. A fabulous looking bunny boy with gold hair and very cute. He was one of the brokeback mountain boys with Ooki , who unfortunately passed away when a mutant calici strain hit our farm june 2011. Tribble survived and now lives happily next to his brother Spot.

Spot: son of Topping and Chewie and born in 2009. A cute little bunny boy with a funny white spot on his nose (hence his name). Spot is a very shy boy but loves a pat and his special treats. He has a gorgeous light brown coat that is just divine to spin.

-Spot has been adopted by his foster dad Daniel from Whorled Domination :) Thanks Dan!-

Topping: Mum of Spot, Tribble and foster mum of Elvis, when Elvis’mum Mojo died just after giving birth to her babies. She is an amazing mum ! and has the most fabulous chocolate coat. She loves a hug and being groomed.

Elvis: Born late 2009 , daughter (yes daughter! Only named Elvis because she made this funny noise “a-ha a-ha” when she was little ) of Mojo and Gandalf. A super shiny silky smoke grey coat that is just to die for. Extremely smart ! a wonderful escape artist and has a super personality.

Pippi: Born 2006, daughter of Minne and Gypsy. A super silky soft smoke grey coat and can sit still for hours on end being groomed and clipped. A very friendly natured bunny and lives with her sister Max. Pippi is a famous bunny and was featured on the back cover of Grass roots magazine in 2006 !

Max: Born in 2005, Daughter of Minne and Gypsy and a cover star of the magazine Grass Roots in February 2006! The most affectionate and quiet and friendly natured bunny ever! She has a super silke smoke grey coat and loves cuddles.

Tawnee: Born in 2009 and mum to TicTac, Tilda, , Trixie, Bear, Buttercup and Bubbles. She has a super sweet nature and is a fabulous mum. She is a chocolate otter (meaning chocolate with light coloured bands in her fibre). Super soft and a pleasure to spin!

Millie: born in 2010 and a super character!! Escape artist extraordinaire and with a personality that could match Sarah Connor from Terminator: “don’t mess with Millie”. She loves a pat though, always coming up and pushing her head into your hand but she has to have her way or the highway..lol..She recently lost a litter unfortunately but will be mated again soon with our new boy Blye She has a glorious thick blue grey coat!

Blue: a gorgeous blue angora boy we recently rescued. He is settling in nicely and has a very laid back nature. His coat is super soft and blue grey.

Fifi: Fifi is the daughter of Blue, rescued together with Blue and a red eyed white angora. She was immensely skiddish when we got her and she lives in the studio with me to try and calm her down and get her used to her new safe environment. She is very underweight and needs a lot of special care , together with Blue, to get her health and her coat in tip top condition. She has the most gorgeous blue/red eyes and a very pretty face and Im sure that Fifi will settle in just fine. Fifi might also be pregnant so we could expect a litter from her in about 3-4 weeks ! Fifi is also very special in the way that it is the only bunny I have known to respond to her name immediately ! Call out “fifi !”and she listens! Amazing!

Fifi is now proudly sponsored by a wonderful secret benefactor :)

Bear: Born in 2011 and son of Tawnee. He is amazing. What can I say? Major escape artist, bunny meerkat impersonator extraordinaire and a gorgeous looking chocolate boy. Named after Bear Grylls because of his antics. A super affectionate bunny and a very smart one. He almost did not make it and had to be resuscitated after he feel out of the nest box when he was just born. So a very special bunny indeed.

Buttercup: daughter of Tawnee and sister of Bear. Buttercup is the smallest of the litter with golden cream coat and a fabulous personality!

Bubbles: Son?(yes the jury is still out!) of Tawnee and Dudley and brother? to Bear and Buttercup. A big golden fawn bunny who likes to eat and sleep. Give the remote and Im sure the bunny will change the channel for you..lol..Bubbles is the biggest of the litter. Super soft golden fawn coat that will be divine to spin.

TicTac: Daugher of Tawnee and Dudley, born in 2011. Golden fawn girl and the tiniest angora bunny when I got her. She has grown heaps though and has a super friendly personality and just wants to do binkies and run through her playtunnel with her sisters.

Tilda: daughter of Tawnee and Dudley born in 2011. Lives with TicTac and Trixie and is a golden fawn girl with gorgeous hair. She is quite laid back and loves her greens and running through her playtunnel with TicTac.

Trixie: Born in 2011, a chocolate girl, daughter of Tawnee and Dudley and a very independent character and obviously head matron of the bunny house with Tilda and TicTac. She hates being groomed but has the most gorgeous chocolate hair !

Please message me or email me the name of the bunny you would like to adopt, your postal address, email, if you would like to pay by the year or 6 months and whether you would like yarn, fibre or a batt and I will send you all the adoption information.

For photos of all our bunnies and our little fibre farm please visit my flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and go to the set Ixchel farm or angora bunnies.

This weeks fibre and yarn update is here: Funky Bunny Batts and handspun natural angora yarn ! Get ready to Stalk and Snaffle !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Funky Bunny Batts
merino, blue faced Leicester, angora, yak, mohair, silk, soy, cashmere, glitz, Angelina, seaweed, tencel and mink

Arctic Bliss 111 grams AU$33 -sold-

Cherry Picking 121 grams AU$34

Pink Power 132 grams AU$34

Arctic Storm 142 grams AU$36

Roccocco 118 grams AU$34

Steampunk Magic 88 grams AU$25

Lime Fizz 125 grams AU$34

Arctic Sky 129 grams AU$34

Halloween 148 grams AU$39 -sold-

Berry Chocolate 121 grams AU$34

Halloween Party 107 grams AU$32

Handspun Pure fine English angora yarn ply spun natural colours
Amazing to knit with with an amazing yardage of +/- 150-170
Meters per 50grams !

Wild one, an English angora from Christina, a dark gorgeous grey 51 grams AU$28

Millie a beautiful blue grey yarn 47 grams AU$25

Tribble, a lush gold hand spun angora yarn from our angora Tribble 58 grams AU$30-sold-

Elvis, a silky soft smoke grey handspun yarn from our bunny Elvis 55 grams AU$28

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in October !! Yeah!

Thursday October 27th
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Dyeing Trees and the Bunny Meerkat Phenomenon

2011-10-14T10:59:00.003+11:00

Bear in Meerkat pose

It is a well known fact that rabbits stand on their back feet to have a better view of what is going on, similar to the meerkats. Meerkats however keep it up , pardon the pun, a whole lot longer than bunnies though. They can stand still in that famous Meerkat pose as I call it for a very long time. It’s a hilarious pose and always puts a big smile on my face. The surprise bunnies have a meerkat gene in them I'm sure: especially Bear is a super Meerkat poser: he stands on his hind paws and surveys the surroundings all the time. Not that he is alarmed or stressed, he just likes having a tall look around I guess. His sisters are copying that pose too but do not seem to keep it up for as long as he does. It’s all in the practice ofcourse and Bear has been know to stand up so straight, leaning slightly backwards that gravity takes its toll and he topples backwards. Those are the times I wish my camera could be on stand by and record at an instant: it is just too funny.
The surprise babies are all doing great and I can proudly say that Tawnee is a wonderful mum. We have two girls and a boy in the litter. Bear , as you all know already. Buttercup, so named because of her gorgeous darkish gold coat , by one of the Bunny Spin in visitors last month inspired by the Princess Bride movie. We are still looking for a suitable name for the biggest golden fawn girl of the surprise bunnies though. She is the most quiet and low key one of the litter and that makes it hard to think of an appropriate name. The thing she is very good at though is to all of a sudden just roll over on her side and sleep in an instant. If you have an idea of a fun, appropriate name for this gorgeous bunny message me here or on Ravelry or email me. The Winner of the naming competition will win a nice IxCHeL Prize pack.

The Bunny soon to be named……

Here are some photos of the bunnies in their Meerkat poses :

Buttercup in Meerkat pose , showing off some gorgeous belly fluff

another meerkat pose by Bear (see how much lighter his coat is becoming?)
and normal cute cabbage devouring pose:

I have been busy this week dyeing the fibre and sock yarn clubs and all the prep work for the funky bunny batt clubs as well. The fibre and sock clubs have all been posted this morning and the batt club is going to be finished in the course of today for shipping Monday. Then ofcourse I have to get the studio in tip top shape for this Saturdays Bunny Spin in ! All the fibres and yarns will be displayed and cakes baked. This weekend is a particularly busy one because on the Sunday I will be going to the Spin in happening of the Gippsland Fibre Groupies : I am so looking forward to it ! I am taking the super foldable Schacht Sidekick sheel with me as well and heaps of spindles of Whorled Domination so everybody can have a play on them as well and I will be bringing heaps and heaps of new hand dyed fibres and yarns, including some mink and new angora yarns. It’s going to be great fun !

Apart from all of the above, I couldn’t help myself and had to try something new: first of all the dyeing of pure Tencel tops.

Now Tencel is a plant fibre and made from wood pulp. It is extremely soft, resembles silk in its shine and you would have no idea that you are actually spinning a tree. Tencel® is the registered trade name for Lyocell, which is a biodegradable fabric made from wood pulp cellulose. The manufacturer of Tencel® claims the fabric to be environmentally friendly and a good choice for people with sensitive skin. While Tencel® is made from wood fibers and is biodegradable, it is difficult to dye the fibres. At least that is what is told. True, it is easier to dye Protein or animal fibres and you cannot dye plant fibres like Tencel, cotton or bamboo with landscape dyes for example. The pigments also have a harder time to totally exhaust into the plant fibre cells so you will always have run off and that means rinsing and washing and rinsing again.

How to dye Tencel
First of all make sure that you soak the tencel fabric or tops in a solution of luke warm water where you have dissolved 2 cups of soda ash in 5 liters of water. This solution is necessary to get the fibres in the right Ph value so that the pigments can stick. It’s the mordanting fase you might say. I leave the tencel to soak over night in this solution. Always wear gloves and protective clothing as you would do when dyeing anything anyway. Always take care not to splash anything around and be careful. Dyeing is like working in a chemistry lab, so take care.
After the soak, squeeze out excess liquid. You can keep the soda ash/water solution for a bit an dmordant more fibres or yarns if you want. The longer you keep it, the less potent it becomes though.
Lay out your tencel yarn/tops on a gladwrap on a bench and then start painting or adding the pigments. The dyes I use for Tencel (or cotton for that matter) are so called Procion MX dyes. You will only need a tiny amount of dry pigment. Dissolve the pigment in luke warm water, sprinkle it over the segment you want in that particular colour and then sprinkle a teaspoon of salt and soda ash over the top. Wrap it all up and steam it for about 30minutes. Leave the top to cool off naturally and preferably as long as possible.
Akl the pigments won’t exhaust in the fibre. About 10% of the pigments wont stick to tencel, but the longer and the more patient you are, the deeper the shades will be and the less run off you will get.
Wash the tops/yarn/fabric in dishwashing liquid, rinse in clear water and then hang to dry.
The result can be spectacular ! Especially when you start experimenting with colour blending. I only have 4 Procion MX colours : black, turquoise, yellow and red and with some very inventing mixing and blending you can get an amazing array of colours. I love it because it reminds me of my days mixing oilpaints and pigments. It takes a long time to get it right and it is very timeconsuming but it is well worth it. See it as an adventure in colour!
As with all dyeing, you do not need many colours to create a wonderful world of different dyed fibres, just your imagination.

On the subject of trees: I have found some wonderful Bark from a Paperbark tree that is just magical and soft! It consists of different super fine layers of cellulose fibres that are almost ready to spin as they are! So I brought a whole bunch of them into the laundry to prep them a bit and then later separate all the layers. A kind of ran out of time so I left the whole lot in the laundry and wento to make dinner for the hungry masses. Later that evening it was all bout packing the clubs so the paperbark spinning just had to wait. Very late at night I wandered towards the laundry on my way to the bathroom and out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow….not right I thought, so I looked again and yes, there it was the shadow was actually a humungous SPIDER! HUGE! A huntsman spider! I hate spiders..well actually I am absolutely terrified of spiders. So much so, that I did not return to the hallway but sped out of the laudry outside and did a run around to get into the house bypassing the spider all together to wake up Paul so he could physically remove the Huntsman. I know its stupid to be so afraid of a spider that isn’t even poisenous, but I guess Im just very wary of all things with 8 legs and 8 sets of eyes. I ofcourse did not tell Paul my hunch that the Huntsman probably came from my Paperbark stash in the laundry….Im just happy that it did not pop its head and legs up while I had the paperbark layers on my lap while spinning ! That would have totally freaked me out! Lol

the wafer thin soft layers of the paperbark…so spinnable (without the spider!)

Anyway this weeks fibre and yarn update is here: some Tencel tops, Camelbunny silk tops and silk/merino sock weight yarn ! Get ready to Stalk and Snaffle !

How To Order:
You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Camelbunny silk Tops
(70% Baby Camel, 10% Angora, 20% Mulberry Silk) 50g /AU$19

Rolling in Clouds

Sparks fly

Paradise

the whole Love

Merino/Silk Sock weight yarn
(Merino 50%, silk 50%) +/-100g /AU$26 +/-425 meters per 100grams!

Purple Haze -sold-

Black Purl

Pixie

Galah

Clouds

Kangaroo Paw

Natural

Tencel Tops Hand dyed or natural 100grams $22
Super lush to spin with exquisite lustre and shine
Some main characteristics of lyocell or Tencel fibres are that they are soft, absorbent, very strong when wet or dry, and resistant to wrinkles; lyocell fabric can be machine- or hand-washed or drycleaned and it drapes well.

Soft Touch -sold-

Arctic Lights

Steampunk Blues

Party

Alien Invasion

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in October !! Yeah!
Saturday October 15th
Thursday October 27th
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Zombie Barbies and other Head spins

2011-10-07T11:45:00.003+11:00

So many ideas and projects I feel my head is spinning, so what better way than to actually SPIN some heads...

My good friend Chantelle picked up some barbie treasures a while back and when I was visiting her for the Mapleton camp I saw this huge box with arms, legs and barbie heads. When I started jumping up and down enthusiastically yelling “Oh Wow!!!! That’s great!!!” I guess she just took pity on me and let me have the body parts…lol I never was much of your typical girl playing with dolls. I liked collecting rocks and other bits and pieces and was very into toy cars and robots. No playing with barbies for me, but I do get overly excited when they are in pieces.. I know, weird…
I finally got around to making some art yarns with these beauties and I thought I’d share it with you.

I washed the heads first, combed the hair (of which there is an abundance I might add) and then started corespinning a funky bunny batt with heaps of Angelina and bling and gorgeous tufts of angora while adding the barbie heads in. Although the orifice on my Majacraft Rose wheel is quite big the heads were bigger, so I had to devise another way to get the heads onto the yarn: easy: just add the heads after the yarn passed through all the hooks . It takes time…lots…of time, but the result is well worth it! The yarn looks absolutely amazing and will make a wonderful statement in a scarf , wrap or why not add it to a funky jumper? Who wouldn’t want an extra head poking out of a sleeve ? ;D

Here are some photos of the process of the barbie head spin resulting in a zombie barbie yarn.

head spin

head spin part 2

peek a boo

This weekend I am going to be super busy doing heaps of custom spinning and dyeing for the wonderful OK! Charli. OK! Charli makes the most gorgeous baby beanies and scarves and more. Please check her website and facebook page out for some wonderful funky baby and kids clothing: http://www.facebook.com/okcharli

Here is one of her gorgeous creations in the cutest baby picture ever (from JAE photography) :

Todays offering are Blue Faced Leicester Cashmere superwash tops and some new bamboo bunny sock weight yarns !

I am in kind of a Halloween mode already so I have added some typical Halloween colours to the mix. I will post asap so you will have time to make yourself some fabulous Halloween decorations or garments with these beauties. Have fun looking at this weeks update!

You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Blue faced Leicester Cashmere Superwash Tops
(95% BFL, 5% Cashmere) 100g /AU$24

Sleepy hollow

Haunted house

Charcoal forest

King Kong

Dracula

Loch Ness

T-Rex

Spin Diva -only 1 left-

Halloween Party

Halloween boyz

Bamboo Bunny Sock weight yarn
(Bamboo, bunny, nylon, silk) +/-100g /AU$26 425 meters per 100grams!

Pink Lipstick

Enigma -1left-

Burgundy Splash

Wallaby Hop

Happy Rainbow

Blue Sky -sold-

Black Purl -only 2left-

Steampunk Blossom-3left-

SKULL yarns and skull beads

Alpaca Yak handspun and dyed beaded skull yarn 50 grams , +/- 65meters, $19

hand spun Angorino + cashmere beaded skull yarn , 50 grams, $19

Skull beads, 20 pieces $4.50

Zombie Barbie Yarns
hand spun and hand dyed Zombie barbie yarn 8wpi angora cashmere merino blue faced leicester bling angelina silk yak mink and BARBIE heads

Zombie Barbie Skein 1 $60
hand spun and hand dyed Zombie barbie yarn 185grams, +/- 70 meters 8wpi angora cashmere merino blue faced leicester bling angelina silk yak mink and BARBIE heads

Zombie Barbie Yarn Skein 2 $75
hand spun and hand dyed Zombie barbie yarn 249grams, +/- 90 meters 8wpi angora cashmere merino blue faced leicester bling angelina silk yak mink and BARBIE heads

more photos of my flickr photostream

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in October !! Yeah!
Saturday October 15th
Thursday October 27th
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

For orders, enquires or a chat : Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

In the shape of a Heart...

2011-09-30T11:28:00.004+10:00

Bunny Escape Art ...
silk hankies, hay and straw artistically sculptured by Tilda, TicTac and Trixie

I walked into the studio early this morning to find that the teenage run with Trixie, Tilda and TicTac was empty. Yes you guessed right: they escaped…Lucky for me I had the studio (almost) bunny proofed, but as bunnies do, they did find something: some silk hankie strips I had prepared and left lying around ready to be spindle spun. I found the silk in the middle of the studio as a message from the bunnies to me as it were: all crunched up with some additional hay and straw thrown in to make this cute little heart shape sculpture. It’s a little piece of bunny art !

The Bunny spin in day at the Grandvalley spinners and weavers was a fabulously fun day with heaps of spinners there to hear a bit about English angora bunnies, their care anad ofcourse see Chocolate Topping being clipped. Topping was in more than full coat and she was fine up to a point where the clip and me talking the audience through it got a bit too much and she made a run for it and jumped straight into the baskets in front of the clip table filled with fluff from other bunnies. I wish I had had a camera with me to tape the whole action. It was so funny to see her looking up from the rim of the black basket she fell in saying: I’m half naked, I am not happy at all with the hairdo you are giving me so Hasta la vista Baby!

The rest of the week was filled with taking care and getting the baby bunnies used to grooming and handling. The babies are doing very well and they are so good natured. It is a joy to watch them and handle them. In fact I have never haad bunnies that were so willing to be flipped on their back like these ones. I guess I was just so over the moon with these surprise babies that I handled them much more than I would normally do and that makes all the difference.

Here are some more Bunny photos:

Tackling a leaf part1

Tackling a leaf part 2

Tackling a leaf part3

"oh Bear! what big feet you have!"

Sleepy Buttercup

I had heaps of spinning and dyeing for commissions to do this week so the update of this week is not a huge one but still very special. I had to prepare heaps of natural dye baths for the commission and thought it would be great to take advantage and dye some more Navajo Churro Bunny Tops for you. I used eacalypt, walnut, indigo and lichen. Now Lichens are not easy to find –or classify for that matter… Each lichen haas an upper and lower side and a circular or disc like fruiting body which vary in colour from one lichen to another. There are only a few lichens that contain pigments so please do not harvest heaps only to find out that they do not dye anything. What I do is I collect a very small sample and then determine whether it has the so calles lecanoric acids or orchil acids. They do not react with wtare that much so you will have to use urea (yes urine..lol) or ammonia to see if they react. In Holland we made a preparation known as Litmus and the process shows the colour vivid magenta or carmine. YUM! To test you have to break your sample of lichen into little pieces, put it in a glass jar and cover with a part of ammonia and 2 parts luke warm water. Stop the bottle, swish the solution around. For rich reds and magenta leave the liquid for 28 days! If you do not have any reds you can be fairly certain that you have harvested a lichen that does not have the orchil acids.

Old mans’Beard lichen has great orchil acids which will give you beautiful reds and magentas

Todays offering are Navajo Churro Bunny Tops !
Navajo Churro sheep are very special just like the history they have : The Navajo call them "the Old Ones" and see the Churro sheep as a gift from the Gods. The wool from these sheep are the basis of the Navajo Weaving and also is a wonderful fibre to make socks and ponchos. The sheep were nearly wiped out during the tribe's forced relocation in the 1860s and again in the stock reductions of the 1930s: federal agents just went from hogan to hogan and shot a large percentage of the livestock and horses, more than 250.000 animals were killed and the Churro sheep were almost extinct with fewer than 700 head by 1990! But they are making a comeback, due to the efforts of the Navajo Sheep Project so they can return to their historic place and purpose among the Navajo and that it can benefit the Navajo People. The hand dyed tops that I am offering you here are blends of soft white Churro fleece with Angora Bunny: it makes for a wonderful mix and will make the most wonderful yarn, suited for socks and outerwear as well as sweaters. The Bunny added to the Churro makes it softer to handle and very easy to spin. Help in the fight against Extinction of this rare breed.

Navajo Churro sheep

cuddling a Navajo Churro sheep

How to order? Please email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Next week get ready for some Bamboo Bunny Yarn to make yourself some fabulous socks or shawls !!!! and there will be more bunny news ofcourse and special IxCHeL hand dyed fibres galore !

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

hand dyed Navajo Churro Bunny Tops
(90% Navajo Churro, 10% angora) 100g /AU$20

Buffalo Dreaming

Night Sky Dance -sold-

Walk the red road

Ghost Dance

Buffalo Sky

Harvest Moon -1left-

Wolf Dance -sold-

Silver Moon HEaling -1left-

Peyote Flower -sold-

(my favourite colourblend this week because of its contrast, depth and magic)

yeha Noha

CLUB SIGN UPS OPEN FOR ONE MORE WEEK!
IxChel Fibre Club #11 Sign up October-November-December 2011

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!

All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #11 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:

For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #11 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

IxChel Sock it to me Yarn Club October-November-December 2011
Every month for three months (october-november-december 2011) you will receive:

enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);

Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)

Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42

Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is September 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club #11

Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !

All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !

Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !

Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #11 :)) for three months is :

For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)

For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)

For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#11 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

From little things big things grow...

2011-09-23T10:16:00.004+10:00

Two Bunny Spin ins, preparing for the Bunny day at Grand Valley spinners next Monday the 26rd of September in Montrose and preparing all the clubs : a huge week. And talking about Huge the bunnies are getting bigger and bigger and furrier every day ! It is really amazing how those naked wrinkly little bunnies grow up so fast ! I am so happy they are in the studio with me so I can keep an eye on them and get to know them so well.

Bear is just adorable and runs up to me whenever I get close to the bunny run and it is so attentive. They are also the most placid lil bunnies ever: pick them up and they just love being handled and rocked in your hand. There is no other word for them but adorable.
It was good to see them getting so much love and it really helps them growing up intto gorgeous loving animals. It's amazing what hugs and love can do :-)

Bunny Spin in photos

Jaz on the cuddle couch

Jo and Zoe cuddling a bunny

Dan with Bear

a bundle of Joy (Jen with Buttercup)

aaaaaw ;-)

Thank you all for visiting the IxCHeL Fibre Farm ! it was great seeing all those happy faces while cuddling bunnies or fibre ;-)

You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

LuSH Bunny Tops
(60%organic merino, 20% tencel, 10% angora 10% cashmere) a new exclusive IxCHeL Blend !

Its for a reason that the Lush Bunny blend labels show you the bunny with the pearl earring ! it is supersoft with the tencel giving it a pearly glow.
100g /AU$24

Complex Universe

Barbie Conundrum

Velvet dusk

Black Pearls

Bush Berries

Wallaby Sunset (one of my favourite colourways this week –together with Bush berries- because of its complexity and use of natural dyes. Really happy how it came out!)

Sea Turtles

Flux Capacitor ( I was very happy with this rainbow combo that is just a bit different: its tone although rainbow, has that 1950s kind of look about it that just is so fabulously retro)

Swimming with Dolphins

Whalesong

Hand dyed Silk Merino 4 ply sock weight yarn (50% silk, 50% merino) 400-420meters/100grams
100+grams /AU$30
Super soft yarn with a fabulous shine.

Berry Monster

Black Purl

Scarlet letter

Belize

Ocean Grove

peacock

Back to the future

IxChel Fibre Club #11 Sign up October-November-December 2011

Sign ups for the IxCHeL Fibre club #11 is OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!

All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #11 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:

For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #11 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #11 is SEPTEMBER 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

IxChel Sock it to me Yarn Club October-November-December 2011

What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (october-november-december 2011) you will receive:

enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);

Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)

Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42

Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is September 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club #11

Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !

All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !

Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !

Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #11 :)) for three months is :

For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)

For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)

For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#11 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #11 is September 30th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in October !! Yeah!
Saturday October 15th
Thursday October 27th
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Grand Valley Spinners Guild hall, Montrose
Monday 26th of September, +/- 10am til 3pm
A bunny presentation and a chance to cuddle a bunny and some new fibres and yarns!

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Bunny vs Wild: The Adventures of Bunny Bear Grylls and more...

2011-09-16T08:51:00.005+10:00

It was promising to be an eventful week: Millie should normally be delivering on Monday the 12th, Tuesday I had to go into hospital for the regular poking and prodding sessions for my cancer check ups and the studio had to get ready for the first bunny spin in after the whole disaster that happened to us with the mutated calici outbreak end of May , start of June.
Millie was getting less and less grumpy and made almost no attempt to make a nest. We opened the nestbox and put heaps of hay and straw and now it was up to Millie to make the bed. Meaning , insulate the nest with some of her fur and sculpt the bed so her babies would sleep comfortably and stay warm.

Millie proved to be a very chaotic mum to be: instead of using the nestbox, she dragged almost all the hay and straw out and made two piles in her cage. None of them showed any promise. And everytime we started the grand design of nest building, in half an hour Millie had destroyed the nest, thinking she could obviously do it better. All that time she hardly pulled any fur out to put in her nest either. Monday the 12th went and nothing happened. Typical…and on the Tuesday I had to go to hospital. Typical. We prepped everything as best as we could and would just have to hope for the best.

Safe to say, I was ill at ease going to hospital and did not really want to be there at all. Homecoming was chaotic at best: Millie had managed to deliver 6 babies, but all were dead. It is devastating to see that happening. Millie was obviously agitated but seemed to be healthy. I immediately cleaned the cage area out and examined Millie to see if there were any problems, obstructions. She seemed fine and immediately started munching on fresh broccoli and parsley. I think Millie is one of those bunny mums you need to keep an eye on at all times, so in the future when we mate Millie, I will put her in the studio and keep vigil at all times. The 6 babies looked like 3 dark and three light coloured ones and it is such a shame ! After I got home all the attention had gone to Millie and the cleaning up, I did not even go into the studio to check up on Tawnee and her babies.

I immediately knew there was something wrong when I looked through the door window: Tawnee was agitated and …..ALL BY HERSELF! I quickly unlocked the door, looked in Tawnees’run and yes, I did not imagine it..they were ....GONE!

I saw that somehow Trixie, Tilda or TicTac had managed to move the run and the barricade a bit and that the little ones could have slipped through the tiny opening. I immediately looked if I had closed the door to the kitchen…..OPEN!….carefully stumbled to the living room…..door to the bedroom..OPEN!…they could have hopped anywhere! They could have gotten under the couch, under bookcases, behind the fridge, under the cooker, under the bed ..anywhere!
I checked again and they definitely were not in Tawnees cage. I looked in the cage of Tilda, Trixie and TicTac and could not see them either …but wait!

I checked again and there I could just see a little foot peeping out of the playtunnel…..could it be? And yes! There was the tiny goldy fawn coloured baby sleeping in the playtunnel and just a bit further its sibling was happily dozing off at the other end of the tunnel.. phew ! what a relief……! Two found one to go..the dark brown one, who has lovingly been named Bear Grylls (Thank you Sheridan for the suggestion after its first escapade, it truly deserved an adventurous name and apparently the bunny is totally living up to it!) Now we normally do not name baby bunnies this early, (we give them their name after about 8 weeks), but Bear deserved its name way ahead of time.

Unfortunately Bear does not respond to its name…. Bunnies seldom come when called, even when they are older and have been housetrained and know the lay of the land. Not Bear! Bear obviously decided it was time to test survival rates and showed No Fear! Me on the other hand was slowly falling apart, after a not so pleasant poking and prodding session at the hospital, dealing with Millies disastrous miscarriage and now looking frantically for tiny baby bunnies. It was Tuesday the THIRTEENTH alright! “Bear!, Bear!”, I chanted almost continuously, while fending off Jazz the bunny dog who obviously was not intending to be of any bunny sniffing use to me, “Bear! Beee-aa-rr?! Bear! Bear????!!! BEAR!!”.

No Bear…….nowhere….I looked everywhere and just when I wanted to crawl on my hands and knees for the umpteenth time, Paul comes home, calm as a cucumber, while I try to explain I have been trying to find Bear now for 2 hours. We were standing in the studio and then, just then, out of the corner of my eye, I see this teeny tiny shadow peeping around one of the huge orange rug yarn cones: “BEAR!” and ofcourse by the time I can get to Bear, it decides to quickly slip back the way it came: in the dangerous crevices of the Yarn Himalayas in the studio.
Now we know where Bear is, all we have to do is wait til Bear makes a move and then get Bear back to safety with its mum….It doesn’t take that long before the Brave Bear comes out again, tries to quickly pass us and unfortunately for the intrepid bunny adventurer, moves into a corner where we can easily and gently pick Bear up…. What a day !

Some more photos and there is also a video !! see the end of todays'blog:

just leaning

posing

snoozing baby angora sandwich

Tawnee “Kid, you ‘re sitting in MY foodbowl!“

Tilda:"no grooming until I get more food!"

There are heaps of new photos of the baby bunnies to be seen on my flickr account by the way and I just add all the time: just go to www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and click on the set Angora bunnies. You can now also find me on YouTube where I have a channel called Ixchelbunny1 with heaps of bunny vids and more to come ! Enjoy !

Todays offering is Glitz Bunny Tops and Cashmere Fling tops ! The Glitz bunny is amazing super blingy and the cashmere fling has been compared to spinning butter but better ;)

Also some hardware on sale this time: the Tara Wheel has been sold but the super fantastic 8 shaft table loom is still waiting for a new home! C’mon: don’t be shy. Weaving is amazing and with this baby you will be able to create amazing stuff !!!

You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Glitz Bunny Tops
(Angora, Tencel and Glitz) 100g /AU$20

Glitz Bunny tops have a gorgeous sheen and lustre and quirky Glitz fibre that is heaven to spin and felt. An absolutely awesome blend and exclusive to the IxCHeL Fibre farm !

Plethora (2 available)

Tussie Mussie (sold)

Gadgeteer(2 available)

Welch Rabbit

(=I found this explanation in the Grose 1811 Dictionary: [i. e. a Welch rare-bit] Bread and cheese toasted. The Welch are said to be so remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the you know what to attract and entice the young “Taffy”, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth. …I just thought that was too hilarious and had to share)

Hubble Bubble -sold-

It’s a Daisy -sold-

Huckleberrry-sold-

Hand dyed Cashmere Fling Tops (5% Cashmere, 40%tencel, 40% glitz, 15%bamboo)
100+grams /AU$22
another Unique IxCHeL hand dyed top you can spin beautifully and feels butter soft..YUM! Very fine, super soft with a fabulous shine.

Fiddle Faddle

Periwinkle

Steampunk -sold-

Moonshine -sold-

(absolutely LOVE the 3 D effect dyeing in this colour combo!)

NiffyNaffy

Supernovaembulous

Hubbub -sold-

(really amazing 3D effect dyeing process created these effects. Great fun)

Nigmenog

Twiddle Diddle

IxChel Fibre Club #11 Sign up October-November-December 2011

Sign ups for the IxCHeL Fibre club #11 is OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!

All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #11 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:

For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #11 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #11 is SEPTEMBER 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

IxChel Sock it to me Yarn Club October-November-December 2011

THE SOCK YARN CLUB SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN ;-)

What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (october-november-december 2011) you will receive:

enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);

Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)

Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42

Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is September 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club #11

sign up for the funky bunny batt club #11 (October-November-December 2011) is now officially OPEN :)

Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !

All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !

Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !

Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #11 :)) for three months is :

For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)

For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)

For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#11 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #11 is September 30th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

8 shaft Table loom AU$400 ono
This table loom is amazing! It is foldable and so easy to transport. Has a huge amount of heddles that are easy to thread. The 12 inch dent is in immaculate condition. Easy to warp up. I will give the lucky buyer extra shedsticks and heaps of yarn as well. Pick up preferred or courier can be arranged. It is also a double wide one so you can make extra wide cloth on it and even wider when you do double weaving ofcourse : width +/- 80 cm !!! , height 44cm, depth 74cm

If you are new to weaving this is an excellent easy loom to master . If you want, you can even purchase my beginners course for weaving on a 4 and 8 shaft loom for $20 which explains everything from warping to designing and understanding all different weaving patterns and even making your own ! I am working on a digital version of my Weaving Manual which will be available shortly !

8 Shaft table loom

8 shaft table loom top view

8 shaft table loom side view

the 12/inch dent

easy to thread heddles

all folded up and ready to go to its new home

Dates to Remember:
Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in September!! Yeah!
Saturday September 17th
Thursday September 22nd
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot ! Bunny food like cabbage, bok choi or broccoli is always welcome: the bunnies will cuddle you more for it ;D

Grand Valley Spinners Guild hall, Montrose
Monday 26th of September, +/- 10am til 3pm
A bunny presentation and a chance to cuddle a bunny and some new fibres and yarns!

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

and here's what you 've been waiting for:another bunny video starring the amazing killer leaf eating ......Bear Grylls !!!! YeaHhHHh!!!(this is me doing a Kermit the frog impersonation...)

Funny Bunnies and more

2011-09-09T09:04:00.005+10:00

a lot of sniffing going on

It’s been 19 days since the surprise babies arrived and only 4 days since they opened their eyes! In all the baby bunnies we have had in the past their eyes were popping open at 10 to 12 days. No, not these guys! Sleepy, Dozy and Dopey (no I haven’t named them yet..lol) but they were the laziest sleepy bunnies I had ever seen and their eyes just did not seem ready , not even after 2 weeks. There was nothing going on, no infection or anything , the eyes just weren’t ready yet to face the world. I wasn’t going to force it, so I just let it go and check up on them and give them a luke warm face wash just in case. Then on Monday morning, just the day that I had some wonderful visitors from Queensland coming, they spontaneously opened their eyes and were carefully taking in their surroundings for the very first time in their lives! Lindel, Colin, Ellie and Marcus had a great time looking at the baby bunnies and all our other fluffy angora rabbits and carefully cuddled some baby bunnies. We had a great time !

Not even a day later the little chocolate one was wandering around in the teenagers pen next to the baby run ! its first escape ! I put it back after checking if it was alright and then not even 30minutes later it hobbled all the way to the middle of the studio ! a true explorer ! seeing that the chocolate one was the tiniest and was born outside of the nest box and very very cold I had to resuscitate it, the wanderer is doing extremely well ! Something had to be done to keep them confined to their bunny run with their mum though until they get big enough they cannot escape and squeeze through the spaces between the bunny run cage.

Their fur is growing so fast ! It won't take long before I will start the grooming sessions so they can get used to all the handling. They already start to having a will of their own and if you don't start soon, they will be less likely to stay still on a grooming table adn as you know with angora bunnies there is a lot of grooming every day !

Millie is less grumpy, has not made an attempt to start a nest yet, but just to be on the safe side, we have opened up the nest box that's attached to her bunny condo, and added heaps of hay and straw, the rest is up to her. If the pregnancy is successful she should give birth around the 12th of September..fingers crossed.

Yesterday I have ventured into the exciting field of making a video of the babies…it took me a while to find my way but I finally managed to upload the video with an audiotrack called “Annie get your bun”(funnily appropriate..lol) here it is :

and some more photos :

the first food explorations

Too cute for words

There are heaps of new photos of the baby bunnies to be seen on my flickr account by the way and I just add all the time: just go to www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and click on the set Angora bunnies. You can now also find me on YouTube where I have a channel called Ixchelbunny1 with heaps of bunny vids and more to come ! Enjoy !

Todays offering is GaGa Bunny Tops and camelbunny silk tops ! Yes, THE GaGa Bunny tops that glow in the dark I have been told…lol…and look absolutely magnificent ! Spin it, felt it, wear it as it is: you will be hooked once you get your hands on one and as most of us Fibre fans know: one is never enough…lol

Also some hardware on sale this time: A Tara Wheel and a super fantastic 8 shaft table loom ! not to be missed !!!

You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

GaGa ! Bunny Tops

(70% Blue faced Leicester, 20% Glitz, 10% angora)
100g /AU$24

GaGa ! Bunny tops have a gorgeous sheen and lustre and quirky Glitz fibre that is heaven to spin and felt. An absolutely awesome blend and exclusive to the IxCHeL Fibre farm !

Treasure Island (2 left)

Emerald City (2 available)

Mine…Mine?.. Mine! (3 available)

Party Pete GaGa Bunny (3 available)

Cackleberry

Quackleberry -sold-

Float testing

Huzzah

Zozzled

Dephlogisticated -sold-

Waterfall (1 available)

Crazy Love (1 available)

Chocolate Strawberry Bliss (5 available)

Daleks in Manhattan going GaGa! (1 available)

Hot Chili Peppers -1left-

GaGa Dream (4 left)

Pieces of Eight (1 left)

Natural GaGa !!

Sunrise Magic (1 left)

GaGa Bunny Scurryfunge (from the 19th century word meaning:

a hasty tidying of the house between the time you see your neighbour

and the time she knocks on the door (1882).)

Gawain (1 left)

Unicorn Song (2 left)

Fire Star (2 left)

Hand dyed Camel Bunny Silk

(50% baby camel, 10%angora bunny, 40% Mulberry silk)
50+grams /AU$19

another Unique IxCHeL hand dyed top you can spin or felt and feels like a heavenly cloud. Very fine, super soft with a fabulous shine.

Dauntless Pluck

Larklight -3left-

Lexicon Balatronicum -sold-

Clapperdogeon -1left-
Ark Ruffians

Ragamuffin -only 2 left-

Whirlygig

Pickaroon-only 2 left-

Windfall

IxChel Fibre Club #11 Sign up October-November-December 2011

Here are all the details and just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$32 or more . The batts will range in weight from 100grams to 150grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even MINK this time !

All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !

Sign up now and you will receive an Ixchel Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for the last three months of 2011 !

Price to join the Ixchel Funky bunny #11 :)) for three months is :

For Australia : $96+$18 postage (parcel post)

For USA + Canada: AU$96+AU$35 (Airmail)

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$96+AU$38 (airmail)

For Asia: AU$96+AU$28 (airmail)

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY Batt CLUB#11 now.
Numbers are strictly limited !
Deadline for signing up for the funky bunny batt club #11 is September 30th! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me

Tara wheel AU$75 ono

A fabulous wheel, comes with three bobbins, an orifice hook, and the lazy kate is positioned on the wheel. Double Scotch Tension. A gorgeous looking piece of spinning wheel history.

Tara Wheel -SOLD-

8 shaft Table loom AU$400 ono

This table loom is amazing! It is foldable and so easy to transport. Has a huge amount of heddles that are easy to thread. The 12 inch dent is in immaculate condition. Easy to warp up. I will give the lucky buyer extra shedsticks and heaps of yarn as well. Pick up preferred or courier can be arranged. It is also a double wide one so you can make extra wide cloth on it and even wider when you do double weaving ofcourse : width +/- 80 cm !!! , height 44cm, depth 74cm

If you are new to weaving this is an excellent easy loom to master . If you want, you can even purchase my beginners course for weaving on a 4 and 8 shaft loom for $20 which explains everything from warping to designing and understanding all different weaving patterns and even making your own ! I am working on a digital version of my Weaving Manual which will be available shortly !

easy to thread heddles

all folded up and ready to go to its new home

Email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au if you want to adopt any of these badges! or fibres : message me on Ravelry or facebook where I am Ixchelbunny !

Dates to Remember:

Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in September!! Yeah!
Saturday September 17th –filling up very fast !-

Special Offers on this bunny spin in : YARN CONES for spinning weaving and more fibre fun for $2 per cone !!! yes! $2 !! don't miss out!
Thursday September 22nd
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot !

Grand Valley Spinners Guild hall, Montrose
Monday 26th of September, +/- 10am til 3pm
A bunny presentation and a chance to cuddle a bunny and some new fibres and yarns!

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly

Kiss Kiss...

2011-09-02T11:10:00.003+10:00

It’s been ten days since the surprise babies arrived. Mum and babes are doing very well and the teenage bunnies next to the luxurious nest box set up in the studio are having a ball in their play tunnel and eating like little piggies.

Every time I come in the studio Tawnee sits straight up and demands food..food..food and more food. I have never seen a bunny mum feeding her babies so much so she must need it! Normally bunny mums hop on the nest box once or twice a day max for a full couple of minutes ad then hop off again. Not Tawnee, no! She feeds them once very early in the morning for a bout 5 minutes, then again at lunch time and then again in the afternoon and late at night. Amazing. And always checking up as well.

A soon as I draw back the nursery curtain and push away some straw over the bunny nest she is right there, nose first , checking what I am doing and seeing to it all is well. She is a dream mum !

Normally the baby bunnies'eyes open after 10 to 12 days. So it was either yesterday or today. The big strawberry blonde one almost has its eyes open all by itself and looks very strong, but the other ones are still very much closed. They do react more and more to sounds and lights, but they sleep almost all the time in snuggle up close to their siblings. Except ofcourse when mum jumps in the nestbox for feeding time, then all of a sudden the frenzy starts and the race is on who can reach the milk supply first!

The little suckling sounds and seeing little feet sticking up in the air while the front paws are pushing up on mummies tummy is priceless ! and all the while Tawnee is gently just standing there, being pawed and letting her babies drink to their hearts content. Next door to the nestbox the teenagers, especially TicTac tries to get a better look at what is going on and probably thinks “I want me some of that milk too”.

On the 28th of August we did a first weigh in (=6days after birth) and the little gold one weighed in at 79, the chocolate one at 76grams and the big strawberry blonde at a whopping 123grams. On September 1st the Big strawberry blonde one still is nr 1 weighing 194 grams, the chocolate one gained a spot and now weighs 151grams while the little gold one weighs 141grams. It’s all good. Today when their eyes haven’t opened by themselves, the tricky forcefully opening the lids has to begin. If you leave the eyes closed for too long, mucus, crusts and puss can start forming whih can result in blindness and infection. It is a very delicate operation. The bunnies are so small and fragile still and you have to be so careful, but it has to be done.

After their eyes are totally opened the exploration fase begins: they still will spend lots of time in their nestbox sleeping, but more and more they will venture out and annoy mum for milk outside of feeding time. Slowly but surely Tawnee will deny them a drink and push them in the direction of greens and dry food and straw. It is amazing to see so much new life and gorgeous little ones growing into amazingly fluffy bunnies, especially after the heartbreaking loss of so many of our precious angora bunnies in June. Every cloud has a silver lining …

three buns in a hat

Sweet dreams

Exploring with closed eyes

hmmm this angora hat will make a great bed !

TicTac dirty again after playing in the straw

Tilda strikes a pose

Tawnee enjoying broccoli for breakfast

I tried very hard to take some photos of Trixie bit every time I click she moves or is eating with her head down in the bowl..lol…this weekend I will get her to pose hopefully !

There are heaps of new photos of the baby bunnies to be seen on my flickr account by the way: just go to www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny and click on the set Angora bunnies. Enjoy !

This weeks blog update is very special: It is the launch of a very special NEW blend: LUSH BUNNY TOPS . It is luscious, soft, shiny, did I say soft? And amazing ! Don’t get me wrong, twinkle bunny was soft and GaGa Bunny tops are amazing too, but this one here is in a league all on its own!

LUSH Bunny Tops are 60% 18 micron organic merino, 20% tencel, 10% angora and 10% cashmere ! Absolutely droolworthy and :

spins like a dream, felts like poetry and knits up as an absolute heaven!

As promised some extremely soft hand spun and dyed Camel bunny yarn that were still drying last week.

I am also starting the sign ups to all the IxCHeL clubs again for October, November and December. Get your name on the list quick because you so don’t wanna miss out on fabulous deals and great fibres and yarns!
I have relisted the new harvest of Buddhas Tears tea , some amazing blooming art tea: it tastes as good as it looks and is amazing to watch as well ! and the badges again ! So, get your snaffling boots on: here are this weeks offerings!

You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny. Just let me know what you would like and how many and I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods. Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Thank you so much for your help and support !
(((HUGS)))
Charly

Camelbunny Hand spun and hand dyed /50g AU$25 110meters per 50grams appr 4ply spun

Pacific 4 available

King fisher 2 available

Berry Forest (2 available)

Fairytale (2 available)

Natural Camelbunny

Camelbunny with a twist

Pink Panther (4available)

Autumn (2available)

Sun (1 available)

Fiesta (1 available)

Classy Zen (2 available)

Zombies and mermaids (2 available)

Kelp (2available)

Kookaburra (2 available)

Raspberry ! (1 available)

heather (1 available)

NEW !!!Hand dyed LUSH ! Bunny tops

organic 18micron Merino 60%, tencel 20%, angora 10%, cashmere 10%

Spins like a dream, felts like poetry, knits up like heaven and Feels like a fluffy cloud

100+grams AU$24

Every cloud has a silver lining

Every cloud has a silver lining Close up

Natural

Natural Lush Bunny close up

Boys wil be Boys

Playing Rough

La Rosa

La Rosa Close up . together with "silver lining" this colour combo is my favourite this week!

Fame

beautiful day

Alegrias

Love Game

Milonga

IxChel Fibre Club #11 Sign up October-November-December 2011

Sign ups for the IxCHeL Fibre club #11 is now OPEN!
The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed top/roving per month to the value of AU$20 , and as all of you past members know you get tops that are usually around $24 ! so it is a great deal!

All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of Ixchel Fibre Club !
Price to join the Ixchel Fibre Club #11 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months is AU$60 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND double and triple serves are available !!! So in short:

For Australia :
single serve $60+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $120+$24
triple serve $160+$33
For USA + Canada:
single serve AU$60+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve AU$120+AU$60
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$60+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$58
For Asia:
Single serve AU$60+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve AU$120+AU$39
If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #11 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for fibre club #11 is SEPTEMBER 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))

IxChel Sock it to me Yarn Club October-November-December 2011

THE SOCK YARN CLUB SIGN UPS ARE NOW OPEN ;-)

What is the deal? hmmm it is sooo good and fun and sockaliscious you just will HAVE to join :)
Here are the details:
Every month for three months (october-november-december 2011) you will receive:

enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks; (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sockweight yarn or a 3ply or a 4 ply);

Every month a new sock pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! :)
I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks extra long :)

Here is the nitty gritty:
For Australia : single serve $78+$18 postage (parcel post)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +$24
For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$35 (Airmail)
double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$49
For UK,Europe, rest of the world:
Single serve AU$78+AU$38 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$57
For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$28 (airmail)
Double serve $130 (= one skein FREE!!!) +AU$42

Numbers are strictly limited ! Deadline for signing up for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB! is September 30th ! And the first installment is going to be shipped out mid October 2011 :)

Payment via direct deposit or credit card. Just PM or email me your details :))
By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes :)

IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Club #11

NEW ! Blooming Art Tea: Amaranth flowers and green tea

6 pods for AU$15 or 12 pods for AU$25

Amaranth Flowering Art Tea in glass Tea pot : stunning to look at and fabulous to drink.

Amaranth Blooming Flower Tea
Ingredient: green tea 78%, Globe amaranth flower 22%
This finely picked blooming tea ball has been masterfully tied together by hand and lightly dried shortly after cultivation. Once the blooming flower tea ball is steeped in near-boiling water it blooms like a real flower. It unfolds into a high-rising of globe amaranth sitting on a tray of green tea leaves. The combination of the flowers' captivating scent and the fresh tea leaves produces a wonderful and balanced aroma. Green tea is an excellent anti oxidant and the globe amaranth is a perfect liver cleanser, great for skin conditions, is said to improve vision and is great fighting headaches !
Preparation Methods:1. Put one blooming flower tea balls into a glass.
2. Pour into glass 150ml 85°C water.
3. Brew for 3-5 minutes until the blooming flower tea ball sink down and fully unfold. The blooming flower tea do not get bitter as fast as regular tea, so it is safe to add time to the steeping.
4. Amaranth blooming flower tea stands up to three to four brewing.
Flavour : Mellow, floral.

you can serve the Flowering Art tea in a high tea glass as well and just add water. You can steep the same tea several times and enjoy the art tea all day

IxCHeL Badges 35mm AU$2 6 badges for $11 or 10 badges for $18.

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Photos of the badges per type can be seen on my photostream in the badges set on www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny

Just quote the nr that is on the lower righthand corner of the badge when you order. You can order anything you like, multiples of one type of badge or different ones: anything goes !

badges nr1 to 20

Badges 21 to 40

Badges 41 to 59

Email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au or ixchel@rabbit.com.au if you want to adopt any of these badges! or fibres : message me on Ravelry or facebook where I am Ixchelbunny !

Dates to Remember:

Bunny Spin in at the Ixchel Fibre Farm (11am-5pm)

There will be BUNNY SPIN INS again in September!! Yeah!
Saturday September 17th –filling up very fast !-
Thursday September 22nd
Bring a plate to share your wheel or spindle, knitting or crochet, yourself and a smile and have a fun day out amongst bunnies and friends ! Please contact me to secure a spot !

Grand Valley Spinners Guild hall, Montrose
Monday 26th of September, +/- 10am til 3pm
A bunny presentation and a chance to cuddle a bunny and some new fibres and yarns!

Gippsland spinners Group Visit Sunday October 16th
I will bring heaps of new yarns and fibres ! Don’t miss out! Contact the Gippsland Group on RAVelry for more info. I will add more info closer to the date as well.

Little Yarra Steiner School Fair & Open Day
Sunday, October 23rd
A very special family fun day : I will be there with heaps of handspun and hand dyed yarns, art yarns, tops, soaps and tea ! no to be missed !

Contact me on Ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny, message me on facebook there or email me on Ixchelbunny@yahoo.com.au

RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly