An Ixchelbunny group now on Ravelry!

"Hmmmm. I wonder what is happening?..let's have a read!"

No matter what goes on, or not...(like this blog entry getting lost about 4 times ! because of computer and internet gremlins.....:-( ) playing with colours and fibre (and bunnies ofcourse...Lol) make me smile. I have just finished some Colour your spirit headbands and one of them is just like the orchid colours I was trying so hard to imitate.

The Colour your Spirit headbands are all handspun merino/silk and angora bunny yarn, spun in a very energised way and then handwoven in the middle to keep it all nice together and bouncy! It is great to wear as a headband but also is a great little scarf/neckwarmer! They are available at the market for $18 or I can send them out to you, just tell me what colours you like..easy!

The other thing that made me smile was the start of an Ixchelbunny Fibre and Yarn group on Ravelry ! There are already lots of fun ixchel fibre fans that joined and I am really looking forward to seeing more and more ! Just visit Ravelry.com, join and be amazed! You know what they say:"The more the merrier!"..:-) I was blown away by the wonderful stuff everybody had to say and just had to tell all the bunnies as well: I am sure they all understood the fans they had after I gave them some fresh organic parsley and carrots from our veggie patch! We are going to mate some of our bunnies again soon (after the worst of the cold weather has passed us by !) and I will keep you posted on how it all goes! This photo was taken last year of Jasmines litter after 5 days !

A project I have just finished: a twill merino and alpaca handspun scarf, dyed and painted : yum! you can see the "real thing" at the Southbank market this weekend!

Some angora/merino braids have left the Ixchel dyeing studio again and another silk wrap is soaking waiting to be painted ! One of the braids was particularly adventurous using layers of natural dyes including Walnut on Cochineal : the result was just amazing and the richest deep chocolate ! I ever saw (made me get a steaming hot chocolate drink to treat myself :-) )

How could I possible resist knitting with my bunny/lambswool yarn? I know I have a website to finish and so much more but hey, there's nothing on tv anyway and this yarn was just beckoning me to make a luscious soft scarf (not finished yet, but I am hopeful...lol): the lace stitch is quite easy to do and the effect is amazing: keep an eye out for some great knit kits of this "Coral field" scarf at the market soon!

Better get spinning and dyeing for that next project..and oh yeah.....try and finish that website!!!!! lol

Snow, Rain and Global Bunny Warming

It has been freezing !...., snowing !!! yes, it actually snows in Australia.. !and... it was, above all: Extremely WET!!!! If anybody out there has No water I will gladly donate some of mine coz we are close to drowning...the chooks are wet and wish they were ducks, Everybody was soaked and the bunnies were happy to have been out the one day that it was NOT raining and well, I was inside spinning and weaving listening to the rain pouring down with one ear and listening to the splashing water of the swimming at the Olympics with the other ear! With the weather being as it was it was Time to knit socks!!

Max, our gorgeous smoke grey Angora doe, was happy to have a hop in the back garden after her grooming session on a day that it actually stopped raining for a bit! : she has great big bunny eyes that just make you smile. She is the sweetest bunny ever: very placid, very huggable and has an amazing coat! I don't know how she does it but she is never in a mess, unlike some of her brothers (Frodo and Mickey are always tangled and up to some trouble)...

Handspun Mulberry silk yarn

The good thing about the rain was that I have done a lot of spinning ! yeah!!! I have finished some great slubby silks, rainbow angora yarn and some bamboo! The silk Maya wrap is still soaking and will be undergoing a paint-over tomorrow! Hopefully it will be dry for the Sunday market (fingers crossed!)

Time flies....Haircut time!

Another week has gone by and everytime I think how amazing it is : Einstein was right, time is relative but UFO's (unfinished craft objects hibernating, queuing neatly -or not so neatly ...ahum- waiting to finally be wearable...)are a definite constant !!
Another market at the Arts Centre at Southbank yesterday : I met so many Ravelry/knitting/felting and Bunny lovers again and it is GREAT to see so many enthusiasts around. I told our furry and fluffy bunnies they have lots of fans and they happily started hopping around :-) All but one I must say: Cindy (you know the buck with the feminine name and a big Johnny Cash fan...)....Cindy had to be clipped...he was way way overdue for a haircut (I blame Bendigo......)....So I spent a good hour tidying him up and getting his coat off in a nice way, without making him look like a member of the Sex Pistols (for all you lucky ones born after the 90s.......they were a Punk band from the 80s, or was it 70s?....) He was much happier now that his hairdo was millimetered and immediately started munching on the treats (celery and broccoli fresh out of our veggie patch) :-)

Next on my haircut list was Jasmine (our REW) , she is quite a big English Angora and has gorgeous fluffy hair, but after a haircut she looks ...well...petite...lol.

Jasmine after the haircut (which left her with "poodle legs...."

I ended up spinning some Angora fibre for a project: one of my Angora flower wrap knit kits that I dyed in deep reds and plum:

Handspun and dyed Angora with gold bling for a Flower Wrap knit kit

When I was visiting our local library, the librarian told me that she was just looking at the Grass Roots magazine the other day, featuring our little angora bunnies with Pippi on the back cover and Paul, Jazz, Max and me on the front cover! It is great to have such a fabulous magazine featuring our little fibre farm and that so many people are reading it...By the way: that issue was published in March 2007! Again...time flies....we have moved to our own little piece of fibre paradise in the Yarra Valley about half a year after Grass Roots visited us ! Grass Roots photographer, Marcel Aucar, took some great photos and we still are very happy to have been visited by the Grass Roots gang and being part of their magazine.

Holding Eowin a silver grey doe when she was 8 weeks old..

Okay, this following photo has absolutely nothing to do with bunnies or fibre, spinning or weaving, BUT...when I saw these orchids in our local shop, I was amazed at their colours: a velvet deep purple combined with a blazing fluorescent turquoise! Nature is such an inspiration when it comes to colours and I just know this colour combination is going to be my next dyeing and painting challenge: I just have to card and spin some Australian heritage Mohair for that project or....weave a silk Maya wrap and paint it "orchid style" ? I will keep you all posted!

Colour Your Spirit !