Silky Spring !

Hand spun and dyed Rainbow Mulberry silk on the bobbin, ready to be skeined up!

First of all a BIG thank you for all of you sending me healing thoughts ! My face, although still scary to some Paul would say...hahaha....has healed up nicely; I feel that my smile is now a bit lobsided though and looks like I can enter in an Elvis smiling Competition....I still cannot eat properly, but then again, did I ever? ....lol

It has been a busy week, eventhough I "think" I took it a bit slower and easier, but hey, you cannot keep a fibre-holic down for too long. I have been busy spinning and dyeing some gorgeous Peace and Mulberry silk: believe me they are just to DYE FOR !

Natural honey coloured 2 ply Mulberry Peace Silk (AU$35/100g)

We have a wonderful relationship with a small village in India, where they collect the silk coccoons after the moth has already escaped, hence the name "Peace silk", because no animal was hurt or killed in the process of making the silk that we all love so much. Since I am an avid animal lover, I felt working with this Silk was all good! It feels much better to know that the animal making the silk in the first place is alive and happily flying about making more silk making animals ! Yep, it feels good!

Mulberry Silk tops, ready to be spun, dyed or felted (25g/AU$9)

I am posting some photos of this weeks Silk Spinning and dyeing run here so you can drool safely...lol They are all ready for the Melbourne Arts Centre Market the upcoming Sunday 28th of September, so if you feel like cuddling some of those silk skeins or silk tops, come visit me at my stall there or please let me know before Saturday night so I can reserve them for you.

Slubby Hand spun and hand dyed Mulberry Silk "Rainbow", plyed with gold thread (AU$32/50g)

Slubby Handspun and dyed Mulberry silk "Ocean view" (AU$32/50g)

Hand spun and dyed Mulberry silk plyed with gold thread, "Purple daze" (AU$32/50g)

2 ply Mulberry silk (1200m/100g) "Soft Heather Fields" (116g/AU$40)

2 ply hand dyed Mulberry silk (1200m/100g) "Galadriel" (93g/AU$33)


2 ply hand dyed Mulberry Silk (1200m/100g) "Ocean grove" (99g/AU$35)


2 ply Hand dyed Mulberry silk (1200m/100g)"Autumn haze" (93g/AU$33)


2 ply hand dyed Mulberry silk (1200m/100g) "barossa valley" (116g/AU$40)


2 ply hand dyed Mulberry silk (1200m/100g) "mulberry wine" (104g/AU$35)







Hand spun Silk Peace silk singles "Teal dusk" (200-250m/100g) ($30/100g)



Hand spun and dyed Peace Silk singles "moss forest" (200-250m/100g) (AU$30/100g)



Hand spun and dyed Peace silk singles "ocean shine" (200-250m/100g) (AU$30/100g)

I am also working on some yummy Australian Cashmere Merino skeins again: preparing them to be dyed in lots of beautiful new colours! So, keep an eye out in the next couple of days for them as well.

If you want to see some more photos please check out my "ixchelbunny" photostream on http://www.flickr.com/photos/ixchelbunny/

BUNNY NEWS
We had quite a bit excitement this week since Spring started. Jasmin and Gilderoy our Gold buck have made each others' acquintance and fell in love....yep, they mated this week after Gilderoy gave Minne sweet little kisses and well, she just fell for his charm I guess. I will keep you all posted about possible kits. His brother Chewy, the chocolate buck, tried his luck with our silver fox Eowin as well...so, fingers crossed, hopefully we will have some kits next month! Spring is in the air !

CHOOK NEWS

Some other animal news from our little animal farm: Caramel, one of our chooks got attacked and is now condalescing in a comfy straw bed. She had a very nasty wound on her neck and she limps with her right leg: there is a lot of work still to be done before she can scratch around again with her sisters who all miss her very much. She is doing well considering: eating and drinking and hopping around bit by bit. For now she is a house chook though, carefully being pampered...and she loves it. Here is Caramel in here posh bed, with her idol "Babs" from the movie "Chicken Run" cheering her on:

High Impact or...Close Encounters with hard Surfaces and other ways to get plastic surgery ...

Red Rainbow

Let me first share my world with you before "The Impact" on Saturday night (and I am NOT talking about the AFL game St Kilda vs Collingwood !)..... As I mentioned on Ravelry I have hand dyed some new fluffy yummy angora merino tops or as they are known now ANGORINO Braids!

NEW ANGORINO BRAIDS

Here are the new angorino babies of last week, ready to be pampered, fondled , hugged and then felted or spun up for your fav project:

Pink Daze

Moss

Tealy Blues

Purple Rainbow

Spring !

Heather

Purple Haze

Green Rainbow

the Blues

Autumn Leaves

All Angorino braids weigh 150-160g and are AU$19 each. Just let me know which one you want and I will send it to you by express mail ! Easy! These Angorino braids are hopping off the shelves fast so if you want to catch one be quick!

Close Encounters ......

What happens when you look forward to putting your feet up, watching a good movie accompanied by a nice drink and you want to get to that snuggly place as soon as possible? Right: you feel energised after feeding all the animals and leap from one sleeper step to the other like an Olympian Hurdle jumper and then, all of a sudden, the laws of Physics harshly remind you that :

1.you are Not an Olympian Sportsperson,

2.You are definitely NOT "Twiggy"......(a supermodel of the 60s for all you young chicks)

3.there is moss and wetness on the sleeper that you just landed on and

4. there is such a thing as gravity !!!!!

in 1 second Reality caught up with me and from my energised jump my head was catapulted onto the edge of another sleeper...BANG, CRASH, CRACK!!! I tell you, I never got up so quickly as that time ! holding my what I thought was a broken nose , bleeding all over my favourite T-shirt ! and flying up the stairs to get to the bathroom in the house as fast as possible ! Blood everywhere and I kept on saying to myself "You stupid idiot! not good...not good...not good...." Anyway, it was not a broken nose ! yeah! But what was that huge crack I heard? after inspecting my mouth with my tongue I found out that my teeth were still there and were not moving that much either ! Thank GOD!!!! But where did all the blood come from then? I looked in the mirror after holding my head under the tap and ...OH MY .....!!!!!!!....instead of having 2 nostrils and a mouth there was an extra GAP in between my nose and my mouth...not going into too much detail for all of you YOUNG readers, but I tell you it was not a fleshwound and it was not "petite"....I could have played a part in "the corpse bride" since my upper jaw bone was happily laughing back at me in the mirror! .......

Since Paul was enjoying himself at the MCG watching St Kilda play, he could not help me- he was about a three hour drive away from me , so apart from not wanting to spoil his long awaited night out, I knew calling him would be useless, ...so ....I "jogged" to the neighbours scaring the living daylight out of Sue and Ian....I say, what better way to spend a Saturday night in Emergency at Hospital eh? .....There went my night in slippers, a good movie and a nice drink!

After Dr Richard (a great guy, although I almost belted him when he was pricking me with a rather nasty local anaesthetic ) had me go get a CT scan to be sure that there wasnt a huge jaw fracture there , he attached my nose and my lip to the rest of my face and Ian drove me home...the Adrenaline was pumping so hard and fast I couldnt sleep at all that night......so in the morning I drove to Southbank looking like Mrs Frankenstein after having Botox and worked at the market all day. My collegues were fabulous, Leonore helped me unpack and pack up, and the customers I did not scare away in the first place were magnificent too: thank you Tanyaed ! for being such an enthusiastic fibre fanatic and visiting my stall for the first time and not being scared off by my "nightmare before X-mas" appearance.......lol

Sunday night I slept like a baby and only woke up at 12noon on the Monday. Paul begged me to take it easy! and for once I think I will listen to him.....!!!!

Oh you know what is really "X-filish" and Eerie? My horoscope of the Sunday said :

"you have to be careful, this is a very accident prone time for Capricorn!" ........

hey, if they would only have told me that on Saturday morning!!!!

Angora Flower Power!

Pippi, the angora doe when she was 10 weeks!

She has really grown up now and is SUPER FLUFFY !

Ever had this sensation of enthusiastically jumping up and down when you take something out of the dyepot, rinse it, dry it gently and then can't keep yourself from hugging the yarn? Well, crazy or not, that is what is going on at this fibre farm ALL THE TIME ! What can you do when you are surrounded by happy hopping angora bunnies with their crazy antics and their totally huggable fluffy funny faces? That's right: don't fight it, just LOVE IT !

So here they are: my newest huggable members in the Angora Flower wrap kits saga:

Angora handspun and dyed in Pacific Dream plyed with gold BLING!
Angora hand pun and dyed in Alfalfa fields plyed with gold BLING!

Angora hand spun and dyed in Dusky purples plyed with gold BLING !

All the Flower wrap kits are AU$50, weight per skein is +/- 100-110grams and comes with a free Angora Flower wrap pattern !

As promised I am also posting the just finished silk hand dyed Maya wrap in yumyum berry colours:

I just love to wear the Maya wrap as a Batwing Poncho/top !

A close up of the weave: a pointed twill combined with a tabby or plain weave.

This Maya wrap is available now ! Just check it out at the Arts Centre market in Melbourne next Sunday or email me when you want to wear this yumyum berry wrap: it is a one of a kind and it fits size 6 to 30! Howz that for a multifunctional fashion statement!

When weaving with a variegated yarn on a plain coloured yarn you can easily do the twill weave and it will really show off your variegated yarns. When both the warp and weft are multicoloured though, the colours will be so mixed that you will get more of a "tweedy look". With a hand dyed warp it is better to weave tabby/plain weave: that way the dyed warp threads really stand out !

If anybody is interested in weaving, let me know! I run workshops all the time to suit what you want and I also have written a colourful weaving manual available for any of you eager to explore the magic of four shaft weaving !

Maya wrap "Orchid"

Have been busy again...(what a surprise....:-) ) and thought I had better show you the Maya wrap I have spun and wove in silk and dyed in ...yes...the Orchid colours !!! Although it was pretty scary to put purple and green and turquoise together (if they bleed too much into one another you get a wonderful yucky poo brown...lol) it ended up being quite a looker ! So, I am posting some photos of the work in progress and the final result! the Maya wrap is handspun mulberry silk, then hand woven on my 4 shaft floor loom and then hand painted.

Handpainting the woven Maya wrap holding the Orchid to compare tones and values (the photo doesn't do it justice because of overlighting of the orchid ...oops)

The Orchid Maya Wrap! worn in the vest style

The Orchid Maya wrap as a top !

The Orchid Maya Wrap as a Tunic/dress

The angora yarn has also been taken off the bobbin and dyed in yummy colours: one a very happy opal rainbow, another one a gorgeous teal with deep dusky purple tones and the other in those greens and moss variations that just make you feel like Spring is in the air!

Angora hand spun and hand dyed "Opal Rainbow"

Angora Yarn hand spun and hand dyed "Dusky Teal"

Angora Yarn, handspun and hand dyed "Alfalfa fields"

Next on my list is another Maya wrap: this time from some silk noil yarn that I hand dyed in plummy berry colours (see the photos in a couple of days' time! ) and yes, some more angora flower wrap knit kits.....It is always fluffy & colourful in Ixchel bunnyland ....lol

Oh yeah, website is getting closer and closer ! BUT should you want some of the yarn or wraps just posted here -or anything else you might need for your funky fibre projects, let me know !

Have fun !