Happy Rainbows and more to make you smile

I am already setting my sights on the things to come : the hand knitters guild in May and the Bendigo show in July! It is going to be a huge couple of months trying to get everything ready and also a lot of new exciting things happening, including new products !!!

The last few weeks have been filled with spinning , spinning and more spinning . Not only for custom orders but also in preparation for the shows and because I have had so many requests for the loooooong repeat colourways I sold so many years ago, I can offer you three different loooong repeat colourways in 4 ply and two colourways , excellent for shawls and weaving ! and  a laceweight yarn with a huge meterage !!!

The shawls you see above is called a Citron shawl and the pattern is free and available on Ravelry. I only used 140grams of the 4ply yarn in Rainbow and it is truly Huge ! I knitted it on needles 4, but I would knit it on 5mm next time to make it even bigger and a bit more open.

Or you could knit these amazingly cute mitts with the rainbow 4ply , just starting from the opposite scale of the colour spectrum when doing the intarsia !

 

So, this week it is all going to be focussed on yarn…the looong repeat yarns and my handspun bunny mink in three different colourways: a natural, a white and an absolute superb grey tone..YUMMM!

I have not had time to dye my handspun pure 8 ply angora  or the 3ply bunny mink (yet) but I didn’t want to deprive you , so I will offer it in virginesque white and naturals this week.

If you are not particularly fond of naturals, well, just ask and I can dye it for you in any colour or colourcombo you want. I will be spending all weekend at the dyepots, not only for all the clubs and shows but also for custom orders.

All the dates and information for the shows and events to come are at the bottom of this weeks “Dates to put in your Calendar!” - bit. There is lots of new exciting stuff planned.

Have a fun weekend and happy spinning, knitting, weaving and crocheting !

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this weeks blog entry. Have fun !!!

 

Long Colour Repeat Yarns   

100% pure wool 
 
4 ply comes in skeins of 140-160grams , 400m/100g, suggested needles 3-4.5mm …. AU$35

Lace yarn comes in skeins of +/-290-310grams That is enough to make a gorgeous huge lace shawl !, 700meters/100g !! suggested needles 3mm AU$60
 

 

Long Colour Repeat Lace Yarn Rainbow  290-310grams AU$60
4 skeins available

 

Long Colour repeat 4ply yarn Rainbow
140-160grams  AU$35
sold

 

Long Colour repeat 4ply Yarn Heather
140-160grams  AU$35
8 skeins available

 

Lanesplitter skirt (sunset and heather combined)

 

Long Colour Repeat Lace yarn Sunset
250-270 grams AU$50
3 skeins available

 

Long Colour Repeat 4 ply Yarn Sunset
140-160grams  AU$35
8 skeins available

 

Knee high socks made with Sunset 4ply

 

Pure Angora Handspun yarn

Pure white from our Angora bunnies Fifi, Uhura, Spock and Kirk

110m/50g

appr 8ply

50 gram skeins   AU$25

 

 

Pure Angora Bunny natural white handspun yarn

 

 

 

Handspun Bunny Mink 3ply Yarn 

 

Naturals Colour Range (Grey-beige and ivory-

 

+/- 50 gram skeins  +/- 300m/50grams!   AU$25 

 

The three naturals of the Bunny Mink 3ply handspun yarn together

 

bunny mink 3ply yarn in grey and beige close ups

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. 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? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

IxCHeL Events to put in your Calendar!

Handknitters Guild Mini Wool show
May 17th
Coburg Town Hall, 90 Bell Street, Coburg
10-am-  3pm
The AMAZING handknitters Guild Victoria is putting on their annual Yarn &  Craft Show again ! Yeah ! This market is one of my favourite events of the year and s set in the epic , recently restored Coburg Town hall.
The date to put in your calendar is May 17th 2014, 10am-15pm!!! I will be there with bells on (and ears..ofcourse!) and will have a NEW range of handspun angora, mink, yak, alpaca, bison! and loooooong repeat lace yarns and sock yarns !!!
for the yarn spinners: all the IxCHeL blended tops will be at the party as well! Ranging from my Angorino to the epic Bunny bison bliss! It is going to be an AMAZING day !!!
Address to be on May the 17th is: Coburg Town Hall (pictured) located at 90 Bell Street, Coburg, about 500 metres from Sydney Road. Entry is free. the Hand knitters’ guild 2014 Raffle Rug made by Guild members with luxury yarn from the Bendigo Wool Mill will be on display and $2 tickets will be available for purchase.

Friday 18th July-Sunday 20th of July
Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show
Bendigo Show Grounds
Flower Power Bunny Shed
THE event of the year with heaps of fun and super special fibre happenings!!
Exciting news !!!!!! more info on that later in the year !!!

Friday 15th of August-Sunday 17th of August
39th Annual Country Conference
Camp Manyung Sunnyside Rd,
Mount Eliza
Im doing a talk there about the Navajo Churro Sheep project, Navajo Rug making, Navajo style spinning and more !
Lots of extremely special and hard to find fibres and yarns and SPINDLES will be available there !
Not to be missed!
There will also be a Special Navajo rug display and I will also have a stall there with lots of fluffy stuff to hug..enabling galore!!
To participate in the Country Conference please contact : Dot Vallence , email: dotv5@optusnet.com.au

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly

Happy Hoppy Easter

It is Easter! A very busy time for bunnies…and chickens….I wonder how these two animals wound up together and that the Easter bunny is in charge of distributing eggs , be it chocolate or the real kind. Normally I never see any of my bunnies inclined to touch eggs, not even when they are brightly dyed orange…

 

The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a fantasy character shown as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs. It apparently originated among the German Lutherans.

The Easter Hare originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide. Kind of like a Bunny Santa Claus.

The Easter Bunny is sometimes dressed and carries coloured eggs in his basket, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children. The custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus (About Easter Eggs) in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs for the children. Some Christians today believe that the rabbit symbolizes new life particularly in relation to the resurrection of Jesus.

Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols. Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the March Equinox. Rabbits and hares are both prolific breeders. You may not know this, but female hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first ! Who on earth came up with that being a good idea is beyond me by the way ! The phenomenon is known as superfetation.

Lagomorphs, bunnies and hares, mature sexually at an early age and can give birth to several litters a year (hence the saying, "to breed like bunnies"). It is not surprising that rabbits and hares should become fertility symbols, or that their springtime mating antics should enter into the Easter Celebration folklore.

I couldn’t find anything about what the reason eggs are associated in celebrating Easter, but some suggest it comes from the roasted egg (the Beitzah) in the Passover Seder, which represented the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) and was probably introduced to the Passover after the Temple was destroyed in 70AD.

Eggs were also the first dish served at Jewish funerals in the time of Christ’s ministry on earth. Since most of the early Christians were Jewish, it's likely they carried forward the tradition and associated the egg with Jesus' death and resurrection. It's thought that breaking the egg's shell symbolized the end of ritual sacrifice for atonement.

A second reason maybe comes from the Orthodox churches' custom of abstaining from eggs during the fast of Lent. The only way to keep them from being wasted was to boil or roast them, and begin eating them to break the fast. As a special dish, they would probably have been decorated as part of the celebrations. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating coloured eggs for Easter, even though they did not continue the tradition of fasting.

A third possibility is that the blooming of many flowers in spring coincides with the use of the fertility symbol of eggs. Eggs boiled with some flowers change their colour, bringing the spring into the homes, and some over time added the custom of decorating the eggs. Natural dyed eggs ! Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, the colour of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the renewal of life in springtime). Some also use the colour green, in honour of the new foliage emerging after the long dead time of winter. The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times.

So... who invented the egg laying bunny? The idea of an egg-laying bunny came to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch (= Amish) area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws". "Hase" means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare, not a rabbit. Yes, another childhood myth destroyed ….(sad face) … According to the legend, only good children received gifts of coloured eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter.

There are also derivatives of the Easter Bunny in other cultures. German immigrants brought the belief of the Easter Bunny to Sweden in the late 19th century but the tradition was never established. Instead, due to a misunderstanding of the Swedish word for the Easter Bunny, "Påskharen", which pronunciation sounds very similar to "Påskkarlen", meaning the Easter Man or the Easter Wizard, the Swedish tradition of the Easter Wizard bringing eggs for Easter was rooted in the early 20th century. The Easter Wizard was seen as a more suitable symbol for the pagan Easter traditions of Sweden, where still today children dress up as Witches at Easter. Amazing what a mispronunciation of a word can do to a whole culture !

Well, there it is the whole easter bunny egg myth in a nut shell so to speak…now we can all sleep easier….

Happy egg hunting and …eh….fibery snaffling of tonight’s hand dyed Easter Offerings. Happy Easter everybody and a fun time spinning over this long weekend !

Now for this weeks update special fibre blend: the nr5 Luxury Tops and a first appearance of a very very special blend: the Yak Rabbit tops. Both tops are amazing to spin or as I like to call it: they spin like butter, and as far as I am concerned , everything is better with butter….(quote by Julia Child, I couldn’t resist).

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this weeks blog entry. Have fun !!!

 

Yak Rabbit Tops  

Off White Yak blended with 2% angora bunny. Out of this world to spin !!!
50grams+ (+/-1.75oz) …. AU$19
 

 

 

Nr 5 Luxury Tops Tops  

A blend of 5 sensual fibres: Bison, Angora, Yak , Cashmere and Tencel
50grams+ (+/-1.75oz) …. AU$22
 

 

Galaxy Quest-sold-

 

Sweet Heart

 

Outback Romance-sold-

 

Touch

 

Applause

 

Blood Moon

 

Rose Petals

 

Moon Pie

 

Gravity-sold-

 

Natural

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. 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? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

IxCHeL Events to put in your Calendar!

 Hand knitters Guild Mini Wool show
Saturday May 17th
Coburg Town Hall, 90 Bell Street, Coburg
10-am3pm
The AMAZING handknitters Guild Victoria is putting on their annual Yarn & Craft Show again ! Yeah ! This market is one of my favourite events of the year and s set in the epic , recently restored Coburg Town hall.
The date to put in your calendar is May 17th 2014, 10am-15pm!!! I will be there with bells on (and ears..ofcourse!) and will have a NEW range of handspun angora, mink, yak, alpaca, bison! and loooooong repeat lace yarns and sock yarns !!!
for the yarn spinners: all the IxCHeL blended tops will be at the party as well! Ranging from my Angorino to the epic Bunny bison bliss! It is going to be an AMAZING day !!!
Address to be on May the 17th is: Coburg Town Hall (pictured) located at 90 Bell Street, Coburg, about 500 metres from Sydney Road. Entry is free. the Hand knitters’ guild 2014 Raffle Rug made by Guild members with luxury yarn from the Bendigo Wool Mill will be on display and $2 tickets will be available for purchase.

Friday 18th July-Sunday 20th of July
Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show
Bendigo Show Grounds
Flower Power Bunny Shed
THE event of the year with heaps of fun and super special fibre happenings!!
Exciting news !!!!!! more info on that later in the year !!!

Friday 15th of August-Sunday 17th of August
39th Annual Country Conference
Camp Manyung Sunnyside Rd,
Mount Eliza
Im doing a talk there about the Navajo Churro Sheep project, Navajo Rug making, Navajo style spinning and more !
Lots of extremely special and hard to find fibres and yarns and SPINDLES will be available there !
Not to be missed!
There will also be a Special Navajo rug display and I will also have a stall there with lots of fluffy stuff to hug..enabling galore!!
To participate in the Country Conference please contact : Dot Vallence , email: dotv5@optusnet.com.au

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly

Passion in Action...I see Fire

After months and months of thinking “ it will never rain again” the downpour has started and so all the tops had to take refuge inside the house to get dry in time for this Mondays’ show at the Grandvalley Spinners and Weavers group in Montrose. You should see the house! Every little spot that I can hang fibery things from has been taken over..we have fibery curtains, clothes horses, chairs…everything…there are piles of braided tops in huge tubs waiting to be labelled and put away into their bags ready for the trip and there are still two loads left to have their dyes set..it is all happening. Next time your partner tells you , your fibery habbit has gotten out of hand, show these photos and it’ll be fine ;-)

I am already setting my sights on the things to come : the handknitters guild in May and the Bendigo show in July! It is going to be a huge couple of months trying to get everything ready and also a lot of new excitingthings happening, including new products !!! It is all very exciting and well….HUGE! lol More on all of that exciting stuff later !!! .

Some people have asked me how I can possibly keep going ..getting up early, dyeing, animal care, designing,spinning..all almost non-stop with hardly any breathing time until late late at night...3 am seems to be my cut off point....lol

Well all I can say to explain that is , passion and loving what I do. I don't see it as "work" in the normal sense of the word as some people use it as in " work is dreary and can't wait for the weekend type of thing".. First of all it is pretty darn difficult for me to look forward to the weekend because it is basically no different from the rest of my week..lol...I do not really have a life outside of fibre and creating and designing. This can make some people put their quizzical face on and say " that is terrible!".  The way I see it, the only way that I can do anything is to be passionate about it, love what you do no matter what that is. I was thinking about that "work" thing lately actually because it is really  bizarre that my parents wanted me to have a proper job so they said, study to become a lawyer or a doctor, I enrolled in law school did the whole Uni thing and got a Phd in medical anthropology and a master in law, worked in the field for quite some time , only to realise that it was "work' ..I loved what I did but it is so totally different than comparing that to passion. With being passionate about what you do, you breathe, sleep and eat what you do. It is totally enveloping and you never , ever say ...." I will stop at 5 " or " have a smoko" or " I will retire"...there is no such thing when you are trying to make a living in the Arts and Crafts. Not only do you have to cope with less than minimum wage, but you will have to put in long hours. The only way to be able to sustainably keep doing that, is to not only love it but be passionate about it with a vengeance..lol  I always wanted to do Arts, always had something going in music and painting and designing from a very early age, so it is something that was maybe "meant to be"..Lesson here is : never let anybody tell you to do something you are not passionate about...Love what you do and do it often I always say ;-) And if you don't know what that is (yet) find out ..

YOu know what the easiest part of it is? Creating, trying out new things on a continuous basis, developing, getting better, discovery. The hard part? Trying to survive in a harsh dollar reality and trying to sell your work while staying true to your ideals, while there are so many people "working" and buying their wares at crazy unsustainable prices.  The networking, the selling and at the same time , keep believing that what you do is good. Every artist, whether they are a painter, designer, singer, performer, actor, all of  us making something through our passion, always have these devils on our shoulders every now and again..questioning and doubting. Which in a way is a good thing I guess, because otherwise everybody would just be walking around with tremendous egos, that can destroy the passion in no time...hard to deal with as well. The worse thing that can happen is that you come across people that have been around for 5 minutes and think they produce something so amazing never been done before, that they spend more time thinking about how to protect what they have done with copyright or whatever other bs that doesn't work anyway, than doing what is most important: Sharing the passion and creating a whole new generation of passionate, loving, creative minds.  I say: Rabbit on!  and share your passion and love  what you do... always !


Anyway , All the dates and information for the shows and events to come are at the bottom of this weeks “Dates to put in your Calendar!” - bit. There is lots of new exciting stuff planned as usual and I love teasing you all, so I am not saying a thing ……yet…..lol

Now for this weeks update special fibre blend: the Happy Tiger tops. It is an all Australian grown and processed and blended and ofcourse handdyed here on the IxCHeL fibre farm.

 

It is an exclusive to IxCHeL and I am extremely proud to give you the opportunity to experience how natural fibres plant and protein fibres of this calibre interact together to create pure bliss!

 

Hemp has and still is put in the light of “drugs”well, surprise surprise..it is an amazingly strong, beautiful, healthy, lustrous, fabulous plant fibre and is gorgeous to work with.

 

I have spun it on its own and in a blend if pure angora and ofcourse did multiple tests on how this blend spins up: I am over the moon with it !

It creates a lustrous yarn that is anti bacterial, moisture absorbing, cool and light and is practically indestructible! I will be working on a sock blend for that reason: no need for nylon! Just add a certain % of hemp to your wool blend and voila! Sock heaven!

 

Other fibres in the Happy Tigerbunny Tops are Suri & silk: this animal fibre is an amazing lush silky addition to any blend. It brings drape and shine and lustre. The Alpaca and Llama I added for its texture and air and softness.

Now why tiger tops? Well, this blend is not all white…every fibre in the blend has its colour: the suri silk is fawn, the alpaca is rose grey and the llama is brown and the hemp is pure honey.

 

I love dyeing on natural coloured bases : it somehow created this deep, dimensional colour sensation you cannot possibly create with just plain white. So my philosophy in making up all these blends, whether it be this bunny bison bliss blend or the happy tiger tops or the magic bunny tops for that matter , is to put together a base that will give it either texture or dimension or both. Spinning a yarn from that kind of blend will not only give you a unique opportunity to experience different kinds of fibres and how they interact, but also create the most amazing one of a kind yarn or felt you can imagine.

 

So, enjoy this weeks update and remember: your imagination is the only limit to what you can create AND buying the Happy Tigerbunny tops will mean you are supporting Australian farms, small Australian businesses and making it possible for a lot of people to enjoy a big diversity of fibres and yarns in the future! Have fun !!!

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this weeks blog entry. Have fun !!!

 

Happy Tiger Bunny Tops  

A wonderful earthy organic blend of organic merino, angora bunny , suri silk alpaca llama and the star of the show Hemp !.
100grams+ (+/-3.5oz) …. AU$24
 

 

Soft Kitty

 

Romance

 

Pastel Zombie

 

Kookaburra

 

I See Fire

 

Gimme Love

 

Frozen Tundra

 

Frosty

 

Forest Fairies

 

Eyemelting Barbies

 

Deep in the forest

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. 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? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

IxCHeL Events to put in your Calendar!

Monday 14th of April THIS MONDAY !!!
GrandValley Spinners and Weavers
TOYLAND SPIN IN
Tapscott Hall Cnr Cambridge and Montrose Roads
Montrose
Start 9:30 Am
Everybody welcome !
I will have a stall there with fibres, yarns, batts, clouds and much much more !!!!

Handknitters Guild Mini Wool show
May 17th
Coburg Town Hall, 90 Bell Street, Coburg
10-am3pm
The AMAZING handknitters Guild Victoria is putting on their annual Yarn & Craft Show again ! Yeah ! This market is one of my favourite events of the year and s set in the epic , recently restored Coburg Town hall.
The date to put in your calendar is May 17th 2014, 10am-15pm!!! I will be there with bells on (and ears..ofcourse!) and will have a NEW range of handspun angora, mink, yak, alpaca, bison! and loooooong repeat lace yarns and sock yarns !!!
for the yarn spinners: all the IxCHeL blended tops will be at the party as well! Ranging from my Angorino to the epic Bunny bison bliss! It is going to be an AMAZING day !!!
Address to be on May the 17th is: Coburg Town Hall (pictured) located at 90 Bell Street, Coburg, about 500 metres from Sydney Road. Entry is free. the Hand knitters’ guild 2014 Raffle Rug made by Guild members with luxury yarn from the Bendigo Wool Mill will be on display and $2 tickets will be available for purchase.

Friday 18th July-Sunday 20th of July
Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show
Bendigo Show Grounds
Flower Power Bunny Shed
THE event of the year with heaps of fun and super special fibre happenings!!
Exciting news !!!!!! more info on that later in the year !!!

Friday 15th of August-Sunday 17th of August
39th Annual Country Conference
Camp Manyung Sunnyside Rd,
Mount Eliza
Im doing a talk there about the Navajo Churro Sheep project, Navajo Rug making, Navajo style spinning and more !
Lots of extremely special and hard to find fibres and yarns and SPINDLES will be available there !
Not to be missed!
There will also be a Special Navajo rug display and I will also have a stall there with lots of fluffy stuff to hug..enabling galore!!
To participate in the Country Conference please contact : Dot Vallence , email: dotv5@optusnet.com.au

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly