IxCHeL Fibres, Yarns & Art: Fantastic Fibre Beasts and where to find them

First Friday of December !! So I thought that was worth a celebration and decided to put of a fibre and yarn feast filled with lots of yummies: A new batch of TUNDRA tops with the magnificent Musk Ox from Norway and a North Ronaldsay Seaweed eating sheep that is just awesome to knit with. Or as somebody said it felt “spongy” yep, that’s the seaweed sheep alright: their wool is extremely lofty and spongy. Must definitely have something to do with their diet of only seaweed !

It has been a super busy week with all the prep and dyeing of the very special December clubs and getting a huge amount of administrative tax stuff out of the way (phew!0 and doing an interview for the Yarra Valley FM, amongst other fun stuff , like, finally making it to the cinema to see “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them” . I mean, how could I possibly not be excited to see that movie being a total “Potter head” (sorted in Ravenclaw, Patronus is a Stag, and my wand is apparently a sycamore wand with a unicorn hair and of unbending flexibility ( I have asked Paul to make me one, but he is still looking for a unicorn hair..lol)) . The movie was awesome and funny with amazing effects and gorgeous fantastic beasts (my fav was the Niffler).

Talking about Fantastic beasts: I have two kind of fibres from two different fantastic rare beats on offer for you today: The North Ronaldsay Sheep yarn and the Musk ox from Norway..

As far as rare breeds are concerened and especially with the musk ox, they are being monitored by scientists to see what is happening with the herds and what their health is. A musk ox can be up to two metres long. The animal is characterised by a long and dense coat and wide hooves and drooping horns. Like domestic cows, musk oxen are ruminants, and allow their food to ferment in a separate stomach prior to digesting it. Musk ox are well protected against the cold Arctic winter. They have two layers of hair--a thick undercoat and heavy outer coat of long, dark hair. Musk ox are a key species in the Arctic, but populations are in decline. A new method is helping scientists to monitor these animals in often difficult to reach, remote locations.

A new method of hair analysis reveals what musk ox in the Arctic have been eating in recent years. The hair is sampled from the animals’ buttocks where it is longest and preserves a longer time series of the animals eating habits. Buttock hair also grows continuously throughout the year and so it gives the most representative picture of the animals’ yearly food intake. “Musk ox [are] a key species in the Arctic that we know surprisingly little about,” says lead author Jesper Bruun Mosbacher, a PhD student at the Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark. “We use a new method that has never been applied in this way before. And we can use it to monitor [musk ox] populations in locations where we otherwise wouldn’t visit very often,” says Mosbacher.

Musk ox are found throughout the Arctic, in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Norway, and Russia. And some local populations are thriving. In west Greenland, populations have soared from just 27 in the early 1960s to around 25,000 estimated individuals today, says Mosbacher. But scientists still do not know where most musk ox are or how they are faring. "No one knows how many there are among the [unmanaged] population on the east coast [of Greenland]. The most recent estimate in 1990 was between 2,900 and 4,600 musk ox within the area of the Zackenberg research station," says Mosbacher.

"We know locally from Zackenberg, that the stock there increased throughout the 1990s, until 2007, after which it began to decline drastically. But we only have an overview in localised areas. For the vast majority we have no idea where large populations are, or how they are doing," he says. Mosbacher and his colleagues set out to learn more about these animals behaviour throughout the year, and this meant finding out what they had eaten.
Mosbacher and his colleagues analysed hair from ten Greenlandic musk ox and discovered that the animals’ diet is directly linked with their environmental surroundings and the number of calves born. Fewer calves were born during and after particularly snowy winters.

"In winters with lots of snow, the animals starved and burned their layer of body fat. Musk ox live in such extreme areas and they are very dependent on sufficient body resources both to survive and to be able to produce calves," says Mosbacher. The scientists analysed the stable isotope composition of the hair, which indicates the type of food that the animals ate in recent years. An isotope is a specific version of an element and every element has several different isotopes. A stable isotope means that it is not radioactive and does not change into another isotope by radioactive decay.
The analytical tool is useful when predicting future population trends in the face of climate change, says Mosbacher. “Our study tries to understand how climate influences the musk ox’s diet, in a region where [climate] is changing twice as fast as in other ecosystems and where populations [of musk ox] are declining,” he says.

“Understanding the connection between the environment and food is important, because then we can begin to understand what will happen as the climate changes." The muskox project is a collaboration between Arctic Research Centre in the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, the Copenhagen Zoo, the Department of Biology and Centre for Permafrost at the University of Copenhagen, and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.

Musk ox fibres or Qiviut fibres are a down fibre which means it is the undercoat : no buttocks hair for you all !! LOL

The great thing about working with these fibres is that they spin like magic and they are amazingly warm as well. You only need 10% to make a difference in a blend. I have added 25% in the TUNDRA blend and it is AWESOME!!

So, here’s my first December fluff offereing for you to you: a huge thank you to all of you who support our little fibre farm and support rare breeds and research to save our planet with heart : Big Fluffy Hugs to all ! And, Happy Creating !!!!

Please let me know if you have any questions okay? If you like to order some of what you see here on tonight’s blog, just message me on ravelry or facebook or send me an email. I will get right back to you with all the details. Happy Snaffling !!!!

Special IxCHeL Gift Vouchers

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 The Giftvouchere will be emailed to you or your friend with a unique number to quote when buying from my updates or at any of my markets. The Vouchers are valid for 1 year. Here’s the deal:

AU$25 Personalised Christmas giftvoucher Pack

A personalised Christmas giftvoucher, free post for the receivers first order in Australia (for overseas customers you can deduct AU$9 off your shipping cost!) and a badge

AU$50 Personalised Christmas giftvoucher Pack

Comes with a personalised Christmas giftvoucher, free post for the receiver's first order in Australia(for overseas customers you can deduct AU&9 off your shipping cost!) , 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 (for overseas customers you can deduct AU$9 off your shipping cost!), a badge, a bunny photo and last but not least some amazing fluffy stuff and yarn in a gift pack!

Just let me know what giftvoucher pack you would like to gift to a friend or yourself! And I will send you all the details.