Max, Smoke grey English angora
Thanks for your patience! Todays internet connection was so slow and it took every single ounce of me not to throw our router out of the window....IMaybe today was my friday the 13th of last week..LOL Last Friday the 13th went by without a glitch (phew) , life has gone on without major catastrophes here and , dare I say it, filled with getting lots of fibres and yarns dyed, spinning up a storm to get as many fluffy bunny and other handspun yarns done before the biggest yarn event of the year in May. It is one of those times that I am both filled with happy anticipation and a complete fear and dread. Hear me out.
A wise person once told me that doubt is wisdom. Never be too sure of yourself or become a know it all, never become so confident that what ever you do, thee is no consequence of your action because hey, everything is going to be great anyway, so why bother. If you become too over confident, I always think that there is less care, everything becomes dreary and automatic…and you lose interest until the next best thing comes along and then the whole scenario starts again. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of people in a lot of different scenarios. Safe to say, I have no problem at all with under estimating anything and doubt is a major part of my daily existence. It has been for a long time.
As an outsider from the moment I arrived, I never had the luxury to feel part of a group, be popular or was able to identify with a club. I was never part of a club at school or at University. As Groucho Marx once said “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”…I never had to refuse but it sounds good…lol Anyway, I digress.
What I am trying to say as an “intro” to this weeks update is, that a bit of doubt is good to make decisions and find your way.; A lot of doubt is not. Recently I have had a lot of doubt. Not necessarily because of what I do, but because of the , let’s just call it “rewards”, meaning the wage I earn. As a craft business/artist/designer/whatever , it may come as a big surprise to you, but the pay is lousy. The reward dealing with people can be amazing though and doing what you want to do is out of this world. However, bills need to be paid and , believe it or not, creating everything and trying to sell it , is not earning me a big “wage”. Paul and I have not had a holiday for over 13 years (unless you count 2 days away in Gippsland twice)..lol I do not indulge in buying anything much at all and we are trying to be as self sustainable as possible. In short, we do not spend a lot. Which makes it easy when sales are slow and you have to survive on half the minimum wage or less. The work load has not diminished though. It has increased lots. Part of it is that I am putting myself under a lot of pressure and not having price increases since I started. (I am so not a smart business person LOL) . Trying to get new fibre blends together, new rare sheep breeds together and new yarn line collaborations up and running takes a lot of investment and a lot of time. I have fun doing that but with every decision comes that doubt creeping in “Will people want it? What colours do people want? How do I compete with the gazillion of others out there? It is a tough world no matter what business you are in. The main problem I have had in the last few years is that I started to look at it in a business kind of way. Meaning, market studies, seeing what others were doing, comparing, social media,…honestly it was doing my head in. I was getting tired. Very tired. IAnd even now, I am often on the brink of exhaustion. If I wasn;’t that stubborn, I probably would have stopped My attitude had to change so start of this year I changed my perspective. Until this year. I have stopped comparing. I felt it was putting so much pressure and even more doubt into my actions than was necessary. I started what I was doing because I was passionate about it. I loved dyeing and painting. My enthusiasm and creativity were boundless. Comparisons are useless. All these market studies that I am seeing on social media, all those people trying to look for information out there to make sure they are making the right decision are in themselves fabulous in a micro sense of a way but in the end you have to be led by one thing and one thing alone: Being yourself ! That means that you will have a unique product: You. It means that it will have your way of looking and creating on it, your stamp so to speak. Being creative does not mean that you have to compare yourself to others. Being creative means you are different. And being different means that you are not someone else or can be compared to anybody else. You can doubt your decisions or, to say it differently, be critical about what you do, but that is an action that is internal: it is between you and yourself, not you and others. So, what I am trying to say I guess is : Be creative, Have fun and do it your way.
I have been dyeing up a storm again, and I started to see my yarns (because I am preparing for te handknitters guild day in May) as a canvas and started to layer colours on my yarns as if I was working with water colours. It takes a LOT of work but I so like the look of it. More on that in next weeks blog
For tonight’s update there are Cashmere fling tops on offer ! A super soft blend that spins like butter I always say and has a drape that is out of this world! Have fun snaffling up some of tonight’s offers and remember: Every time you buy from a small business or a farm you are not only getting something unique and hand made but you are supporting so much more !
A wise person once told me that doubt is wisdom. Never be too sure of yourself or become a know it all, never become so confident that what ever you do, thee is no consequence of your action because hey, everything is going to be great anyway, so why bother. If you become too over confident, I always think that there is less care, everything becomes dreary and automatic…and you lose interest until the next best thing comes along and then the whole scenario starts again. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of people in a lot of different scenarios. Safe to say, I have no problem at all with under estimating anything and doubt is a major part of my daily existence. It has been for a long time.
As an outsider from the moment I arrived, I never had the luxury to feel part of a group, be popular or was able to identify with a club. I was never part of a club at school or at University. As Groucho Marx once said “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”…I never had to refuse but it sounds good…lol Anyway, I digress.
What I am trying to say as an “intro” to this weeks update is, that a bit of doubt is good to make decisions and find your way.; A lot of doubt is not. Recently I have had a lot of doubt. Not necessarily because of what I do, but because of the , let’s just call it “rewards”, meaning the wage I earn. As a craft business/artist/designer/whatever , it may come as a big surprise to you, but the pay is lousy. The reward dealing with people can be amazing though and doing what you want to do is out of this world. However, bills need to be paid and , believe it or not, creating everything and trying to sell it , is not earning me a big “wage”. Paul and I have not had a holiday for over 13 years (unless you count 2 days away in Gippsland twice)..lol I do not indulge in buying anything much at all and we are trying to be as self sustainable as possible. In short, we do not spend a lot. Which makes it easy when sales are slow and you have to survive on half the minimum wage or less. The work load has not diminished though. It has increased lots. Part of it is that I am putting myself under a lot of pressure and not having price increases since I started. (I am so not a smart business person LOL) . Trying to get new fibre blends together, new rare sheep breeds together and new yarn line collaborations up and running takes a lot of investment and a lot of time. I have fun doing that but with every decision comes that doubt creeping in “Will people want it? What colours do people want? How do I compete with the gazillion of others out there? It is a tough world no matter what business you are in. The main problem I have had in the last few years is that I started to look at it in a business kind of way. Meaning, market studies, seeing what others were doing, comparing, social media,…honestly it was doing my head in. I was getting tired. Very tired. IAnd even now, I am often on the brink of exhaustion. If I wasn;’t that stubborn, I probably would have stopped My attitude had to change so start of this year I changed my perspective. Until this year. I have stopped comparing. I felt it was putting so much pressure and even more doubt into my actions than was necessary. I started what I was doing because I was passionate about it. I loved dyeing and painting. My enthusiasm and creativity were boundless. Comparisons are useless. All these market studies that I am seeing on social media, all those people trying to look for information out there to make sure they are making the right decision are in themselves fabulous in a micro sense of a way but in the end you have to be led by one thing and one thing alone: Being yourself ! That means that you will have a unique product: You. It means that it will have your way of looking and creating on it, your stamp so to speak. Being creative does not mean that you have to compare yourself to others. Being creative means you are different. And being different means that you are not someone else or can be compared to anybody else. You can doubt your decisions or, to say it differently, be critical about what you do, but that is an action that is internal: it is between you and yourself, not you and others. So, what I am trying to say I guess is : Be creative, Have fun and do it your way.
I have been dyeing up a storm again, and I started to see my yarns (because I am preparing for te handknitters guild day in May) as a canvas and started to layer colours on my yarns as if I was working with water colours. It takes a LOT of work but I so like the look of it. More on that in next weeks blog
For tonight’s update there are Cashmere fling tops on offer ! A super soft blend that spins like butter I always say and has a drape that is out of this world! Have fun snaffling up some of tonight’s offers and remember: Every time you buy from a small business or a farm you are not only getting something unique and hand made but you are supporting so much more !
IxCHeL Cashmere Fling Tops
100 grams AU$23
Cashmere, Bamboo, nylon glitz, tencel
Cashmere, Bamboo, nylon glitz, tencel
Autumn in a twist
Gothic Cherry Blossom
Berry Pink
Heather
Indigo Shibori
Indigo Velvet
Lichen on a Tin Roof
Love and Cuddles
Pastel Petals
Purple People Eater 
Sage and Savvy
Unicorn Milk
Peacock
Pink Panther
Pink Rebel
Velvet
Water Dragon
Winter Garden
Zen
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 also to be found at the end of this week’s blog entry.
Have a Creative and Fun week!
All my contact details are here:
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
3. Message me on www.ravelry.com where I am ixchelbunny.
4. message me on Instagram 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.
2. Message me on facebook or
3. Message me on www.ravelry.com where I am ixchelbunny.
4. message me on Instagram 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.
Dates to put in your Calendar
SUNDAY MAY 13TH 10AM – 3PM
HANDKNITTERS GUILD OF VICTORIA YARN AND FIBRE SHOWCOBURG TOWN HALL
BELL STREET , COBURG, 3058
A fabulous day filled with lots of yarn and fibre goodies and spindles, bowls and lots more !
An amazing day out !
Hope to see you there !
You can find the IxCHeL Stall and wall of colourful yarns and fibre at stall nr 1 and 2 at the front entrance. You can’t miss us !
Friday July 20th to Sunday July 22nd ;
Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Bendigo.Go to http://www.sheepshow.com to see what is happening and book your tickets. The Bendigo Sheep and Wool show is the biggest wool show in Australia ! with an amazing amount of woolcraft, indie dyers, a huge amount of tops, yarn, craft, felt and spindles, spinning wheels and anything you need for your knitting,crocheting and crafting.
I will be there with an amazing amount of new exclusive wool blends and yarns, batts, felt and landscape and botanical natural dyes and so much more !!!
I will also have spindles by the amazing Bearded Dragon and lots of fibre tools as well from darning mushrooms to noste pinne and needle cases to distaffs. And, there will also be Turkish spindles from my friend Scott Snyder of offer again !
Get ready for a fabulous weekend filled with lots of craft and fun !!!
RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly
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