Friday, July 5, 2019

Fibre of Emperors

Vicuna in the Ecuadorian Highlands

Bendigo sheep and wool show, or as I like to call it “The Ultimate Splurge Weekend of the year”, is only two weeks away !!! the dyepots and me have been busy, lots of fluff is braided and labelled already, even custom orders have been finished (well almost all of them) and packing of all the bags and tubs for safe transport to the show grounds is almost done as well.

I only have three more blends to dye but, like I mentioned in earlier blogposts, due to the unfortunate encounter with the kitchenbench and floor and the subsequent diagnosis of the electrical faults in my heart, I have been taking it a lot easier. I had to, because let’s face it, unlike all the years before where I totally ignored myself, I can’t ignore the fact this year that the only motor I have is being naughty and I …just….can’t. It was a huge slap in the face. Not that I needed that with my concussion due to the benchtop, but for someone like me who was always on the go go go!!!! , to recognize that I can’t go-go-go at lightning speed anymore was a bit of a shock (understatement of the year..lol).

The bruises have all gone, the internal bruising on my hip bone is still lingering though and the doc says that will take a while to heal. I feel less like a modernist painting now though, so that helps immensely.
The hospital is so far behind and has a huge backlog so the cardiology department tells me, so chances are extremely slim that the heart operation will be before Bendigo or at the same time of the Bendigo show.

A totally positive thing is that my skyrocketing blood pressure is now under control!!! A big hoorah for that one !! I am now a mere 128/90 which is a huge improvement from the extra terrestrial reading I had before of 199+ / 145. It’s a wonder I didn’t explode ..lol

So, the short of it is, I will be at the Bendigo show again this year with my ears on as usual, although my friends tell me they’ll strap me to a chair to keep me quiet. Yeah right, I can just see that happening ….lol

 Thank you so much to all of you who sent me messages and offered their help ! I cannot thank you enough !

 Like I said before, I will have less stock overall, but there will be amazing treasures to be found and I am doing my ultimate to make this Bendigo Show a stand out ! By the way, I did a calculation and it is my 14th year at the Bendigo Show !!!!! How amazing is that??!!!!! Still here, still hopping, still enabling and still having fun with fluffy stuff !

There will be an awesome selection of very different fibres and yarns available and to make it easier for all I will have an IxCHeL Shopping list on next weeks Friday blog ! I cut it a bit too close to get the list ready and besides, there are a few things I am still adding ! So don’t miss next weeks blog !!!

For this Friday I thought I would share a rare blend : A vicuna blend that is so amazing you have to feel it to believe it ! I was going to only show it off at the Bendigo show, but I do not want anybody not going to miss out on an opportunity to play with this fibre so I have a very limited amount available for you tonight. Here is what the Vicuna is all about : The Vicuna belongs to the camelid family, like the alpaca and the guanaco, but lives in the wild at an altitude of more than 4000 meters above sea level. You can find vicunas from as far north as Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. The vicuna is the smallest of the 4 south American camelids (Vicuna, guanaco, alpaca and llama). The colour of their fibre is caramel in colour with a white bib below their face. Their height is between 1 to 1.3 meters and they weigh approximately 35 to 40 kilos. Their fibres are classified as one of the most finest in the world with a micron count of appr 9 to 12micron with a staple length of about 3cms. You can find the vicuna in three kinds of social groups: the polygamous groups with 1 male and 10 females; a group of males and then there are the solitary males. The gestation period for vicunas is about 10 to 11 months.

a small herd of  male vicunas

Centuries ago, the Inca harvested prized vicuña fibre by harmlessly shearing the animals, which they considered sacred. The exquisitely soft but ultra-warm garments created from vicuña wool were reserved for rulers/emperors, under threat of death for violators.

When the Spanish arrived, they were equally entranced by the fibres, but in keeping with their violent conquest of the Incan Empire in the 16th century, they simply killed vicuñas to access their wool. That method persisted until the 1960s, when just 10,000 vicuñas remained.

Realizing that the species was in danger of imminent extinction, conservationists and vicuña range-state governments began scrambling to save it; first by protecting the animals and outlawing trade in their wool; then in the 1990s and 2000s, by launching programs that harkened back to the old way of doing things: introducing community-led efforts to harmlessly and sustainably shear vicuñas and manage populations.

At first, the plan seemed to be working. Locals worked together to harvest the wool, which they then used to make handicrafts or sold to textile companies in Italy, Scotland and Japan. “The program started quite well, but for the past 15 years we’ve discovered a series of fundamental problems,” says Cristian Bonacic, currently a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and permanently based at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
Communities working directly with vicuñas, most of which are extremely poor, currently receive little profit for all their effort — “the smallest piece of the pie,” says Daniel Elias Maydana, a technical advisor for the National Association of Vicuña Fibre Producers who works in Bolivia and northern Argentina. “The money obtained from managing vicuñas is important, but it’s certainly not sufficient to lift families out of poverty.”

In 2014, for example, Peru exported 10 tons of vicuña fibre to Italy, for which all Peruvian communities combined received a grand total of $250,000. “That is ridiculously small,” Bonacic says.
A single coat, using just two kilos (4.4 pounds) of wool, can cost $50,000, he says, meaning that the fashion industry’s revenue from just five garments can equal the entire earnings that the whole of Peru’s vicuña-producing communities sees in a year.

Another tit-bit of information: there was even a political scandal called the “Vicuna coat Affair”: In 1958, Sherman Adams, President Dwight Eisenhower's forceful chief of staff, was one of Washington's most influential men. His career, however, ended abruptly after he accepted an overcoat from a textile magnate under federal investigation. The gift might seem innocuous enough, but the coat in question was made of vicuña—an incredibly soft, light, rare and very expensive yarn. It was alleged that Mr. Adams, swayed by such luxurious gifts, subsequently tried to influence federal agencies on the magnate's behalf. Despite the politico's protestations of innocence, he resigned in a scandal that some dubbed the Vicuña Coat Affair.

Now, the silky vicuna fibre sits at the nose-bleed-high pinnacle of tailored luxury. Each year, only 13,000 to 17,500 pounds of vicuña become available. The Italian tailoring house Kiton makes only about 100 vicuña pieces a year; an off-the-rack sport coat costs at least US$21,000, while the price of a made-to-measure suit starts at US$40,000. A single vicuña scarf is about US$4,000. There are only 30 vicuña suits produced per year. Each is numbered, and the most affordable model goes for US$46,500.
Handspun and handwoven vicuna and cashmere scarf, the price to the end consumer US$17.000 ,
the reward given to artists and poor communities ensuring the ethical shearing of vicunas:
 a tiny, tiny fraction . spin and weave your own ethically 

In 2008, a high end Italian fashion house established an eight-square-mile reserve to study the animals. And earlier this year, the company took a controlling stake in Sanin SA, an Argentinean firm that has the rights to shear around 6,000 wild vicuña living on a 328-square-mile territory in the country's Catamarca province. It's part of it's long-term strategy to establish large reserves where the local people can protect, breed and shear vicuña ethically.

Vicuñas are now listed as a species of “Least Concern” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but most experts agree that there is cause for concern. Vicuña populations now hover at 400,000 to 500,000 animals, but their numbers have remained stagnant or — in the case of Chile — declined over the past two decades.

“It’s true that populations are large, but they’re far less than the 7 to 8 million that we should have,” Bonacic says. “I seriously think that if poaching continues to increase, some populations may go extinct.”

As in everything in this world, we as consumers and fibre artists have to be aware of where the fibre comes from but more than anything to realise that everything comes at a price: there is no way that handpicked, hand carded, fibres of a rare breed that is carefully hand sheared can be offered with low prices.

What we see happening all over the world is that the wealthy end consumer pays a huge amount of money of which only a tiny fraction goes to the preservation and the maintaining of the natural habitat and the poor communities that live off the land. We all have to be conscious that this attitude has to change.

I have been trying to do my bit with bringing rare breeds to you and trying to tell you the story of how important it is to preserve and protect. You may think how can 1 person change something? But I truly believe you can. We all can make a change together. So with this story of this truly royal and exquisite animal, I offer you a magnificent blend. Do your bit and help this amazing animal survive and make life better for numerous poor communities who are doing the right thing.

 All my contact details and HOW TO ORDER can to be found at the end of this week’s blog entry. 




IxCHeL Vicuna Blend

Vicuna (40%), Muga Silk (30%) and Exquisite light brown Australian cashmere (30%) All hand blended with great care


25-28grams AU$60




A beautiful Vicuna blend gift packaged in a box or a gorgeous organza bag.


More and more people are telling me they absolutely love working with the IxCHeL Tweed yarns. There will be lots of photos after the Bendigo show and I am working on some more colours as well !! More on that later in the month. If you want to see more photos please go to my facebook or Instagram pages.


IxCHeL Tweed fingering weight yarn

Super soft lambswool 70% and Kid Mohair 30%

Spun singles, fingering or sock weight yarn

+/- 200meters/218yards

50grams      1.76oz

AU$16



Wattle
(A beautiful sunshine yellow that goes so well with the kookaburra the silver grey)


Kata Tjuta
(an intense pure red that goes well with the Kookaburra and the Wattle and the Amethyst colourway and soooooomany others)




Amethyst
(a bright purple colourway with bright red flecks)




Kookaburra
(a beautiful silver grey with ochre accents that complement the dingo colourway)


Dingo
( A beautiful warm honey ochre with pops of royal bluebell, kingfisher and kangaroo paw)



Grevillea
(a gorgeous raspberry base with pops of royal bluebell, flowering gum, grey and daintree)




Flowering Gum
( a gorgeous medieval warm red with bright red, kookaburra and fern forest accents)





Fern Forest
( a deep forest green with accents of bright red, dusky purple and daintree) )







Jacarandah 
( a fabulous deep purple with accents of royal bluebell, daintree, grevillea and kingfisher )





Wombat
( a fabulous deep walnut brown with accents of dingo and kookaburra)




Kangaroo Paw 
( a fabulous warm orange with accents of fern forest, royal bluebell and grevillea and dingo )



isn’t it gorgeous how the Kangaroo paw knits up?! )






Royal Bluebell 
( a deep blue with accents of flowering gum, kookaburra and fern forest )




Wallaby
( a warm light brown with accents of soft blue and kookaburra)





Daintree ( a soft green with accents of fern forest and dingo)





Kingfisher 
( a fabulous Turquoise blue with accents of fern forest, kangaroo paw, Jacaranda and Grevillea)




Pm me if you would like to give some of these amazing new IxCHeL Tweed yarns or the Buddhas tears tea a good home or if you want to sign up for the IxCHeL Clubs ! Enjoy looking and have a fun weekend !

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 week’s blog entry. 


IxCHeL Buddhas tears tea

carefully packed and presented in a special organza gift bag

50g/ AU$19

Two organically grown superior green tea leaves and a jasmine bud are plucked from the best quality tea bushes and mixed with delicately smelling jasmine blossoms, then sieved and hand rolled on bamboo trays, into small balls while the leaves are not quite dry. 

The leaf captures the fine jasmine aroma and releases it during brewing, giving a champagne coloured cup. 

 Brewing: 1-3 minutes 75-80degC , 

 4 pearls/cup, 

you can reinfuse 3-4 times so those 4 pearls last a looong time



Carefully handrolled tea



Enjoy the tea over and over again, by adding hot water again and again



All my contact details are here:





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 week’s blog entry. 
Have a fun weekend !!!

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.



Dates to put in your Calendar


Friday July 19th to Sunday July 21st 

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, Turkish spindles, Navajo and Mayan spindles, Turkish spindles and needle cases to distaffs, and something amazing  for spinners and knitters.

Get ready for a fabulous weekend filled with lots of craft and fun !!!








 RABBIT ON !
((hugs))
Charly
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Beautiful yarns, and fabulous that you know what is causing your health to be less than optimal.