Jingle, Jangle Creative Holidays

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That time of year is coming closer and closer: Christmas holidays. It’s the time where I feel extremely conflicted about whether to down tools, relax and start cooking and baking -a lot- or…feeling guilty about downing tools and not working. So, this year, I am compromising. During the holidays I will keep on working but at a much s.l.o.w.e.r. pace! What a brilliant idea! I have no idea how it will work, but at least I won’t have to battle my inner demons telling me it cannot possibly be right to just sit down and read a book, while sipping a cocktail.  Mind you, I may change tactics, depending on a lot of extenuating circumstances, like the ultimate heatwave hitting our shores, predicting over 40 to 45degree heat. I’m aiming to be eh..adaptable…and not get myself in a tangled mess. Maya Angelou said it best : “I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled yarn and Christmas tree lights.”

The absolute hectic mayhem of the twelve days of Christmas fundraiser event has passed and I have started cleaning up, organising dye pigments, plants, fibres and yarns, ready to create another bit of mayhem in the next few weeks.

I thought it would be a great idea to start something I have never really down before while having this website and that is create a “pre order”. I am not doing this lightly. Things like this can be fraught with danger, but since I have been doing clubs and been in business since 2004 I think the chances of me doing a “Bankman-Fried” will be highly unlikely. The most important thing the launch of this website, back in August, has taught me, is that it is tremendously important to plan ahead. Not only for myself and my dyeing schedule but also to minimise the amount of disappointment to all of you by not being able to offer enough. So,  the weather forecast saying that it is going to be warm and sunny, I thought it was a brilliant idea to start the natural dye process, which takes a long, long time. I normally only have time to do these natural dyeing and eco printing sessions once or twice a year. Since the last few years have proven to be super hectic, I thought I’d take the plunge this holiday season. All the leaves, bark, dye pigments have been collected, dye baths will start next week and they will take about two weeks to “ferment” and dye the yarns. 
I am offering you three types of yarn bases and all the information on which dye plants are going to be used are mentioned on the listing in the section “what’s new” and the pre order listing.

Here are some photos from previous dye baths, together with some knitted examples. 

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All the pre ordered eco printed yarns will be shipped out to all who ordered in early January ♥️

Which brings me to the next part: the art journey clubs for 2023! All the prep work for those will need to be done during my “holidays” as well 🤣 so club sign ups will need to be finalised by the 30th of December at the latest to give me much needed time.

Here is an overview of what the 2021 clubs looked like. Revisiting them and making these little compilations sure was fun. 2023 will be filled with lots of colourful, interesting and mesmerising art works as inspiration as well !

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 I hear what you’re thinking: well, that doesn’t sound like a holiday to me…lol.  If you had seen me running around like an absolute mad hatter out of Alice in Wonderland over the last year, compared to the more eh…gentle pace I am going to go at over the next two weeks 😉 

Now, before I let you go and browse the website and the pre order eco print yarns offer, i will take a short break from blogging til January 20th. The online  shop will remain open and more importantly, new items will be added at regular intervals to keep stock levels up and of course to tempt you.

2023 will bring lots of new fibre and yarn adventures, new colourways and fabulous new lair of the bearded dragon spindles, bowls and much much more! So exciting !!

I cannot thank you all enough for all the support and amazing friendship you have shown both Paul and myself this year! We are super grateful ♥️ Without you, we would not be able to do what we do. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, Kwanzaa and happy holiday season filled with lots of fun and creativity. 

May 2023 bring you lots of new adventures, colour, happiness;

May your yarns never tangle and everything you create be worn with a big smile ♥️

Keep making, keep smiling;  do what you love and do it often ♥️

Big Hugs,

Charly

 

Going round and round

 

It’s that time of year where I can have a little breather, take up my knitting and spinning, and create new adventures for a new year! All this year’s art journey club productions are done, major shop updates for this year are nearing their end with next Friday, December 23rd being the last blog for this year AND the twelve days of Christmas event is over, shipped and a big donation has been taken care of ♥️

Thanks to all who have enthusiastically shown their support for the IxCHeL 12 days of Christmas fundraiser event, we have been able to donate a pretty substantial amount ! 

We cannot thank you enough ♥️♥️♥️ You are all AMAZING !

Now, what to do now? After all the hectic excitement??!! And…ALL the Christmas parcel packing of all the orders! 🎁

It’s time to breathe and take stock (Paul  is  doing that literally atm) before Some major baking, relaxing, spinning, reading and knitting time off.  Mind you, with the website being there and automated as it is, we decided to keep the shop open. I mean, yarn and fibres and spindles are essential products right? 😉 plus, since we are not exactly going on a holiday anywhere like on a tropical island being brought fancy cocktails with little umbrellas  in them, we might as well be there for all of our super loyal people who have shown us so much support during the last years. We love you all ♥️

There may be some delays shipping when you order now until New year, but that will not be because we are lounging about, but because post offices will close on certain days during the holiday period and Australia Post is not known for its super expedient, super sonic shipping times. If you have any questions, requests or anything else on your mind, we want you to know we are here for you, so send us an email or a message on our social media and we’ll do our best to help and enable.

A word of warning: I will not be dyeing every day and I will not have a dye production going on with a 100kilos a week. My body needs a rest 🤣 

So, what will I be doing? Hmmm, as usual I have a mountain of books I want to read. They’re all waiting, in a huge pile and I’m probably very, very ambitious, again…lol

Finish my knitting …well SOME of my knitting projects! I have a “Kate Davies Pattern Treit” short sleeved treat jumper already (see photo) , but I desperately wanted a long sleeved version, because you know, it’s summer here and I am still wearing a jumper..yesterday it was 5degrees Celsius 🥶 Besides, wearing a hand knitted  jumper is like getting a hugs all day♥️

I absolutely love the IxCHeL tweed “have fun storming the castle”  so I decided, hey why not! A little quirky inside information here: if I really like something : a pair of shoes, clothing, I get at least two…or more in different colours 🤣

Here is the link to the “have fun storming the castle” yarn:

If you like your coloured tweed speckles a bit less bright, you can also choose Grevillea 

Almost finished 😃

 

So, what’s NEW on the website tonight? The Bearded Dragon aka Paul has been busy ! Super busy! Ther are some amazing drop spindles : Bottom whorl and top whorl spindles with semi precious stone inlay and without plus fabulous Tibetan support spindles ! Looking to gift yourself something special for Christmas , or somebody else? To gift a stone in,any spindle is better than a diamond ring..well, that’s my opinion, but that’s only because I can’t afford a diamond ring and you can’t spin yarn with one of them anyway 😜

Your can find the new spindles in the What’s New section here 

if you have not signed up for the IxCHeL Art Journey Clubs for the next round of January, February and March 2023 round, please have a look.

There are still batts, yarn and fibre clubs available and sign ups will be open til December 30th or until quotas are reached. So, don’t wait too long ! I will be posting an overview of what the 2022 Art Journey Clubs looked like plus their inspiration artworks on next week’s blog ♥️

Have lots of fun exploring the IxCHeL shop and most of all: crafting and having FUN !

big hugs

Charly & Paul

Busy Bunny Christmas Elves

  

December is always a super busy month for us and doing a twelve days of Christmas fundraiser event just adds a totally extra dimension to everything! Organising, braiding, labelling, Christmas paper packaging, not to mention hopping to the post office at warp speed every day with a load of special parcels.  I could not do this without Paul ! While I do the organising of what is going to be offered on which day and make sure it is ready so there’s no mad scramble or panic…lol, Paul is doing an absolutely amazing job parceling everything up, writing emails for customers who have questions shipping wise, checks the payments and does all the fabulous organising of the stash parcels as well. The whole studio is starting to look not only like Santa’s workshop but it is filling up with a mountain of parcels waiting to ship out. Having the website up is definitely helping because so much is automated, but there is still so, so much that needs to be done of course. I think after the twelve days of Christmas, the Friday updates and all the custom orders have been shipped next week, we both will need two weeks of sleep 🤣

There is definitely no rest yet for us though : today’s update is rearing to go up at 8pm AEDT and there are THREE more 12days of Christmas event coming! To say it’s busy would be an understatement 🤣
I hope you can join me at 8pm when the new smoochy restock update of a  rare sheep breed blend will go live on the IxCHeL website (you can find that in the what’s new section here : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new 

The rare sheep breed is the cute Soay sheep in the exclusive IxCHeL outlander blend. To read all about the rare sheep breed you can go to my blog of September 23rd here on the website.

But wait! There’s more !

All the December clubs were shipped out end of November so now it is time to show you the clubs!

This being the December club was the last one of the year and the subscription, so if you were a member of the October, November, December club, please go to the club section on the website and join up for the next club period January, February, March 2023 ♥️ It is going to another amazing year of Art Journey inspirational fibres and yarn ♥️
Please let me know if you have any questions or requests! If you want to have a combination of any of the three clubs on offer : yarn and fibre and batt, I can manually do that for you and send you all the information and save you big time on shipping.

Have a fabulous weekend, happy browsing and  ♥️ thank you so, so much for all your wonderful support♥️

Big hugs
Charly

It’s buzzing here !

 

It is all happening here : November clubs have shipped just on time before the the overseas Australia post deadlines on November 28th, immediately everything went in overdrive here to get all the 12 days of Christmas and dye lots more fibre for updates and custom orders, plus custom spinning as well. It’s all extremely exciting !

in the meantime I get asked lots of questions, among other things how I decide what colourways to dye or how I combine colours. I that is a hard one because it is all extremely personal. It depends on my mood or state of mind, the light, nature all around me and the amazing wildlife surrounding me. Little things. And all that light and colours all are translated in my brain to create a combination of “all the things”, “all the moods”, “all the experiences”. There is no good or bad way to translate anything how you see it. It’s you, it is your experience and your vision. There are rules that art school teaches you about tonal values and warmth etc but as I have always said, you read the rule book, take it to heart, throw it out and do things anyway. It’s good to know the rules, but it’s even better to flaunt them. You might wind up with something horrible but at the same time you may see that the way you “threw things together” reflects exactly what you saw. It’s personal. And if you’re lucky, the personal will resonate with lots more other people who look at things maybe in the same light as you do. Some others may say it’s hideous, but “beauty is always in the eye of the beholder”. Beauty is never absolute. Beauty is always personal, emotional and subjective. 
theer was a time in the dark days of the last century that people tried to define beauty, attach mathematical rules to it, try to capture it objectively according to their view, but right there is the problem: THEIR view. 

I’m going out on a limb here but I like boobies…no not those ones, although I have to say, I do like them as well…lol that’s a totally other question before I get banned from all social media for “impropriety” as if we were still living in Victorian times…or the “now” where boobies are frowned upon but ak-47 guns and war is thrown onto our retinas as if it was an advertisement for a breakfast cereal. Anyway, I digress…lol. You know em by now, this happens all the time, I veer off the path and then, hopefully, will join the conversation I started with at the beginning..where was I? Lol

oh yeah…boobies 🤣

Yeah, that’s what I mean ! 

December has hit full on, the temperatures are rising here in the Southern Hemisphere, no snow warnings anymore, and Christmas is coming! This also means the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS event is on again! We are already two days in and two special offers have already been on sale and there are ten more days to go and oh wow!!! Is it going to be super exciting !!

it’s no use telling you that it is beyond hectic here! 
I also have to say that I am a bit under the weather…not physically (I am one of the lucky ones not having had Covid……yet) but my back and hips are killing me and I have lost my best friend…well, not exactly lost, but she moved to the other side of the world and it kinda hit me last night when I had to say goodbye..  I know, I know! It’s just a airplane flight away, but people, I have not gone anywhere in the last three years, not even … well…hardly anywhere.. always,work work work, keeping my head down, doing my thing and probably putting my head in the sand. You know the easy way… i am afraid I am starting to develop a bit of a phobia of going anywhere, so I am going to make some changes in the next year! I am going out there, going places, trying not to be in my bubble and work ALL THE TIME.

I don’t know how it’s going to work, but I will try and see where it takes me. 
The last years have not been easy on anybody. Some have gone through the most traumatic times of their lives. Some have discovered how to adapt. Some have retreated (me, and that’s saying something because i was a hermit before this whole thing started…lol). But change is sometimes a good thing. Learn something new and …we’ll, maybe be crap at it, but at least try.

Life is short..we may as well have as much fun as we can and put a bit of a challenge in at the same time.

yeah ! Yeah! I see what your doing, mr booby! (Aren’t they the funniest 🤣)

I hope you will be enjoying the 12 days of Christmas event : please follow my posts on Instagram and Facebook and an update every day at 12 pm AEDT  10% of all sales of the 12 days of Christmas event will go to Zoos Victoria Healesville for their amazing effort to save rare breeds and wildlife.

Enjoy tonight’s update!

Here is the link to all the new exciting things here https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

big hugs

Charly

Time for some happy fluff and cute sheep !

Make today Happy !

The weather is still totally wet but today was bright and a bit sunny , so that was a nice change and helping with getting the clubs dry. I had been planning to get all the December clubs out today, but the weather was against me PLUS my hip and back are totally killing me still, making it hard to sleep or stand or walk for that matter…. Not to worry! I can still make the overseas Christmas delivery deadline which is November 29th !!! I am going to have all the batts ready and everything braided, labelled and packed over the weekend, so that makes it shipping date Monday November 28th ! Yeah !!! That means everybody overseas will get their special December club parcel before Christmas! Lots of extra fun stuff will be in the December club parcel as well but…I am not giving anything away yet ! SURPRISE! Here’s a teaser label of the December club:

Talking about Clubs : The November clubs were shipped a couple of weeks ago so I guess it is time to show you what that November club looks like ! Don't forget to share your photos ! I always love seeing what everybody is making !

Don’t forget: the next round of IxCHeL Art Journey clubs start in January ! To sign up , please go to : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs And remember: if you would like a combination of fibre or yarn or batt clubs, contact me at hop@ixchel.com.au because a combination of different clubs together which will be shipped out together will have a better shipping rate than individual clubs. This also goes for all the overseas customers: you can have all three of your clubs shipped out together to save on shipping costs! Although I am running a bit behind because of weather and health issues, I am really trying my best to get a bit ahead of the game so to speak. Who needs sleep right? LOLOL

There will only be three more new product shop updates left before Paul and myself take a much needed break. BUT!!! You know what all will be happening from December 1st til December 12th : THE IXCHEL TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVENT OF THE YEAR !!!

In those twelve days, EVERY DAY !  I will be offering lots of new & special items at super special prices for you AND also 10% of all sales go to a charity (the last few years I fundraised for endangered Animals and our Healesville Sanctuary/Zoos Victoria who have been doing an amazing job especially after the many bushfires in Victoria the last few years). The 12days of Christmas event is not only a gift to say thank you to all my patrons but also a gift to an organisation saving endangered wildlife. It is goi8ng to be so much FUN !! and!!! Every day the update is going to be at 12PM AEDT (that’s noon..lol ), which means that it is not a 4am start for those of you in the USA !!!

There are going to be more details on a later blog closer to the date on how its all going to work, so keep an eye out !

What is going to be happening tonight I hear you say? Well, tonight is all about the cutest little sheep you have ever seen: the Ouessant from France. Also known as the smallest sheep in the world. They are immensely cute and very, very spinnable!

The blend is a Ouessant/Blue Faced Leicester/Mulberry Silk blend that is so smoochy and soft and fluffy you have to try it ! The different colours in all the fleeces blended together made a gorgeous base to dye on and resulted in amazing tonal values of the dyed tops. 

I love dyeing tops that have different coloured fleeces in them: it is magical ! 

Located 12 miles off the French coast in the Sea of Iroise, the island of Ouessant (or Ushant in English) is the original homeland of Ouessant Sheep.

Ouessant sheep are the most primitive of the native French breeds. For centuries, they were raised in isolation on the island where they played an integral part of the self-sufficient closed economy, providing both wool and meat. By the end of the 18th century there were over 6,000 sheep on the island of Ouessant. But economic improvements along with a move toward modernization at the beginning of the 19th century radically changed the future prospects of this small primitive breed. Fortunately, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a number of wealthy families imported small numbers of traditional Ouessant sheep to the French mainland to graze the lands around their estates.

Ultimately, this seemingly insignificant event insured the survival of the breed. Today, Ouessant sheep are sought after both as companion animals and as “environmentally-friendly lawn mowers”.

They have also gained a certain amount of popularity in several different European countries : Most notably Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

A member of the Northern European Short-Tailed breeds, Ouessant sheep are distant cousins of the Shetland and Icelandic breeds. The two most distinctive features of Ouessant sheep are their size and their colour.

Considered by many to be the smallest breed of sheep in the world, adult ewes measure less than 18″ (46cm) at the shoulders and rams are under 20″ (50cm).

Additionally, Ouessant sheep come in a number of different colors : Including black, white, brown, and grey. It is true that the small size of Ouessant sheep contributes to the breed’s characteristic charm and appeal. However, their diminutive size also means that the breed is not commercially viable in the modern world of agricultural production. In fact, one of the primary objectives for breeding Ouessant sheep today is the preservation and conservation of the rare genetic resources that are found in the breed.

Despite their small size, these charming little sheep produce a particularly beautiful and versatile wool. Ouessant sheep have a distinctive double-coated fleece with an average fiber diameter of 25 microns and, on average, fleeces weigh approximately 750 grams (1.5 lbs.). It is important to keep in mind that Ouessant sheep are an unimproved breed, which means that from one sheep to another there is less standardization and more variability in wool type and quality than one would normally find in modern improved breeds.

For the handspinner, this variation presents a unique opportunity : From one small flock of Ouessant sheep it is possible to produce wool that can be used for a wide variety of projects, ranging from lace shawls to hats, cardigans, and even rugs.

I have taken great care to only select the finest of the Ouessant fibre and blending that with the shiny Blue faced Leicester to create a beautiful heathered effect when dyed and spun into a yarn.

Please have a look at the colourways available and if there are any colours you would like: please don’t hesitate to contact me at Hop@ixchel.com.au

To see all the goodies on offer this week, please head to : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

Wishing you all a wonderful and happy weekend! 

Big hugs, 

Charly

Seaweed and Rare Sheep Breeds

 

What an exciting week !

Very early Monday morning (I actually first thought it was Sunday..lolol) we got a rude awakening because someone lost control on the super wet road, and crashed into our letterbox after swirling all overt the place before finally wrapping his car around a medium big tree, luckily missing huge big trees and out our big gas tank. All in all, a very lucky escape for all parties (except the bunny letter box which was catapulted into Paul’s  car). After making sure the driver was okay, his mum picked him up and the tow truck took his car away, I spent the day carding the last of the November batts and Paul did all the packing so every club parcel was shipped off early Tuesday morning.  I was absolutely knackered and I didn’t even crash into something! Lol

I have to come clean about something else as well : when I had my cardiac arrest in 2019, I hit the kitchen floor so hard that my right hip and back sustained some damage. I of course kept on going since my heart was the main issue and had to get that fixed, but ever since that faitful day, my back and hip is ex5tremely painful. Again, I keep on going, but I am now at a point that I am experiencing pretty high painlevelson a daily basis. I need to take some time off to take care of this soon and I think that will be after the 12 days of Christmas for a couple of weeks. More will be announced later of course, but both Paul and myself need to “regroup” and have some time to relax. I have no idea what, how , where yet…lol   But, before we all get to that point, lots and lots of things are getting done !

The November clubs were shipped out last Tuesday and the December clubs are getting their paintjob right now ! I have published a post with a teaser on my social media today, but just in case you  missed that : here are the photos:

 

 

This painting is absolutely mesmerizing !  There are so many colours that on first glance are clear cut so to speak, but they intermingle with each other and the perception of them changes. There are so many hues and tonal values in there. Its not a rainbow of colours. This is by far the hardest painting I have ever tried to capture because of this. I hope I can do the artwork proud!

I am planning to get all the December clubs out to all the club members around the 25^th of November so all the club members will receive their parcels before Christmas. Australia Post has announced that the deadline for any overseas parcels to be received before Christmas is November 29^th. For Australian customers it will be December 14^th.

The Club sign ups are open on the ixchel shop. The New Art Journey clubs are  starting up again in January 2023, with loads and loads more inspirational art works translated onto yarn and fibres. Please let me know if you have any questions about the clubs or if you would like to have a combination of either yarn and fibre or all three types of the clubs: yarn, batt and fibre club or if you would like all three month’s clubs sent together to save you on shipping, especially when you are overseas so you save on shipping costs.

Now, what is NEW this week? A freshly blended and dyed Rare Sheep Breed blend !

 

Today's update is all about a very special rare breed sheep on the Scottish Isle of North Ronaldsay.  

 

 

 

 

The North Ronaldsay Sheep are the only animals in the world, aside from a certain Galapagos lizard, to be able to subsist entirely on seaweed, leading to its nickname ‘seaweed sheep’.  The breed is thought to be over 5000 years old. The breed is farmed within the Northern Ronaldsay Islands, Orkney and kept nearby the seashore for most of the year. In 1832 the Laird of North Ronaldsay decided that his pastureland should not be wasted on native sheep and a dyke was built round the island to keep them on the shore and off the land. It was most probably this separation that resulted in the preservation of the North Ronaldsay, as it prevented cross breeding which had been the downfall of other Orkney sheep.  

 

The North Ronaldsay is one of the Northern Short tailed primitive group of breeds that also includes the Manx Loghtan, Soay, Shetland and Icelandic .  The North Ronaldsay is still mainly found on its native island, the northernmost of the Orkneys. The sheep keeping system on North Ronaldsay is unique and involves a stone wall which keeps the sheep on the seashore and away from the cultivated land for most of the year. This wall was built in 1832 and since then the breed has evolved to survive primarily on seaweed. The sheep live on the seashore most of the year around and are only

brought onto the better land for lambing.

 

The North Ronaldsay is one of group of primitive Northern Short-tailed sheep and represents a very early stage in the evolution of domestic sheep. DNA studies have shown a close relationship to sheep found in the Stone Age village of Skara Brae on mainland Orkney, which dates from 3000 BC. In 1832 a wall was built around their native island to confine the animals to the foreshore for most of the year in order to conserve the inland grazing. Since then the breed has developed its distinctive metabolism due to its diet of seaweed, which also renders it susceptible to copper poisoning under standard sheep management systems. North Ronaldsays are very sensitive to copper and will die of copper toxicity if put on the wrong type of grazing. This is due to their seaweed diet and the unique metabolism they have evolved.  They should not be fed commercial sheep mixes as despite the label saying “No Added Copper” the normal ingredients used will often have a background level high enough to be toxic (ten parts per million is too high). The North Ronaldsay is capable of  surviving on less than larger breeds and is an active browser, used to ranging over long distances in search of food.

 

 

Colours of their fleece are variable: including white, various shades of grey, black and moorit (deep brown). The double fleece has coarse outer guard hairs and a fine soft inner coat. I have never ever felt and dyed something as extraordinary as this sheeps fleece. It is springy, almost feels moist even after its scouring and washing. It almost feels like it resists the dye when you pour the pigments on and everything immediately flows to the bottom, leaving the top layer of the fibre springy and almost without dye. At least, that is what appears to happen…it takes the dye beautifully and retains its springy texture and openness.

Before dyeing and  spinning though was the rather painful process of getting rid of the guardhairs !  Here’s a view of the raw fleece :

 

 

After all of the cleaning and carding and blending you get what I am offering you today !

 It is a dream to spin and work with. You can make a yarn that is strong and still soft to wear. It is very very special !  There are only about 600 of these seaweed sheep left in the world. Only through our effort of conservation of the environment and conservation through appreciation of this rare breed by spinning and knitting its fleece, can we hold on to one of the oldest and most special breeds in the world alive today.

There are also new Tibetan Support spindles available from Lair of the Bearded Dragon AND some super special ceramic spindle cups and bowls as well ! 

You can check everything out in the what's new section on the IxCHeL shop by clicking here :  https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

Have a fantastic weekend filled with lots of creative fibre fun !

Big hugs,

Charly