Let me "Pinktertain" you !

Let me "Pinktertain" you ! 

 (Robbie Williams at the AFL Grand Final last Saturday.)

Victoria goes a little bit mad in September : call it the Victorian version of the Super bowl in the USA…

Paul and me are big AFL footy fans (btw: Congratulations to Geelong !!!) and the Grand Final is always something special, not the least because of the entertainment. This year I was especially excited, because Robbie Williams was going to perform. And, what a show it was ! He absolutely rocked a hot pink outfit that kind of embedded in my retinas I guess, because I have been seeing hot pink all over the place ever since…lololol 

I was dyeing heaps and heaps this week to restock the Gothic tops and get some new colour ways added to the mix as well. Guess what? I had to do a hot pink version, because how could I not? Hot pink and black are just out of this world together!!! I called it “let me Pinktertain you” referencing the hit by Robbie Williams of course. lol

When I started this whole adventure of mine, it actually started out as me trying to sell my paintings and art works, my line was always “Colour your Spirit”. Colours can do so much: make you happy, calm, sad; they can invigorate you and inspire, take you out of your comfort zone and take you right to a fantasy world. Cut a long story short: Colours have always been super important in my life.

Obviously, it is for a lot of people and industries. There is a huge industry built on colours of the year, new Colour combinations. Fashion, homewares, packaging, marketing : everything gets a do over every year with some things staying the same and others going up and down the trend chart.  Have a close look at advertising and you can see that sometimes certain Colours or combinations will pop up. This is not random.

Sometimes the big Colour “inventing” companies get it wrong: I just have to remember that year when they said that very bright yellow would take over everything. This was obviously not counting on the fact that so many people like yellow but cannot wear it without feeling that bright banana yellow makes them look sick….

For 2023 some are saying these colours are going to be super HOT: digital lavender, sundial gold, tranquil blue, verdigris and luscious red. I took on the challenge and decided I would try them together in a new colourway and I called it “Euphoria”.

 

 

As you can imagine I have heaps of fun trying different combinations and mix the pigments. What makes it even more fun is that every time it is different: it depends on the yarn, the fibre. Different combinations of fibre wil often give you different intensities. 

The outcome on these Gothic tops are spectacular, hot and so effective I hope you are just as excited about these : I am sure that absolutely everybody is going to rock the yarns they spin from these tops. It’s going to be a yarn that POPS and anything you create with this is going to make you look like a Rock Star !

More colour ways of the Gothic Tops on the IxCHeL shop in the what’s new section. Please click on this link and you will be transported there as by magic : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

Tonight is also the last day to sign up for the IxCHeL art Journey cubs. I already had to close down the batt cub sign ups because the numbers were exploding and I can only do so much. There are still a few spots in the fibre and yarn cubs available and you can find them on the website too.

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. Have fun !!!

Gothic Tops

Super fine Deep Black Merino 70% Mulberry Silk 30%

100+ gram tops      AU$28

let me Pinktertain you!

Rock DJ

Euphoria

Vampire Raven

Emerald Forest Nymph

Haunted Meadow

The Wizards

Witches

Pumpkin King

Indigo

Gothic Rainbow

Dark Side

To order: 

Go to www.ixchel.com.au and click on the “What’s NEW!” section on the home page. 

Select the product you want , click on the colour you like and “add to cart”. Easy !

No more waiting for me to answer you when you message me! Of course you can still message me as well. This is all of us still trying to figure things out and I am very approachable and enabling as usual !

Have some questions? 

Please let me know and email (hop@ixchel.com.au) or message me ! Always happy to enable !

Please go to the shop here: www.ixchel.com.au and browse to your hearts’ content ! 

 Have fun creating your Magic ! 

Big hugs, 

Charly

Mermaids, Genies and a Chamber of Secrets

Two Soay Lambs on the island of Hirta

Somehow I was thinking : “Well, not a lot has been going on really….but then I remembered : the September clubs have all been finished, labeled, packed, and shipped; new blends have been prepared and dyed;  new yarns dyed; new  exciting blends planned and prepped  and custom spinning has been done.  I thought instead that nothing was going on because I have been in my studio and in my  “chamber of Secrets” aka the dye closet.

I hear you say "What? Dye closet?"  yes, honestly it is not a big shed or even a room really. I’ll tell you a secret : you can’t swing a cat in it. Not that I would..swing a cat even if the room was bigger, but you know what I mean…lol It is like a tiny room but very well organized. I have been planning on getting a shed organized but I can really only manage one miracle a year I guess, the website being one of them…lol) 

If I had a genie hopping out of a bottle granting me three wishes I would exactly know what to ask them: 

1.A proper dye shed where I have more space to move 

2. More time….(actually I would ask them to give me at least another 24 hours in a day) and 

3. A holiday (not something super flash..i am really very easy to please…just as long as I can frolic in the water, dive and snorkel (preferably somewhere where the water is warm..lol) and be one with the fish. Call me a mermaid. 

I have always felt more comfortable in water. On land I feel like an unauthorized stunt person, being asked to perform high level balancing acts at all time. I’d love to be a ballerina, but I feel like I can only claim that status while submerged in water…..lol yes, I am a weird mermaid..not a little one..just weird. Stay weird should be my motto…lol

Talking  about mermaids…while I was painting and dyeing in my “chamber of secrets” I listened  to some podcasts and the news and was a totally astonished to hear the kerfuffle, or should I say "outrage", over the new Disney movie “The little mermaid”. 

Now, I luckily cannot get into the heads of those getting themselves in a knot about a mythical creature being portrayed by the absolutely gorgeous Halle Bailey, who did not match their tiny imaginative minds… to which I could only do one thing…well two: 

1. ignore..... AND 

2. dye a Little Mermaid colourway on the new Outlander tops. Because? I cannot possibly keep my mouth shut as usual AND Yes, I fell in love with the colours of the poster and the little mermaids tail.

 

More colour ways of the Outlander tops on the IxCHeL shop in the what’s new section. Please click on this link and you will be transported there as by magic : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

Here is the story about a magical place and a magical breed: the Soay sheep from St Kilda and Hirta.

Anyone lucky enough to land on the main island of Hirta will not have to travel more than a few footsteps to see the ancient breed of Soay sheep; they roam free throughout the whole island, from Village Bay to the top of the hills and into the Gleann Mòr, and on the precipitous green slopes and ledges of the island’s huge cliffs. Although Soay is separated from Hirta by a channel only five hundred metres wide, the Soay sheep population on Hirta is a very recent chapter in the history of these remarkable animals.

 

The records show that the islanders kept a different breed of domestic sheep. In the mid- nineteenth century the Hebridean blackface was introduced. These animals were a cross between the Scottish Tan Face and the Scottish Blackface. They were larger than the Soay and grew creamy white wool coats. The tenant islanders kept their sheep on Hirta and Boreray, whilst the Soay sheep, which belonged to the proprietor, lived separately on their native isle of Soay. The islanders frequently went there for fowling and to roo (pluck) the Soay wool in summer. When the islanders were evacuated in 1930, their sheep on Hirta were gathered and transported to the mainland and sold by Government order with the intention of defraying the costs of the evacuation. Their sheep on Boreray were left behind and became feral; this tiny flock are now known as the Boreray breed and are the last genetic remnant of the now extinct Scottish Tan Face.

 
The Soay sheep fared better than the Boreray when their territory was expanded to include Hirta. In 1931 Macleod of Macleod sold the archipelago to Lord Dumfries and the new proprietor had different plans for his new possessions. These included transferring enough Soay sheep to Hirta to start another flock to graze the now empty land. This was easier said than done as it involved carrying sheep down the vertical cliffs of Soay to a small boat in heaving seas. It is no surprise that the new laird had to call on expert cragsmen from Hiort to get this job done and they boarded the SS Hebrides and sailed from Harris to Hiort in June 1932. They cleaned out their old homes and stayed throughout the summer whilst they transferred one hundred and seven sheep across the Sound of Soay to Hirta. Soay itself has no safe landing point and is out of bounds to unauthorised visitors. The Soay sheep that graze in Village Bay are wild animals but are now well-used to humans wandering around the village and it is possible to get very close to them.

 

You only need to take a walk around Village Bay in order to see the different types within the pedigree breed. The classic Soay sheep is known as the Dark Wild type, having a dark brown body with a light belly and rump and light hair around the eyes. There is also a Dark Self which is a uniform dark brown. The Light Wild has the same light areas as the Dark Wild but with a pale fawn coloured body. There is also a small proportion that have variable amounts of white on their bodies. They shed their fleeces naturally in the summer and are not prone to the problems of flystrike as domestic breeds are when left unsheared.

 

An annual sheep count has taken place most years since 1952 and these counts reveal that the sheep on Hirta have unusual population dynamics: the population rises to near maximum and then crashes at irregular intervals. Crashes can produce a mortality rate of as much as 70% of the population. These crashes have been of great interest to ecologists and the first phase of ecological research into the population dynamics began in 1959 when some sheep were tagged in order to follow the course of their lives. Though the research was ahead of its time, when it ended in 1967 the causes of the crashes were still unclear.
In 1985 further intensive research began when ecologists from Cambridge University tagged all of the sheep in Village Bay. This meant that the lives of each individual animal could be followed. The causes of the crashes are now known. Briefly, the population dynamics are the result of almost all mature ewes conceiving and lambing successfully each year regardless of flock density. This means that the population can rise to a degree well beyond the winter carrying-capacity of the island. Particularly severe winters combined with a high proportion of vulnerable lambs and males make a crash most likely.

The Soay Sheep Project is the longest-running Large Mammal Research Project ever conducted. Important detailed research is ongoing and is run by Edinburgh University and Imperial College London along with other participating bodies. The lambs in Village Bay have been tagged every year since 1985 and a huge amount of data has been gathered, allowing valuable findings regarding population ecology, evolution, genetics, vegetation, climate change, parasites, immunology and ageing.
All of the research is fascinating, not least that of ageing. Soay sheep are in their prime from age 2 to 6 years. Beyond that they decline annually in fitness but they have been found to do so at notably varying rates and in different ways. Finding the reasons why individual Soay sheep differ in when and how they age, and how genes and environment affect the process, will be invaluable in understanding the reasons for variations in lifespan of mammals living in complex environments.

 

a smiling soay lamb

Here is some more in depth information about the islands and the sheep

The Isle of Soay, a name derived from the Norse word for Sheep Island, is near the North West corner of Hirta. A very dangerous, narrow channel and sea stacks separate the two. Soay is extremely difficult to access due to its steep rocky cliffs, boulder fields and lack of anchorage.

It can only be approached when seas are very calm and quickly changing weather can make getting off the island nearly impossible, it is the least accessible of all the islands in the archipelago. It is believed that sheep have probably inhabited Soay since the Bronze Age and are the descendants of the very first domesticated sheep which populated northern Europe. They are the most primitive surviving livestock breed in the UK.
The sheep on Soay Island were not owned by the St. Kildans of Hirta, but instead by the islands various lairds (landlords). Their feudal tenants were allowed to annually collect fleece from these sheep and were occasionally permitted to take an animal, for a fee, to kill for special occasions. While Soay is somewhat larger (244 acres) than its neighbour Boreray (189 acres) Soay supports fewer animals per acre because its high central plateau is a marshy bog with little vegetation suitable to grazing sheep.

 

the Island of sheep

St. Kilda is a group of islands which are the most westerly part of Scotland; they are 41 miles from Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides and 110 miles from the Scottish mainland.

This archipelago consists of four small islands and some large rocky outcrops which are all that remains of a long extinct volcano. The islands are remote and spectacular with the highest cliffs in the UK and are the home to large colonies of seabirds.

There is evidence that the main island Hirta has been inhabited for thousands of years but the habitation might not have been continuous. There is also evidence of human activity on the other three islands of Dun, Soay and the more remote Boreray.

The island of Soay has been the home of the most primitive form of domestic sheep in the UK for thousands of years which have remained as a relic of early domestication due to isolation and inaccessibility. The islanders, known as the St. Kildans were the tenants of various owners of St. Kilda, they had limited resources other than the vast seabird colonies. They caught thousands of these birds and used their feathers and extracted their oil as a currency to pay their rent and to buy meagre provisions.

The most remote island of the archipelago is Boreray which was used by the St. Kildans to harvest sea birds and their eggs and also keep a reserve flock of their unique domestic sheep, now known as Boreray Sheep.

As more communications with the mainland improved the life of the islanders changed, they were subject to diseases brought by contact with outsiders which caused heavy mortality. There was movement to the mainland and immigration to other parts of the world until in 1930 the population became so low with so few able bodied men they could no longer sustain themselves and they chose to leave. In 1957, the entire archipelago was bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland and has been in their ownership and protection ever since.

 

Tourists flocking around a spinner showing them spinning soay (1900s)

 close up

spinning magic

 now the same street is deserted... except for the grazing soay sheep that have been there for centuries

Here is some amazing footage of St Kilda Island and its Soay sheep (the sheep story arrives at around 5mins30secs in)

The animals on Soay have never been managed and lived feral on the island for thousands of years, no one is certain how long or how they got there.

There are dark and blond sheep with some ewes being horned and many others polled (no horns) or scurred (small or misshaped horns). Over recent centuries some animals have been taken from Soay to estates on the mainland of the UK. Over a period of time starting in 1932, after St. Kilda had been evacuated and sold, 107 animals were captured and transferred to the vacant pastures of Hirta.

This was a significant number taken from the small population on Soay Island. Today flocks survive in both locations.

Visitors to St Kilda will immediately notice three striking features of the sheep.
First, Soay sheep are tiny. In August, mature females average around 24kg in weight while mature males are around 38kg, making them about one third the size of most modern domestic sheep and shrinking !

Second, they are highly variable in appearance. While many Soays have the ‘classic’ Soay coat colour, which we call ‘dark wild’ (with ‘wild’ being short for ‘wildtype’ the coat pattern that features a light belly and rump patch), we recognise three other varieties (‘dark self’, ‘light wild(type)’ and ‘light self’ (where ‘self’ refers to ‘self-coloured’ – a coat pattern with the same colour all over including belly and rump patch).

Studies have shown that the dark/light colouration is due to a gene called tyrosinase-related protein 1, or TYRP1 which is on sheep chromosome 2 and genetically dark is dominant to light, while the wild/self colouration is due to the locus Agouti on sheep chromosome 13 and wild is dominant to self.
 There are however, very cute Soay sheep with white patches as well. (note: in angora rabbits for example there is the agouti on chromosome 13 as well, making the off spring able to have all different colours. Agouti is a gorgeous thing to have in the gene pool !).

 

The University of Edinburgh is doing a lot of research on these soay sheep because it offers them a very good insight in the ecology and the evolution of the species. A count of the whole of Hirta’s Soay sheep population has been conducted most years since 1952 by the same method.

It was these counts that revealed that Soay sheep on St Kilda have rather unusual population dynamics. The Soay population rises to maxima and then crashes, at irregular intervals. It is this population dynamic behaviour that makes Soay sheep so interesting for ecologists. The sheep exhibit a phenomenon known as overcompensatory density dependence, in which their population never reaches equilibrium.

The population growth is so great as to exceed the carrying capacity of the island, which eventually causes a dramatic population crash, and then the cycle repeats. For example, in 1989, the population fell by two thirds within 12 weeks !!

In brief, it became clear that the population dynamics of Soay sheep happen because virtually all mature females conceive each year, regardless of density, and as a result, the population can increase in one breeding season to a size which greatly exceeds the winter carrying capacity, when it may crash. Crashes are more likely to occur when there is bad winter weather, and when the population contains a large proportion of vulnerable sheep such as lambs and males. The population then increases again, over several years, before another crash.

As ecological research proceeded, it became clear that the Soay sheep population also offers remarkable opportunities for understanding the progress of natural selection and evolution in real time. Population crashes are a period of intense selection, could they have anything to do with the maintenance of genetic variation, for example in coat colour and horn type? Does the low life expectancy of most individuals select for early reproductive effort? Likewise, the population dynamics research inspires numerous questions about the relationship between the sheep and their biotic environment, including the plants on which they feed and the parasites.

The Soay sheep have short tails and naturally shed their wool, which can be hand plucked (called rooing) in the spring and early summer. About one kilogram of wool can be obtained from each animal per year.

This breed has extremely fine fleece and it is difficult to distinguish an outer coat. This is a clear indication that the Soay are indeed the product of a domesticated breed in prehistoric times.
The breed also lacks the flocking instinct of many breeds. Attempts to work them using sheep dogs result in a scattering of the group: no use entering them at the Bendigo sheep and wool show dog trials: it would be extremely frustrating for the sheep and dogs. They obviously are the rebels among sheep !

 Soay sheep fleece

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. Have fun !!!

IxCHeL Outlander Tops

Scottish Soay Sheep , super fine Merino, Muga silk , Mulberry Silk, Cashmere, Angora bunny

100+gram top   AU$28

Natural

Scottish Sky (dyed with woad).

Stormy Sky (Dyed with indigo)

Love (dyed with Madder Root)

Nightsky over Inverness

Witches’ Brew

Highland Romance

Pebble Beach

Thistle and Heather

Pumpkin King

Loch Ness Dragon

Little Mermaid

Also, The IxCHeL Art Journey club sign ups for the next round starting in October are still open until the end of September or until the quotas are reached ! So, if you want to be part of some awesome fun and receiving a yarn, batt or fibre lovingly hand dyed and inspired by a unique artwork : Please sign up ! You will receive a fluffy parcel every month with an extra surprise too ! 

All the information on all the clubs you can find further down on this blog and on the website (www.ixchel.com.au)

And : don't forget there is TWEED YARN, sock yarns, angora yarns and lots of different tops  and so , so much more on the online shop !!!! Go check it out! It’s fun to hop around and look at all the fluffy goodies! You may even be tempted to add something to your cart !

To order: 

Go to www.ixchel.com.au and click on the “What’s NEW!” section on the home page. 

Select the product you want , click on the colour you like and “add to cart”. Easy ! 

No more waiting for me to answer you when you message me! Of course you can still message me as well. This is all of us still trying to figure things out and I am very approachable and enabling as usual !

Have some questions? Please let me know and email (hop@ixchel.com.au) or message me ! Always happy to enable !

Please go to the shop and browse to your hearts content ! Have fun !

IxCHeL club sign ups for 

October, November and December 2022

 are now open !

Here are some photos of the previous clubs: 

January 2022 Batt Club

January 2022 Fibre club

January 2022 Yarn Club

June 2021Club

June 2021Club

November 21 Yarn Club

Note to all International club members:
All international club parcels are now being shipped with tracking and expedited. 
There is an option if you want all three of your clubs to be shipped together to save on shipping cost:  Just ask me for a postage quote !

IxCHeL Fibre Club October, November, December 2022

The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed and special blended top/roving per month

All the tops will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of IxCHeL Fibre Club ! Price to join the IxCHeL Fibre Club #53 and receive your special hand dyed top :)) for three months (October, November and December 2022) is AU$78 + postage (parcel post or airmail). AND there are good value double and triple serves available !!!

For Australia : single serve $78+$30 postage (parcel post), double serve $150(save $6) +$30m postage or triple serves $225 (save $9!) + $30 postage

For New Zealand : single serve $78+$45 postage (parcel post) double serve $150(save $6) +$45 postage

For USA + Canada: single serve AU$78+AU$60 (Airmail) double serve AU$150+AU$60; triple serve $225 (save $9) + AU$60postage

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: Single serve AU$78+AU$78 (airmail) Double serve AU$150+AU$78; triple serve $225 (save $9) + AU$78postage

 For Asia: Single serve AU$78+AU$57 (airmail) Double serve AU$150+AU$57; triple serves $225 (save $9) + AU$57postage 

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FIBRE CLUB #53 now. Numbers are strictly limited ! Payment via direct deposit or credit card or paypal. Just PM or email me your details.

 The IxCHeL Yarn Clubs October, November, December 2022

Every month for three months (October, November and December 2022) you will receive: enough hand dyed luscious yummy yarn to make a pair of socks or a lush shawl or scarf of course! (the hand dyed yarn will be exclusive for the Ixchelbunny SOCK-IT-TO-ME Yarn CLUB and will range from a sock weight yarn (a 4ply/fingering weight yarn); Every month a sock or scarf pattern, tips and instructions ! Now is that GOOD or is that GOOD ??! 

 I will even offer a double serve for those of you who like their socks or scarves extra long ! 

For Australia : single serve $96+$30 postage (parcel post) double serve $177( save $15!!) +$30 postage

For New Zealand : single serve $96+$45 postage (parcel post) double serve $177( save $15!!) +$45 postage

For USA + Canada: single serve AU$96+AU$60 (Airmail) double serve $177 (Save $15!!) +AU$60 

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: Single serve AU$96+AU$78 (airmail) Double serve $177 (Save $15!!) +AU$78

For Asia: Single serve AU$96+AU$57 (airmail) Double serve $177 (= Save $15!!!) +AU$57

Numbers are strictly limited ! Payment via direct deposit or credit card or paypal . Just PM or email me your details By the way: you don’t HAVE to knit socks if you don’t want to.. the hand dyed yarn is amazingly nice for scarves, cowls, beanies and even tops ! Anything goes Payment via direct deposit or credit card or paypal. Just PM or email me your details

IxCHeL Funky Bunny Batt Clubs October, November and December 2022

Here are all the details. Just pm me when you have any questions or want to be part of the funky bunny batt club Movement ;-) Welcome to the blingy dark side ;-D The subscription is for a period of three months and you will receive one special hand dyed funky bunny batt per month to the value of AU$40 or more . The batts will range in weight from 140grams to 170grams with luxury fibres like camel , angora, cashmere, silk, yak, llama even wallaby and bison, and rare breeds !!!! All the batts will be hand dyed and will be especially made for the members of IxCHeL funky bunny Club ! Every month you will receive a HUGE luxury funky bunny batt !

Sign up now and you will receive an IxCHeL Hand dyed , super luxurious funky bunny batt for October, November and December 2022

Price to join the IxCHeL Funky bunny for three months is :

For Australia : $114+$30 postage (parcel post)

For New Zealand : single serve $114+$45 postage (parcel post)

For USA + Canada: AU$114+AU$60 (Airmail)

For UK,Europe, rest of the world: AU$114+AU$78 (airmail)

For Asia: AU$114+AU$57 (airmail)

If you want to receive a fibre surprise every month then join the IXCHEL FUNKY BUNNY BATT CLUB now. Numbers are strictly limited !

Payment via direct deposit or credit card or paypal. Just PM or email me your details.

TO order or ask any questions: 

1. Go to www.ixchel.com.au

2. You can email me on hop@ixchel.com.au
3.. Message me on facebook or Instagram where I am @ixchelbunny


Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? : Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

 RABBIT ON !