Put a Pearl in your spinning

It’s been a roller coaster ride again as usual. I have been dyeing and blending and spinning lots of fibres and oh wait til you see what is in store tonight  !!! 

Apart from that we had a close call with another vehicle..this time a food truck..coming close to delivering its total load including the truck in our house (it rolled over at 1am in the morning, the driver was okay but obviously phazed and we got him out of the cabin eventually ...you can read all about it on my facebook page btw...lol incl photos), the mobile phone tower of our internet provider went "kaboom" so now we have no internet from them and have to run around like crazed tech gnomes finding work arounds with another mobile provider; it kept on raining and being too cold to get the fibres dry, so the woodfire was stoked up only to find that the fan pushing the heat out had broken down, oh and the coffee machine has started giving up the spirit, which is a major downer because insomniac me and Paul live on that stuff...lol   Apart from all of that...i am very happy to get everything that i wanted to get done ...done and able to offer you another fibery and spindle update this week not to mention a RESTOCK of the Glow in the Dark Yarn that last week seemed to disappear like a ghost after Halloween.... lolol

Also, there has been lots of panic and excitement building up here because the handknitters guild show is on Mid May (look out for the posters I will be putting up on my social media with all the details later this weekend!) so, that means tons of yarns to dye and I am still spinning a mountain of angora and guanaco and some very special wallaby blend and possum blend yarns!! So yeah, there will be lots and lots more going on very very soon, bit more on that on a later date. 

For this blog update I have something very special for you:
Pearl Bunny Tops ! lots of new colourways too like "Indictment party" , "Eternal Optimist", "Machu Peach-U" and "Mermaid Reality Show".

I am especially enthusiastic about this blend that has an amazing new and strange fibre: Chitin. That is pronounced KAI-tin btw, not Shit-in (yes...i am 5...lol)

 Anyhoo, Chitin is one of those elements that I always am on the look out for , just like the stainless steel blend from years ago that I unleashed on all of you. I am always looking outside of the box to combine either technology, science, bizarness, call it what you like, into my special blends. 
This one took a bit of doing and literally years of combining science with the craft of blending different fibres together. But, let me start by explaining what exactly brought me to add shitin ..eh..i mean..Chitin... to my fibre blends ready for handspinning :

Chitin was discovered by the French chemist and pharmacist Henri Braconnot in 1811 and, after cellulose, it's the most important biopolymer in nature.
In fact, it is made of the exoskeleton of insects, shellfish and Shells. Chitin is a polysaccharide. Chemically speaking it looks like a long-chain in which pearls are molecules of N-acetylglucosamine.
The N-glucosamine is a very important substance for the human organism, in fact, it is the precursor of hyaluronic acid and it is used in therapies for the functional recovery of the joints.

Chitin is also widely used in the medical world to make suture wires because it can be degraded by enzymes present in human tissue. It is also used as wound dressing, enormously important to treat burn victims.
 Chitin has a remarkable strength and it accelerates the healing of wounds. (want to delve deeper into some research?

Here are some publications in the international journal of Niological Macromolecules:

 www.brommarin.com/blog-en/blog-posts/publications%20chitin%20scaffolds%20tissue%20engineering.php

As a medical anthropologist, the medical application of a fibre always peaks my interest and so I did some more research. So wait , there is more !

Obviously I will not tell you to eat the Pearl bunny tops, but Chitin has many other applications than medical suture wires and wound dressing.

It is also extensively used in food and pharmaceutical products. It is often used as a food thickener and stabilizer, and it can also form edible films.

Chitin is also used in supplements to manage healthy cholesterol levels and body weight. Additional uses of chitin include the support of kidney function.
Some early research shows that Chitin supports the body’s natural ability to heal skin damage and nerve regrowth.

Now something that really alerted me to the oddity of this fibre is based on , well, is it a protein or cellulose fibre? The chemical answer to that question is , well, interesting to say the least.

Chitin, being derived from shells, made me think it was more like a protein than a cellulose fibre since there is obviously no cellulose in a crab. So I looked deeper into the chemical structure of Chitin and here it is:

Chitin is a “polymerized N-acetylglucosamine.” The only thing you need to remember from that extremely long a word is “glucos”  and “Amine” which opens a whole other box of contradictions, because Glucose is a cellulose and Amine is a Protein. Could it be the best of both worlds then? And the short answer of it is : YES!

In my top notch dye laboratory (please note the sarcasm) I tested this odd fibre with both fibre reactive and acid dyes ! Bingo ! The fibre  takes both acid dyes and fibre reactive dyes! Very odd isn’t it?

In the chemical structure of the Chitin you can see the OH (hydroxide) Highlighted in pink , which is helpful in reactive dyeing , and the NH and NH2 , which are necessary for acid dyeing.

So there you go: chitin is one of those bizarre fibres that will bind with both acid and reactive dyes. However, when you closely look at the structure you can see that there are way more hydroxide “binding sites” (just look at how many OH’s there are for short ). So after all that research I have to admit it’s like a cellulose/plant fibre that loves acting like a protein/animal fibre… I hope I satisfied your inner bio chemist and can't wait to do some of your own research..eh .. spinning..
The blend spins up like a dream! It is a bit cool to the touch, has a gorgeous drape, feels very silky. Totally different from any blend with bamboo or soy or seacell (seaweed) or even tencel. I love working with it and it will make an excellent jumper as well (or socks) since the tensile strength is huge and it also has excellent anti bacterial properties (read that as : it is great for combating sweaty feet and armpits).

So, here they are: Pearl Bunny Tops (I thought that was a better name than calling it Bunny Crabs....let's not go there LOL)

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

Today is the LAST day to sign up for the clubs Quarter 2 !! So if you dont want to miss out on a monthly parcel of fun and excitement, please go to the club section on the website here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

Have a wonderful weekend !

Big Fluffy Hugs

Charly

https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

A Beautiful Australian Sheep Breed for Ewe

Happy Friday everybody ! and a big thank you all for being here and reading my blog. 

Another week has flown by and I was lucky this time there were a few days of good frying weather so I can offer you something new ! This time, and I cannot believe I am saying this (bows head in shame) it is a quintessential Australian sheep breed I have never ever offered before in all the time I have been selling my hand dyed tops and yarn since 2004 : Polwarth !

I just love this beautiful sheep breed because it combines the utter softness of Merino and the shine and lustre and durability of the Lincoln sheep. It feels absolutely divine and spins like a dream !

Polwarth sheep , named ‘Polwarth’ after the Country of Polwarth in which Tarndwarncoort sheep station is located, is a breed of sheep that was developed in Victoria, Australia in  1880.

Polwarths are one-quarter Lincoln sheep and three-quarters Merino bloodlines. They are large sheep with long, soft, fine wool. They were developed in an attempt to extend the grazing territory of sheep because the Merino was found lacking in hardiness in this respect (handling the snow and the cold). Richard Dennis in south west Victoria, bred the Polwarth, first known as Dennis Comebacks. Descendants of Richard Dennis continue to grow Polwarth wool , maintaining the original bloodlines in a flock referred to as the "Blue Dots".

Here’s a bit of history of how this particular beautiful sheep breed was “blended by nature” so to speak…:

In 1840, Alexander Dennis and his brothers sailed from England to Australia to begin a new life. Hailing from the county of Cornwall, a region of England well known for its sheep farms, Dennis knew exactly what he was going to do when he arrived in Australia – seek out a parcel of land on which he could raise sheep. First stopping in Tasmania, he soon ended up heading north to the mainland and purchased the right of occupation for his first farm in the state of Victoria. He named it after the Aboriginal name for the area, Tarndwarncoort, which in turn took its name from the resemblance of the hills to Bandicoot jumps.

Alexander Dennis and his brothers, like many settlers to the area, probably raised Saxon Merinos, one of the most popular breeds for the time. Over the next couple of decades, they purchased additional rights of occupation for other farms including Carr’s Plains and eventually Eeyuk Station. Unlike the other farms, Eeyuk Station focused on high grade Lincoln sheep. By the 1860s, the Alexander Dennis’ family sheep business was well established, and primed for the next generation to continue his work.

By the 1870s, the one of Alexander Dennis’ sons, Richard, took over Tarndwarncoort and his other son, Alexander, purchased Eeyuk. Carr’s Plains also ended up staying in the family through the marriage of Alexander’s daughter Mary to the manager of the Carr’s Plains farm, Holdford Wettenhall. Wettenhall would end up leasing Carr’s Plains from the Dennis family.  By the 1880s, the stage was set for the first Polwarth.

The Dennis brothers’ interest in establishing a new breed came in steps. By the late 1870s, Richard had purchased a Lincoln ram from his brother’s farm at Eeyuk, and bred what are referred to as comebacks. Comeback sheep are bred by crossing a sheep that is ½ Merino and ½ of some variety of English longwool sheep with a purebred Merino; the resulting sheep are ¾ Merino and ¼ of whatever English longwool breed is used. In the case of the nascent Polwarth breed, this English longwool sheep that were added to the mix were the high-quality Lincolns from Eeyuk.

  

Both Dennis brothers noted that their new comeback sheep seemed to be hardier than their Merinos. They handled the snow and cold well during winters, and were good foragers – important for an area of Australia where the vegetation mainly consisted of scrubby bushes and sparse grass. When Richard first sold wool from these comebacks, the buyers and wool brokers were vocal in their appreciation for its length and quality. Realizing they had a winning combination on their hands, the brothers, along with their brother-in-law Wettenhall, began to develop what was known as the “Dennis Comebacks.” These sheep would eventually become what is known today as Polwarth.

Soon, other Australian farmers began to take note of this hardy and productive sheep, and through the efforts of the Dennis brothers they started to spread throughout Australia beyond the state of Victoria. However, their brother-in-law Wettenhall had visions of expanding the breed beyond Australia, and began marketing his comebacks to the cooler regions of South America. Wettenhall, wanting to make sure that his sheep stood out from the Dennis brothers’ flocks, renamed them Ideals. Marketing his sheep as Ideals proved particularly successful; Polwarth sheep are prominent in South America today are still called Ideals in that part of the world, rather than Polwarth.

By the 1910s, the breed had become a well-regarded dual-breed sheep, that is, a sheep that was raised for both wool and meat. In a relatively short period of time it became a very even breed, which meant that farmers who raised Polwarth could count on their sheep have consistent conformation and wool production. Encouraged by the Australian Sheepbreeders Association, in 1919 the sheep were registered as a fixed breed by a group of sheep farmers, and named Polwarth at the suggestion of William Dennis. Polwarth was the county in which the first experiments to create this new breed occurred. In suggesting this, William was following the naming conventions of his English roots; many English breeds are traditionally named after the county in which they originated.

Boom times for the Polwarth in Australia were to arrive just after WWII. Tasmania, the island state south of Victoria, was long known for its quality Saxon Merino sheep and the superfine fleece produced by these sheep was very popular. After WWII, however, the market demand for superfine wool began to decline, and farmers began looking for additional ways to make their flocks profitable. For many Tasmanian farms, Polwarth was the answer. Polwarth’s Merino and Lincoln heritage meant the sheep produced soft, long staple fleeces, while also having large carcasses suitable for selling as lamb or mutton – perfect for farms needing more than one way to make a living off of their flocks. Before WWII, Tasmania already had a few Polwarth flocks – the Dennis brothers had made their first Polwarth sale to Tasmania in 1902 and by the mid-1940s Polwarth sheep made up a little over 8% of the Tasmanian flocks. This number increased rapidly after the war to 41% by the 1960s, and 47% by the 1980s. In South America, Polwarth popularity also continued to rise.

The first Polwarth came to the United States in 1954. Purchased by the Wellman Combing Co. in South Carolina, the Polwarth were purchased to improve their model flocks; they wanted to try breeding Polwarth with their sheep to create a good wool producing breed for the South. These model flocks were also used to try to encourage cotton and tobacco farmers in the South to raise sheep. Ultimately, Wellman Combing Co. had very limited success with Southern farmers, and interest in raising Polwarth in the United States faded. There is no breed registry for Polwarth in the United States, and very, very few farms that raise them. Today, much of the Polwarth available to crafters and manufacturers is sourced from either Australia or the countries and territories of southern South America including Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and the Falkland Islands.

Polwarth wool has many desirable qualities which makes it a favourite for handspinning. The long staple length (appr. 8-18cm) makes it easy for spinning and felting but also produces a strong, smooth and silky yarn with good stitch definition that takes the dye very well and produces a beautiful knitted or woven fabric, that has a lofty drape and can be worn close to skin as it has a micron count of appr. 20-24 !

The Polwarths have dense rectangular staples that are generous in length, with flat or very slightly pointed tips and a well defined crimp. Polwarth is very fine, so removing grease and preventing it from being redeposited on the wool requires consistently hot water and a good detergent. 

You can spin from the lock, flick or comb the staples and when carded it creates a wonderful combed top that is super easy to spin . To spin for ultimate softness use less twist, for durability when spinning for socks for example, use more twist.

Polwarth tops are easier to spin for beginners than Merino.  Polwarth is elastic, resilient, and lofty and it drapes very well.

Polwarth fibre is also ideal for mixing with other fine fibres like angora, baby alpaca and mohair.  

You can find the hand dyed Polwarth tops here: www.ixchel.com.au/products/polwarth

I hope you will enjoy spinning the Polwarth tops as much as I have !

Have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of crafty adventures !

Big hugs,

Charly

A lucky weekend to you all !

 

a very lucky and happy st Patrick’s day to all of you. Irish or not..it’s a good thing to have have some luck or, as the Irish say, “Luck is believing you’re lucky” 🍀

Talking about luck, we were very lucky indeed. There was some planned back burning just over the road from us..let me say, VERY close to us this week. See photos here.

it was pretty darn close!!! I still get anxious seeing fire start up in the forest just across the road, even if it is supposed to be a “ controlled burn”. Memories of the Black Friday fires where so many people died are still very fresh in my mind. So, I stayed up all night keeping an eye out together with the people of the fire brigade you see in the photos there. It was controlled, there was no wind to speak of and there were a lot of sighs of relief once it started raining a day later. 
I understand the principle of back burning to create less risk for any fast moving fires, but that does not make it less scary.

it did mean that my work schedule was highly impacted. Not because I was staying up or keeping an eye out…lol, but because where there is fire like that, there is a lot and I mean a LOT  of smoke !

I had heaps of fibres for this update that needed to get dry and I fonmy drying outside when the weather is nice. The weather was extremely nice but , unfortunately for me, the air was also filled with smoke and carbon particles from the shrubs and undergrowth that was being burnt. No way I could leave anything outside, unless I wanted to sell my hand dyed tops with added Smokey barbecue smell and an added burnt leaf here and there! So yeah, my planning went out the window…sorry to say.

but, you are dealing with a person who also always has a plan b, c and d so for today I can offer you a super special on the Irish inspired tweed yarn not to be missed with 25% discount just for this weekend! And some amazing NEW variegated cotton yarn that is super soft and awesome to knit, crochet and weave with !

Paul made some out of this world fantastic spindle bowls but 8 made the mistake to put an Instagram post up and I can tell you know that all of them sold already without them ever even sniffing  the website from afar. Not only that, the props I used to make the photos with the bowls also were highly desired…lol  so, safe to say, apaula dn myself are feeling ver6 fortunate and lucky to have so many people who are showing us so much support and love ! Also, I really need to start fossicking, polishing and finding some more minerals !!!

how about this magnificent malachite !p with ceresite from Rum Jungle in the Northern territories! 

A heart AND ITS GREEN 🍀 talk about lucky 🍀 

also, the March art journey clubs have all been shipped out this morning! It was a huge task to get everything ready and packed in time but so worth it. I love the look of the tops, fibres and yarns. And just t9 let you know without giving too much away….this is a photo of the first dye process of the yarn club…after that there were two more stages of glazing!  Here is a photo of stage 1

And this was the art work by Berthe Morisot that inspired it.

Keep an eye out on my social media in the next two weeks: More will be revealed 🍀

sign ups are open until April 1st btw on the website if you would like to join the fun! There are still batt club, fibre club and yarn club spaces left.

well, I was going to write this blog much sooner, but as usual time got away from me…again…lolol and here I am five to 8pm…when am I ever going to learn not to leave things til the last minute?!!?

wishing you all a very happy and lucky weekend 🍀🐰🍀

big hugs

Charly

Www.IxCHeL.com.au

Do what you Love

Sometime you look back  and think to yourself that time moves way too fast because there is no way that you can fit all the things you need to do into the hours of the day or the week. I have been like that for ages. I always thought time was running out and in a way of course it is...without becoming too morbid..lol BUT, I do believe that time somehow moved a lot slower when IO was in my teens and that i did a lot more apart from going to school ! I painted lots of paintings, learned heaps about all kinds of things that at the time totally took all my attention like mythology, history, dinosaurs, why did this happen and how did it happen, music..oh don't get me started on music: I learnt how to play the piano, guitar, sing and even wrote songs..played in bands...and more !

I went everywhere and the future was magical, hey even the present was filled with it!  And now? Well, I am still all that : looking and learning new things but i feel like lots of my time is filled with work, taking care that everybody is fed and taken care of. Time seems to move faster and I can get less things done. My guess is , it's all the "grown up" responsibilities that take away time like a black hole: sucking up heaps of energy.  Time can be filled with so many things! and we can MAKE time to do fun stuff ! "Just for the fun of it ! 

You know they say "Time flies when you are having fun" ? Well, I think that is an absolute lie. Don't believe that conspiracy theory! I think Time moves slower when you are having fun ! Think about it ! When you are doing something you absolutely do not like it seems like it takes aaaaaaaaages ! see ! Theorem proven !...lol

My remedy is: Do the things you love to do and do them often !  

Tonight I obviously am on this Time rant because of the Blend I have on this Fridays Update: The Outlander tops, inspired by the time travelling heroine Claire Beecham written by Diana Gabaldon and also the tv series. If ever there was a blend I absolutely love AND was inspired by Time and Time travel it is this. I conjured up a blend of Soay sheep from Scotland blended with a some gorgeous super soft Cashmere and Angora and TWO types of Silk plus an extremely luscious super soft merino.

It is not only the luscious softness that I love but also the subtle natural caramel to fawn colours in the natural fibres all blended together. I chose to blend them more than 4 times on the gill machine (that is the machine that blends all the fibres together) to make a homogenous and very easy to spin blend.

The dyeing of a blend that has this variety of different colours, also makes for an extremely interesting dye process! You will receive a subtle difference in tonal values and colours.when you dye this blend opposed to dyeing a white natural fibre. The silks in this also make colours pop and literally shine. If you would ask me which fibre blends I make are my favourites, this Outlander blend would definitely be in my Top 5.

 I have been doing this blend for a while now and to know more about the soay sheep and their fabulous ancient history I am going to put a link in here you can click on. It will take you to one of my older blog posts when I did not have the website yet. Every time I do a blend btw, there goes a lot of research into every aspect of it and you can read all about it on my blog here: https://ixchelbunny.blogspot.com/2022/12/busy-bunny-christmas-elves.html

For some other news: The March Clubs are getting their dye bath and will be ready to ship later next week! I have already put a post up on my facebook and Instagram page with the teaser. Please follow me on Instagram where I am @ixchelbunny so you can see on a day to day basis what I am up to !

Don't forget that March is the last month of this first quarter of club parcels if you are a club member. There is no automatic sign up so if you would like to keep receiving your monthly parcels please go the the IxCHeL shop and click on clubs in the menu. This of course goes for all of you who are not club members as well. There is an added bonus when you are a club member because you can shop and add your goodies to your club parcel so you will not be charged shipping ! Bonus !

There are lots of new blends coming up for future updates, and because I am also preparing for the Handknitters guild show in May , heaps of YARN shop updates will come up soon as well!

It is all happening !!!

Wishing you all a magical weekend filled with lots of FUN FIBERY adventures!

Big hugs

Charly

Vival La Frida! Or, Never a dull moment here!

Never a dull moment here ! I will start with the fend, just like the Irish love to do I heard…start a book and skip to the last page to see how it ends,you know, just in case…lolol. Anyhoo, the power went out just as I was photographing my tops for tonight’s update…lighting..gone! And five minutes after the power went out the main Telstar tower decided to give up the ghost as well because apparently Telstra doesn’t believe in back up batteries…. Thankfully, WE have back up plans since last time this scenario was on, so we have invested in a second internet carrier who does believe in servicing their customers even when power situations are less than secure. It does mean that in a situation of bushfires at the height of summer, we will probably..again..be left out in the cold without getting any fire updates etc etc..but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there…so to speak.

I was very proud of myself getting ahead in the game and getting fibres ready ahead of time before updates but the weather and club dyeing got in the way of my “efficiency”…ROFL ! 
so, at the very last moment my tops were finally dry today ready for their close up and boom! Power outage…welcome to my world ! Never a dull moment should be the title. Never mind, I have ten thousand work arounds and maybe, just maybe, since I have been doing this for decades, I thrive on emergencies and adrenaline rushes to get everything ready at the VERY LAST MINUTE! Coz you know, why relax when you can stress about getting things ready 🤣🤣lol

sigh

deep breath

 

Tonights update was going to be and still is! About this very special blend I concocted and cooked up literally about ten years ago, because I am totally weird and though why not try and spin cactus…agave to be exact? I mean we drink it..well I do…tequila, mescal..margarita cocktails..why not spin it?! 
you can read all about it on my blog I write in 2016 which has a link on the product page on this website so please do click on it to read all about the agave and processing!

The thing is, I wanted this blend to be not only special and linked to the time I lived in a Mexico and was totally infatuated(and still am) with Frida Kahlo, but also mix it with my love for Navajo churro sheep which I grew up with and loved spinning. The blend combines a lovely wool with a strong plant fibre. The agave fibres are an excellent plant alternative for nylon: it gives strength and softness over time by wearing. It is a fabulous blend for spinning and for sock knitting. I have to say that I have heard a person say she picked the bast fibres out of the blend because she thought they would be too harsh..please don’t! Don’t be fooled by the agave plant fibres. They may seem more coarse than the wool you are spinning but they will soften up with wear and washing! It is like hemp or flax only softer!

Dyeing these special tops I was particularly inspired by my muse:Frida Kahlo. One painting especially resonates with me : “What the water gave me “ and it became a colourway….

 

also the way Frida dressed was amazing…the colours she combines together were an inspiration for Friday’s dresses or “teh cactus flower” colourway you see here. It took a great deal of mixing and blending pigments to create that old timey sage green look but I think I pulled it off 😉

 

Tonights update also has some very special bowls AND mini Dealgan spindles fromLair of the bearded dragon! 
you don’t want to miss out on seeing the precioussssssss stones he got hold of to do the inlay ! Together with the Australian Redgum the stones pop! They are true works of art and will inspire your support spindling even more !

Tentatively looking at my diminishing battery power at the moment and hoping I can finish this blog off in time….

really hoping that next week’s update  is going to be a bit more relaxed…lol

News flash: the fibre blend of next week is already drying, I have started dyeing the March club which is going to be ready to ship mid March and I am preparing lots of handspun and yarn for the Handknitters guild show in May and for updates, so you will see more hand dyed yarn hitting the website soon as well. It’s all happening 🤣

Please click here to go to the website and start browsing  https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

wishing you all a wonderful weekend and happy spinning and knitting!

big hugs

Charly