A fluffy universe

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell)  once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

What if it is fluff all the way up and down? Well, it is has been for me for  as long as I can remember really and this week in particular.

Not only was there a lot of prepping and dyeing for this weeks update (more on that later) but there were also about a hundred kilo of various fibres to process, prepare and blend. I am VERY excited about this because there is new Romanov, a very fantastic new Viva Frida with agave cactus, Guanaco and a very, very exciting two new blends I have been working on behind the scenes…safe to say, I am absolutely knackered…lol I could do with a nice relaxing holiday and some sunshine.

im at this point that know can’t sleep at all because for some reason or another my pelvis decided that it doesn’t want to belong inside my body anymore..I guess I need to stay put, relax and get some rest and relaxation at hey say. Too bad my brain doesn’t agree, so I am going to try and strengthen my core and muscles and walk more…less time to work in the dye room and blending , but..more time to forage 😜

(sir Bear II, relaxing on the verandah)

Fir this weeks update I have prepared something extra, EXTRA special: Bunny Bison Bliss tops! Newly, freshly blended and upgraded. There is a lot of science and mathematical precision in how to match what I have in my mind what would I to create as an easy to spin top. This means that you. It only have to prepare the fibres very, very well and calculate how much you can blend all the fibres together. You have to remember that the more you blend, the more there is a chance to create nepps. Whatever you do, you do NOT want nepps. Nepps are like torn off little ends of fibre. The finer the fibre the more teh chance you can damage it by over processing, so it is a very, very fine line.

I am extremely proud to offer you this new version if the IxCHeL Bunny Bison Bliss tops and new colourways as well.

You can find them all in the what’s new section on the IxCHeL shop here : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

and that is not all! I also have awesome mulberry silk tops: silk is not for the faint hearted they say: not only to spin because the staple length is so long but also to dye the silk fibres. It is sooooo worth it though! Mulberry silk is sooooo shiny and works exceptionally well to use spin super fine or to use to ply your woollen yarns with or to weave with, or, why not use it to knit or crochet something exquisite!

Also, time to reveal the July club!! Here they are !

and then there is the reveal of the August club and here it is : Laura Knight with her “fine feathers” painting from 1939. I have found a fab video about her so keep an eye out on my socials because I will post it on there as well. Laura Knight is totally inspiring: in 1936 she became only the second women to be awarded full membership of the Royal Academy, she was a known war artist on the front lines in ww2 and painted the Nuremberg trials after ww2; interested in the Romani people and people on the fringe of society. I mean, she “ran away” with the circus when she was in her fifties to capture their world in her paintings. 

Sign ups are open for the next quarter btw, so if you do not want to miss out on going on a fab art journey adventure: go and sign up for. The fibre, yarn or yarn club.

Please let me know if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable.

Have a fabulous weekend and have a great time creating lots of fun !

big hugs

Charly

Make your own Magic

 

Another roller coaster ride of a week here! It all started with an onslaught of messages why I wasn’t at the Bendigo show at first, which lead me down the path of scrolling down social media to show support for my friends at the show, which led me to discover something that made me scream: someone on the other side of the world had used screenshots of my products from my shop to sell her own (?) totally different blend products in totally different colours !?!…. I was and still am flabbergasted by it and her subsequent responses after I confronted her. I will not get into it here but the whole episode is on view on my Facebook and Instagram social media: get the popcorn out folks🤣 Anyway, to make a long story short, i would probably not have discovered this whole schlemozzle plus the fact that there are people out there, who spend time not only using other peoples product photos to sell their own which look and are totally different, but also that they tap into friends and customer lists to stack their own. It appears that even in our little craft world we all need to be careful what we buy and from who. Do a “reverse photo search” to check if the photo of the product they’re trying to sell, appears on another website or page first. I have received the advice to watermark my photos or add some I’d tag to them. Oh joy…. Anyway, the initial shock has worn off, I’m still annoyed but at the same time I am super amazed at the gaslighting, the lies and weirdness in replies I received back from the culprit. Sigh…a total comedy…. 

I did not get much sleep..nothing new there actually..lolol..there were the July clubs to finish and send off! Good news all the parcels have been shipped this week so if you are a member of the IxCHeL art journey clubs: keep an eye out for a yummy parcel to arrive !

I will share the photos of all the July clubs later this month and yes, I am already prepping the August clubs atm, so a teaser label will appear on my social media very soon with all the Information on which artist and art work inspiration it is for August.

I have also been dyeing custom orders and the shop update this week AND … been doing heaps of spinning and plying of custom orders as well. This time it was Gothic tops in rainbow. I am super biased of course… but wow this blend is amazing to spin and the yarn looks absolutely stunning  …even if I say so myself 😉

 

Next up to spin is Gothic Tops “Pumpkin King” also to spin in a fine fingering weight. I’ll share photos on my socials as soon as that one is finished as well.

I hope everybody is having a fabulous time in the Tour de Fleece Team IxCHeL ! I have seen some amaaaaaaazing spinning going on and, can I just say, some of you are spinning so much yarn I think you are going to beat the winner of the Tour de France ! What an enormous effort all of you and I cannot thank you enough for sharing all the fantastic photos on social media and with me! The Tour de France/Tour de Fleece finishes on Monday and I will announce the winner of Team IxCHeL on Tuesday ! The winner will receive a fabulous parcel but….not giving too much away yet: all will be revealed Tuesday July 25th on the Ixchelbunny Facebook and Instagram page! 
Don’t forget : All Team IxCHeL members also still have this weekend to use their tour de fleece discount! 

 

 What’s new for this week’s shop update ? Hmmmmmmm: something extremely fluffy, super soft, silky and yummmmm! Something that spins like butter ! Yes, butter! Although in all honesty I have never spun butter…well, not into yarn ..lolol

i have done some new colourways but also another “Inkheart” and here it is on the famous back ground so you can “compare” the colourway on all the different bases…so much fun to see how all the different fibres take the dye differently!

You can find the new Camelbunny Silk Cashmere tops on the shop, right here: https://ixchel.com.au/products/camel-bunny-silk-cashmere

 Have lots of fun this weekend! 
Spin lots of yarn, knit, crochet or weave: do what makes your heart sing and makes you happy. 
Be kind, but don’t take any crap from anybody!

Be your own person and be proud of what you create: you are all awesome!

Thank you so, so much for all the support and love ♥️

big hugs

Charly

 

How to stay fluffy…facing fear

  

No, this is not a self help blog…lol. It is however the telling tale of a weird fluffy human who always wants to please, say of course I can” to everybody, and , being their worst boss everrrr, saying “do more! Do more! Do more! Do everything!”. The only thing they say no to is…yes, you guessed it “ why don’t you take some time off?” And the ultimate sin “wanna holiday?”….

yes, that is me! The ultimate slave to my passion and wanting to excel at just about everything. If they haven’t found a “warp drive” yet, it’s because I have been hogging it for ages…lol

I’m also very good at hiding pain, fear, anxiety; mostly from myself. Where am I going with this? Well, for the last week or so, my messages and emails have been exploding with “see you at the Bendigo show!”, “looking forward to seeing you at the show!”, etc etc etc.. and, everytime I have to disappoint them because , after the pandemic hiatus when everything was on hold, I could have definitely gone….but…I said “No”… That in itself was a HUGE decision and I subliminally sent out messages on the  socials posting in “we’re not going to Spendigo” groups, saying this to people at my  latest show in May at the handknitters guild show….which was also super hard! But, obviously was not direct or forceful enough to myself or others🤣

I thought I had it ALL under control…until this week..because of course I did not have any control whatsoever…lol 

Yes, that was me…2012..if you thought I didn’t dress to the occasion even if there’s no occasion you would be mistaken…lol proof is in the fluff 🤣

I was running around like an energiser bunny, setting up my stall at the Bendigo show…organising things, making sure people don’t park in t wrong spot in front of the door of the shed, running to woolcraft with my donations, running everywhere (except the toilet, I have a market bladder they say😜), not eating (I survived on hot chocolate or coffee…in my mind there’s nothing worse than biting into something and a customer comes up and you spit out your sandwich on their jumper) and believe me , when you take a bite, they know and they come! Lol. Ofcourse you don’t have to be like this! I’ve seen fellow stall holders eating lunch, chatting, being away from their stall, delegating, having a great time shopping and seeing what’s going on at the show…Me? Eh…of course not! I’m so determined, focussed, and feel the need to always be there! I can’t help it. That’s me…I will give my right arm, eye, all my attention and time and more…that’s me: I can be hilariously serious, determined and so focussed, people could come at me yelling “there’s a huge stampede of bison heading this way and you’re right in the path! Get out!” And I would stay iin my stall, fluffing up all the hand dyed  tops and yarns and protecting my fluffy hand dyed babies (no, I did not bring bunnies to the show…they would literally die of being cuddled too much..).

and it’s not only AT the show I’m like this…no, I am like this ALL THE TIME! Desperately trying to be so organised and concentrated while my brain yells at me “chaos!” ..lol

For months I would have had a work schedule resembling of what a small group of people would have to accomplish…I set myself tasks that are almost unattainable. I am sure that if I were an athlete putting this kind of time and effort in: I’d be running faster than Usain Bolt or die trying….and people, that is basically what I have been doing since I started this fluffy adventure in 2004…that’s almost twenty years! Still cannot believe that!

anyway I digress and before I mutter along again here’s what I mean with working all the time and a lot….this was my stall at the show…I brought so much stock, I could have filled the whole shed…lol 

 

And there was more….much, much more……..

so, yeah, I’m being inundated by messages “looking forward to seeing you at bendigo show!” After being at the show since 2005 I suppose everybody thought I was a fluffy fixed feature🤣 but, I am not going to be there. I apologise to all of you who expected me & my wall of fluffy colour there after the pandemic hiatus. So, why am I not there? Did I win the lottery? Am I on a world cruise? Am I retired? 😱Well people, I can honestly say “NO” to all the above🤣 I am still working hard dyeing, spinning, painting, trying to earn a living without keeling over, because, let’s face it, I am famous for going totally over the top with everything: I’m not neurotypical… After my surprise cardiac arrest in 2019, I have had to admit I can’t “work like an energiser bunny” anymore, even with my bionic implants.

Just to explain how exceptionally hard headed I am: after the cardiac arrest in june 2019, I kept on dyeing the mountains of fibres & yarns for the show that July. Ar that show I could hardly walk, breathe or do anything; I was yelled at by some to SIT DOWN! continuously and was laughed at by others…I sincerely believe I have some ptsd from that whole experience. Did I stop? No!🤣 of course not, because what I do is my only source of income. I don’t do what I do as a side hustle: This is my life….and my work and I love what I do.

am I going to miss being at Bendigo? miss seeing friends? miss a lot of income? Yes,yes and yes, but I can’t physically (& mentally)handle everything that comes with it: the mountains of dyeing, packing, the setting up, the standing and running around for three days, the packing up, the organising…everything.

Truth is, at this moment, I am working as hard as i can, but I cannot stand up straight anymore ( hunchback of Notre Dame comes to mind …the bells! The bells! 🤣) , my back is killing me and my heart doesn’t let me be that energised anymore. It’s like someone pulled a lever and said : this is your limit, you cannot exceed it…sorry! And you know what? It pisses me off! And it scares me..I still do not like saying “no I can’t “…. I am trying though. I am trying to be nice to myself and desperately trying to not feeling guilty. I’m still working on it…

This  was extremely hard to write..Maybe I’ll make it to the show next year..in a more subdued form ( yeah yeah…you can stop laughing now…lol), who knows..in the meantime, I’m still here online with fluffy goodies available in my IxCHeL shop! 

I’ve been concentrating on custom orders this week and lots of dyeing of the July clubs, which will be shipped next week! I haven’t had any time to dye or make new blends up though (hides in a corner …trying not to feel guilty and inadequate…rofl). There are loads of new things hopping your way though!! I just need a bit more time !

the sign ups for the fourth quarter of the Art journey clubs are open now! The last one of 2023 !! And you can find them here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

 Can you believe it how fast this year has gone?  **runs off in panic** (well, that’s a lie actually, I do not run…no, not even if a bear would chase me, but I’ve not had the pleasure to test that yet….and not planning to either 🤣)

Have a wonderful weekend! And please, whatever you do, have lots of fluffy fun!! Do everything you want, buy all the fluff on your wish list at the show (or here in my shop…😜) : the one with the most stash wins!

big hugs

 Charly

Precioousssss!

 

 

Just imagine having all these super fluffy soft rare breeds in your own back yard, ready for their coats to be combed, given cuddles and then your precious yarn spinning can begin ! A dream? well, I guess, but this is what I dream about so there I go, sourcing all those fibres sustainably and combine them all together.

Blending these fine fibres together is a very delicate business! Not only because it is very expensive to get wrong, but also because all these precious luxury fibres are fine and if you were to handle them wrong by carding them too much or abbrasively, you will get nepps. Nepps are littel annoying bits of broken off ends or the fibres. When you abuse the fine fibres by carding them too mauch, scouring them harshly, or blending them too much, nepps are what you will see appearing in the end product and believe me, nepps are okay if you you are spinning an art yarn or a tweedy looking yarn, but if you are aiming for a consistent fine or lace yarn, you do not want to spend a LOT of time picking out little bits out of you yarn WHILE you are spinning. Its annoying and time consuming and it does not make the spinning a relaxing and fun experience. Since it is relaxing fluffy fun I am after - and I hope you are too - I aim to care and blend these fibres very, very carefully. As you can imagine, this whole process takes a lot of time, but there is no point of rushing anything. Rushing things will give you the nepps...lol

The dyeing of these fibres are handled the same way: very Carefully, without harsh temperature changes, rubbing or being too impatient. Si again, I have to take my time, adding the dye pigments carefully, steaming for at least 45 minutes at a medium temperature and then letting it all cool down naturally, then rinsing the next day. 

You can see all the colours available in the shop here: https://ixchel.com.au/products/precious

Here is one of the new colourways on the Precious blend tops, but there are others as well like a recent Inkheart one and Scottish Heather, just to mention a few.

A word of warning: There is only a very low quantity of this blend available and when it is gone...it is....gone....

What else have I been doing this week? well, spinning! lots and lots of spinning ! The fact that the Tour de France/Tour de Fleece is happening at the moment makes for a LOT more spinning time, mainly because I stay up til about 3am...lol Lucky for me I can follow the Tour on my tablet, otherwise Paul and I would be competing because he wants to watch the Cricket...England - Australia, Third Test. Dont ask me anything about cricket..I tried, it kinda reminds me of baseball (which I love and grew up with) but it is wayyyyyyyy slower and if there would be a Tour de Cricket spinning version, I'd fall asleep...lol

So far, today will be stage 7, I have spun and plied 5x 50gram skeins of pure angora bunny fingering weight and spun and plied 100grams of Gothic Tops "Dark Secret" fine fingering weight. Another 100grams of Dark Secret Gothic tops in the same weight to go and then its off to more gothic tops spinning for custom orders but his time in "Rainbow" and "Pumpkin King".

Custom spinning, especially if its lace or fingering weight-a fine yarn-takes a long time. Spinning while the Tour is on makes it easier for me to realise that while the cyclists are riding about 170-200km, being on a bike for 4 hours, I can only spin 50grams of fine lace weight singles...not even a kilometer of yarn !!! and I am not a slow spinner ...lol  oh well, keep treadling I say ! a in a i estimate I have spun/pied  almost 9.5 kms of yarn during the first 6 days of the tour.

It is absolutely fantastic to see all the team members of Team IxCHeL sharing their photos of their spins on social media! it's like spinning yarn in a peloton of yarns spinners ! If you want to have a look : go to instagram (or facebook) and look up #TDFTeamIxchel

What else is new? Oh yes! the July Art Journey club is on its way being prepped and getting their colourful painting done this weekend. Shipping date either Friday 14th or Monday 17th of July , depending on the drying weather.

Here is a photo of the teaser label:

This month the colourway is inspired by an all time favourite artist of mine: Edward Hopper and his "Night Hawks" painting from 1942.

Sign ups for the new clubs for the last quarter of this year (where have the months gone?!?!?!) will be starting next week and I will put them on the ixchel shop. Please let me know if you have any questions okay? Always happy to help and enable.

Have a wonderful week filled with crafty fun !

Big hugs

Charly

You can find me on Instagram and Threads @ixchelbunny, on Facebook and you can of course shop on https://ixchel.com.au/  We are always open !