Super cute rare sheep breed to spin

  

 

It's that time of year again : everybody seems to get ready for Christmas, there are so many Black Friday Sales emails I'm being bombarded with just like everybody else I suppose and I do not know what to do first or next. I feel like I am one step away from feeling like a deer staring at the headlights of oncoming traffic, but//thanks to my chaotic organising skills (insert sarcasm) i just keep going and hope for the best. Trying to survive as a small craft producer is hard enough but I see more and more feeling they need to compete with large companies who can afford to slash their prices every now and again…for small businesses that is  just not an option, especially when you are not an on seller but make everything your self. So, I have decided very early on in my journey, which I can proudly say has been almost twenty years…(oh gawd I feel very very old now🤣), that I would do my own thing, try the very very best at all times and not do any sales..specially not Black Fridays since it has such a bad connotation in Australia ( Black Friday is known here as the bush fire disaster 1939 and black Saturday bushfires in 2009). So sorry to disappoint all of you who thought there was going to be a big sale on, BUT I am planning my yearly twelve days of Christmas event again: more on that later ! 

The December clubs are al dyed and drying as I type this, the organising of the batts and the labels and the packing comes next. It is looking so pretty!! No, I am not saying another word...but I can show you the teaser label

 

Btw: The Art Journey club sign ups for the first quarter of 2024 are filling up fast, so if you want to join the fun please head over to the ixchel shop and go to the fibre , batt or yarn club product page. If you would like to become member of more than one, please email me so I can combine the shipping for you to save you heaps of shipping costs! Here is the link: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

There are also new shop updates planned for the next few weeks of course, the dye pots will be busy !!! AND, to top it all off: THE event of the year is happening very, very soon too: THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EVENT !!!  I may not do any sales or black Friday events or discount galore stuff during the rest of the year, but I AM doing a very SPECIAL twelve days of Christmas event with special products and extra special prices  as a fundraiser for wildlife preservation just like every year!

More on the twelve days of Christmas event next Friday ! 

This week I have a fab blend for you  : 

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 ! spinning this blend will give you a gorgeous heathered and saturated, magical colour play yarn, that is soft and suitable to close to skin wear with a gorgeous drape.

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. ortunately, 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 color. 

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 more.

 I have taken great care to only select the finest of the Ouessant fibre and blending that with the shiny Blue faced Leicester and the mulberry silk  to create a beautiful heathered effect when dyed. The natural colour of this blend is fabulous and takes the dye beautifully: because there are so many different natural colours in the base, it creates a magical depth and variety of tones. 

I have dyed up some new colourways again…(couldn't help myself..) like: Just Ken (celebrating the fabulous Ryan Gosling as Ken in the Barbie movie..I couldn’t get that song out of my head🤣), Kingfisher blues, a new take on Mermaid Reality Show and secret garden and of course: freshly Dyed versions of Pumpkin King and Autumn Glow and secret Garden. I think Secret Garden together with Just Ken are my favourites this week.

Which ones are yours?

mermaid reality show top

secret garden tops

kingfisher blues

just Ken

Pumpkin King

Goblin

autumn glow

You can find all these new tops right here: https://ixchel.com.au/products/ouessant-bfl-silk

Wishing everybody  a very happy and craft filled weekend !

Big hugs

Charly

Dreamy

 

All of a sudden everything around me is yelling out Christmas: all the advertisements, all the shops and tv ads, everything has started shouting Christmas and I have to say.. I am still stuck in Halloween mode..lol I mean, when did it get Christmassy in Mid November?!? I’m not ready!!! And there’s so much to do! I’m hyperventilating just thinking how much needs to be done. Let me sum it up for you :

1. The November clubs were just shipped out and I have to dye the December clubs right away because of Australia Post Xmas shipping  deadlines, which means the December club needs to leave here,packed and ready to go before the end of November! 

2. The weekly updates are still going as well, so that’s extra…and,

3. the big yearly IxCHeL fundraising “twelve days of Xmas”- event starting December 1st until December 12th is getting closer and closer, so more to organise and dye and get ready! (More info on that even coming soon!) 

in short, I need a bit more time…lol  One of these days I will get my hands on a TARDIS/Time machine DeLorean….

Apart from that I’ve had a bit of a melt down…both physically and mentally…physically because blending, dyeing, schlepping wet fibres and yarns around is killing my back and of course I don’t know how to stop, which doesn’t make it easier. Then, in pain, I am more susceptible to those pesky devils yelling in my ears that times are super tough and I have to do more and sell more and somehow get more likes and sales ..and…yes.. not good. If there is anything I (should’ve) learnt after almost twenty years of doing this, is NOT to compare myself to anybody else, not to listen to social media bs that all the “influencers” are peddling and are absolutely not necessarily linked to reality. Everybody is different..thankfully!  It’s tough but hey, I am one of the lucky ones: I’m still here ! That is what I am always telling myself to get rid of the bad voices…doesn’t always work, but then I remember I have a sense of humour and that makes the negativity disappear. 
I think I will have to put all my “running a small craft business”  adventures into a novel sometime, when I have time…insert hysterical laughter…lolol

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah… tonight’s fabulously soft update!! I am super happy about this blend, which I haven’t put out there a lot apart from some clubs. I always thrive to create blends that are soft, lush and a bit special. This blend on show tonight is a mix of super soft 18micron huacaya alpaca blended with superfine merino and a big dash of mulberry silk. All of this is blended thoroughly to ensure easy drafting  and spinning. If you are a felter: it is absolutely amazing to felt too! By blending merino and alpaca together it results in extra soft and a tiny bit fluffy yarn or fabric with memory. 
Wool has memory, alpaca far less so and some people have experienced a “falling or dropping”:of garments they have knitted because of this. Well, you will not have any problems with this blend. Because it is so well blended with the super fine merino, which has a memory (I don’t mean it remembers what you have been doing and tell tales, no, I mean after wearing and washing, your garment will remember their original shape). The mulberry silk adds a pearlescent luxury and shine to it all, resulting in a beautiful yarn you can use for anything: shawls, jumpers, socks, hats, dresses even or why not a skirt?

I have had lots of fun dyeing this blend and it took the dye beautifully, resulting in saturated colours. I have dyed different colourways that hopefully lots of people with different tastes will love, ranging from romantic and dreamy to autumnal and ..let’s not forget purples and blues!

Here are a few examples and you can find them all right here in the what’s new folder (or just go to the Machu Picchu blend in the search function) : https://ixchel.com.au/products/machu-picchu

Colourway: gobble gobble

colourway: romantics

Colourway Wicked Autumn

Colourway Wizards

colourway Ice Forest

Colourway Gothic Velvet

Colourway: Rhapsody in blue

Colorway Water dragon

Colourway silver grapes 

I can hear you say..is that all?No! Of course not! There is more! Paul has made some amazing chalice lap owls to make your support spindling magical and easy. They are all gorgeous but the purple heart one is super special. I will add a short video of how it shines to my social media so you can have a look at the shimmer and shine ✨ 

Well, that’s it from me for now: so much to do, so little time! Oh yes, before I forget!! I will add a post with the December club teaser label over the weekend on my social media AND remember: sign ups for the next quarter of art journey clubs are open now on the website here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

please let me know if you have any questions, custom dye or spin requests: always happy to help and enable. Just email me or message me on my social media!

have a wonderful crafty weekend!

big hugs

charly

Sparkle Like Magic

 

The week that I am blending and dyeing the art journey club of the month is always extra, extra busy, because I still somehow have not managed to dye Friday blog updates ahead of time..you know, be ahead of the game…nope, not me…always the chaos bunny, hopping from one thing to another. I’m great at multitasking though but planning ahead of time seems to be lacking…lol  mind you, I was the same at school and University: deadlines seem to invigorate my sense of timing..especially when they are threatening to whoosh past. Somehow I get extra energetic right about the time that the deadlines are about to hit and so here I am, typing away on this blog five minutes before I should press “publish” and hope for the best. One day I hope I get it all under control, get the Nobel Prize for best planner in the history of planning activities …I won’t hold my breath…I’ll be happy if I remember to eat and drink, but that’s another story 🤣

Here’s a little pre view of the first base of the yarn dyeing (before the final glazing and finishing) based on Canadian painter Emily Carr of her  painting “Vanquished” from 1930. I can’t wait to show you photos of the fibre, batt and the yarn club, but that will have to wait a bit. I will post on social media with a teaser as soon as the November clubs are shipped next week and about a few weeks later I will post the overview.

Looking at all the advertising and the organisation of the grocery stores Christmas is around the corner. How did that happen?!! It was just July a week ago it seems …lol  Which brings me to two things I have to discuss with you:

1. The twelve days of Christmas event is coming ! The annual fundraising event,  December 1st til December 12th at noon. Put it in your calendar! As usual I will post on Instagram and Facebook every day at noon and the daily super offers will be available on the website at 12pm AEDT as well. It is a great way to get a fantastic offer on fibre, yarn, spindles and very extra special crafty stuff. Plus, 10% of sales will go towards a good cause. More on that later 💕

2. Art Journey Clubs 2024! I am already organising fabulous fibres to go towards these art journey clubs. Sign ups are open on the shop and you can already make sure you’ll receive a monthly surprise parcel based on a different inspirational artwork each month. Only a limited amount of spots are available so if you don’t want to miss out on a spinning or knitting adventure: don’t wait too long!

You can find all the information of all the Art Journey Club sign ups right here : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

3. IxCHeL gift cards! It can be very hard to pick a gift even a crafty gift for someone so I’ve made it a lot easier: gift cards! You don’t even have to parcel it up and post it and hope it will arrive on time: gift cards are available instantaneously, emailed to you! Easy !

Here is the link to the IxCHeL gift cards : https://ixchel.com.au/products/ixchel-gift-vouchers

So, what’s new for this Friday update? I have to admit for the last few weeks I just loooooved everything sparkly! Can’t help myself! Lol  last week with the DIVA tops with its gorgeous ice glitz sparkle and this week with a restock of my MAGIC tops with extra special rainbow dyed glitz blended very well throughout the blend. 

Magic tops are easy to spin and soft close to skin wear fibre blend with rainbow dyed fire star. 
Fire star is man made fibre, a type of trilobal nylon. It refracts the light like a tiara in sunshine. When the sunlight hits your garment made with Magic tops, you will light up a room like a supernatural unicorn 🦄  in time for all your Christmas parties! Fabulous for magical, enchanting felting projects as well !

Fibre Top Roving details: Superfine Merino 70%, Rainbow dyed Fire Star 20%, Cashmere 10%

Lots of fun colourways, like happy rainbows, gorgeous lilacs and sumptuous poppy field reds.

Here is the link to get your magic on : https://ixchel.com.au/products/magic

If you thought that was all you are wrong! The bearded dragon aka Paul, has been busy wood turning some absolute beautiful support spindles with inlay, a gorgeous Osage orange drop spindle, Nostepinne to make the most gorgeous centre pulled yarn balls and super special chalice lap owls to make your support spindling extra easy.

Here are some photos : 

just go to the “what’s new” section here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

If you are after something custom dyed, carded or woodturner, please let me know! Always happy to enable ! Nothing is too small or…too big 😉

Wishing everybody a wonderful, crafty and happy weekend!

have fun!

big hugs

Charly

Spin like a DIva

 

There were a lot of blending and dyeing adventures this week. Safe to say I was a busy bee hopping here there and everywhere and gave myself absolutely no time to do some knitting, so no MKALS have been finished at all. 

It takes a lot of time to keep up with all the ideas i have and it is true that every time I voice my "eureka" moment to Paul, he sits down and very seriously tells me : " everytime you have an idea, it means a lot of work". Of course I cannot argue with that at all...but I can't help myself.

Unfortunately for me, because I create all the things  aka ideas by hand, it means a lot of time. Even, I have to add, if you were to give all those things to a robot or AI, there is absolutely no way in the world that it could churn out the creative and manual process needed to create something like what i do. and you know what? throughout history there have been all kinds of powerful and rich people trying to automate creative processes: weaving, spinning, dyeing and still at this moment in history, creatives (writers, craftspeople, artists) are being "attached" again...and you have to wonder why and you have to wonder if it can be at all successful.

I wonder what your thoughts about all this AI stuff is. As a writer of blogs I was surprised to receive an email from some AI app saying I would now be able to blog using AI with an ooutput of 2000words and 1100 blogs a day.... After the headdesk and contemplatimg how on earth this AI content could be of any value.. I started wondering how many blogs, articles or news we read that is not created by humans. 

I have always been complaining about not having enough time to create but this AI taking over the creative process and output so you can have more time to do other stuff is not the answer...in my humpe opinion. 

Creating words, yarns, stories, cloth, art, wearables and craft is exciting...time consuming but totally and utterly humanly necessary. As soon as you would replace the whole process what are we left with? what would you do instead? what would we be left without creating ? go on a holiday, sleep in? do nothing?  Immediately the scene from Wall-e the movie comes to mind where we are all on a semi cruise ship in space, when our home planet was destroyed, lounging about and not even able to get up out of our lounge chairs...

I say, stay magical, stay creative and critical, be unpredictable and creative. Have an adventure! Make mistakes and discover new things. Create, Spin, Weave and do everything by hand and take all the time you want. 

For this update I give you a freshly blended new blend I called DIVA, a 24 carrot glamour blend with superfine merino, cashmere, Angora bunny and a touch of glitz for some fab sparkle in your life!

Also some new amazing spindle cups and bowls are available ! From Pearlescent glazes to beautiful blue sky crackle glazes. They are a brilliant companion to your support spindles !

Wishing you a wonderful creative weekend ! 

Here's the link to all things NEW and shiny and pretty :

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

Be you!

Be Magical !

Be a Diva !

Big hugs

Charly