Hang on to your hats...

 (photo by Blackthorn)

After a long absence due to illness and personal circumstances, Whorled Domination will be back up and running very soon! I am also very happy to announce that I have become a stockist (first in WA, and to my knowledge only the second in Australia) for Blackthorn carbon fibre DPNs!

Blackthorn carbon fibre needles are AMAZING - I have had a full set of sizes for a year now and they are so much more comfortable than metal, wood or plastic needles to knit with! I have fibromyalgia so they are the best thing I could have bought myself to allow me to continue knitting - bamboo needles are too sticky and break too easily for me, and metal, wood or plastic are too rigid and hurt my hands after a very short time which means I can only use them in very short bursts. Blackthorn are made from carbon fibre which is light, warm, quiet, not too grippy or slick, and flexes with you as you knit but always retain their original shape (so no more bent or broken needles - Blackthorns are unbreakable). They are currently available as DPNs and Chris is working on the perfect circs (I will keep you all posted on developments on that front, as Chris has been working on getting the perfect join so that it won’t come undone or catch the yarn, and finding the perfect cable that isn’t too rigid and keeps its shape).
They come in a range of sizes from US 0000 (1.25mm) to US 4 (3.5mm) and in a 6 inch (15cm) length as standard - and you also get not 4 but 5 needles in a set. Retail price is $35 per set, or there is a full set of all the sizes of DPNs (9 sizes in total - 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5, 2.75, 3, 3.25, and 3.5mm - and Chris also has 2.25mm needles as an alternate US 1) which comes in its own leather zipped case with a free needle gauge included and is $325 (this is what I have and believe me, it is WELL worth the initial expense, I will never have to buy DPNs again unless I want multiple sets of certain sizes!) The leather cases and needle gauges are also available separately for $46 and $5 respectively, and the cases come in black or red. Blackthorn DPNs are also available in custom lengths (4”, 5”, 7” and 8”).

If you would like to order a set of Blackthorns, please feel free to email me at whorled.dom@optusnet.com.au, as I will be placing an order in the next couple of weeks.  

In other news, Whorled Domination will be back in full swing soon - keep an eye out for information on clubs, fibre, yarns, needles, and of course, SPINDLES! :D Come on over to our facebook page to keep up with all the latest news! Don't forget the etsy store will be up again soon with plenty to buy (although sadly due to Etsy rules, the Blackthorns will not be available through my store, just here or the facebook page). If you haven't already, please drop by our Ravelry group and come say hi! I have lots of big plans for 2013, so please feel free to drop by and join the group to keep up with all the latest news as it happens :) 

Something else exciting that has happened this week is that I have been invited to enter Aspen's fluff in the Royal Melbourne Show! I plucked her winter coat now that the weather is getting warmer, and posted a photo on facebook - shortly after this I received a message from somebody who is involved in the show, asking me if I would like to enter Aspen's wool! I'm SO ridiculously excited about this because I have never even considered entering anything in a Royal Show before, and because it's wonderful for Aspen, being a rescue bunny and all :D I am so proud of my girl - she has such a sad history (overbred at a very young age and ending up completely unsocialised with either people or other bunnies as a result, being rescued from the breeder and deemed permanently unsuitable for adoption, spending 2yrs in foster care before coming to me...and now she is the sweetest, most sociable bunny around and her fluff is going to be in the Melbourne Royal Show!) Talk about being a poster girl, not only for angoras but for rescue bunnies as well :D Here's the pic I posted on facebook of her beautiful coat:

And here's a photo of Aspen before plucking, in Power-Puff mode:

My regular weekly blog updates will be starting again soon with all sorts of wonderful goodies, so stay tuned! :)

It's going to be a big year...

....so I am kicking off the first blog update for 2012 with a whole lot of new things! 2011 was a pretty drama-filled year for me - I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia; my youngest son had numerous problems coping at school and was finally officially diagnosed as high-functioning autistic; I underwent major abdominal surgery; I adopted 2 lovely angora rabbits and a lop, and took on a long-term foster angora, and then shortly after that I lost Mr. D. 

Farewell, Mr. D, and hello Mr. Strauch.

Sad news this week - on Monday morning when I went to check on the bunnies, I found Mr. D lying in the pen looking like he was sleeping. But when he didn't move at the sound of the door opening, I realised we had lost him, for no discernible reason :( I had checked on the bunnies before I went to bed only 6 hours before, and Mr. D had been his usual cheeky self, bouncing around and putting his little paws up on the wire of the pen to ask me where his treat was (he knew that I would give the bunnies a treat every night when I checked them on my way to bed). So it was quite a shock and very upsetting to find him dead, with no clue as to what happened - he just looked as if he had sprawled on the floor in his usual corner and was having a snooze :(

Beautiful Bella the Wonder-Dog!

This week's featured Whorled Domination! staff member is Bella the Wonder-Dog, our Postal Alert System and Security Manager. As you can see, she's quite the ham:

"HALP!!! Mah daddy's stranglin' meeeeee!" :D

Bunnies, dyeing and samples, oh my!

This week's update is heavy on pictures and light on goodies for sale, as I have had a chaotic week with Aspen and trying to very slowly assimilate her into the household - she started out in a separate pen of her own, in my living room so that the other bunnies wouldn't try to fight with her or anything:

Today we welcome our new furbaby, Aspen :) She is another rescue angora, and has quite a sad tale - she was rescued from a breeder after being made to have several litters of kits while she was still very young, and as a consequence has never really been properly socialised with either people, or other bunnies. 

Summer is a comin'.....

...and so is bunny haircut time! Chuubi did NOT approve of this haircut in the least, well until we got home anyway! Then she promptly flattened herself against my hardwood floor and stayed there for quite a while enjoying the cool after a few days of high temperatures and humidity. I was curious to see how much fluff Chuubi actually had, so I weighed it - she wasn't even in full coat, and had a whopping 96g of wool! Almost as good as her buddy Mr D, who had his haircut last week and after all the matts were removed, provided a full 100g of the most gorgeously soft chocolate fluff, despite also not being in full coat. I am going to be sneezing angora "snow" for at least a week now after their haircuts lol, and I can tell that if they keep growing fluff at the rate they are now, I will pretty soon be swamped in angora fibre! :D