YARNS DYED WITH NATURAL DYES,
COLORS FROM PLANTS AND MUSHROOMS

 

Colors to Riihivilla yarns come from natural sources: plants, mushrooms, barks and even insects, like cochineal. The dyestuff is first extracted from plants or mushrooms by soaking, simmering or boiling and then bound to the fiber which is pre-treated with a so-called mordant. Riihivilla uses only the safest mordants, alum, cream of tartar and iron, which ensure the proper fixation of the dyestuff to the fiber.
The dye process is slow, hours, days and sometimes even weeks or months. Fermenting plant material gives time for the natural enzymes in the plants or mushrooms to change or release natural dyestuffs, which then bind strongly to the mordanted fibers. Best results come with time, you can't hurry nature.

Colors that come from plants or mushrooms are always a combination of many different dyestuffs. So many things affect to which dyestuff is bound to the fiber, or in which order they are bound and thus what the final color is: where the plant was grown, when it was harvested, how it was dried or processed before dyeng and how the actual dyeing was done. This is one of the fascinating things about natural dyes and which makes each color unique. Every yarn that comes from my dye pots is one of a kind! Sometimes the colors are close, but never just the same, and sometimes they are very different even with the same dyestuffs. With multi-colored yarns each skein is different, even when the colorway is the same and they come from the same dyepot. Please, keep this uniqueness in mind when you order my yarns. When I ran out of a dyelot, it can't be repeated.
You can read more about my dyeings in my BLOG.

With over 20 years experience I aim at as fast colors as possible, so many of my colors come from historically proven natural dyes: many reds from madder and cochineal and blues from indigo-bearing plants. All these are grown for dyeing around the world.
Finnish nature and forests give also many good dyeplants, tree leaves and barks and of course mushrooms, in which I am especially interested and which are abundant in Finland. I use a lot of local dye sources and grow also some dye plants in my garden.

I do everything by hand, starting by collecting the dyestuffs, preparing them and dyeing my yarns. My dye lots are not big, less than one kilo, all one of a kind. I hope that my enthusiasm for colors from nature shows in my yarns and passes on to you who knit with my yarns.
My colors are semi-solid, there is natural variation in the skeins and they are never dull flat colors. I emphasize this by dyeing a lot on natural grey or brown sheep wool and combining different dyestuffs. These colors go well together with each other and also with natural sheep colors. I hope that Riihivilla yarns have their own look.

I value lightfastness very much and try my best that my yarns are as fast as possible in every way, but natural dyes may fade a little in time, especially in strong sunlight. Think about the mellow colors in for instance old rugs, how beautyful they are.
Sometimes in strong colors there is little extra dye which may come off in the first wash, or rub to your hands, but it is not harmful and the colors won't mix. If you have allergies to plants, then the best choice for you is our natural sheep colored yarns.

Price of yarns dyed with natural dyes is 12-14€/100g.
Mushroom dyed and yarns dyed with multiple colors are 14€/100g.
Price of the smaller skeins is a little higher (per weight) due to the extra work in re-skeining.

You can find my naturally dyed yarns in my store under category Dyed yarns, Aarni and Mahinen yarns each in their own sub-categories.