Riihivilla – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Project Inventory

Today is nearing the end of the spring break. The weather has been wonderful, with a day of rain to clear the air, and sunny days with wind and fair skies. The trees are budding into leaf, the birds are making love songs, and the squirrels, well, are going nuts.

And in the middle of all this, I have managed to get a grip on things, meet up with people for lunch, read a bit, knit, and think about (but not do) some gardening. I have a fig tree and plum tree which need attention, a vine to move, and so on. And a lot of knitting projects. When I have time to play, I like to begin things. But do they get done?

Owls

All I need to do is sew on the buttons – but I made a mistake in the darts so, rip it or not? This is a pattern by Kate Davies at Needled.

Buttoned Cardigan

Only a few inches left on the sleeve and I am done. What’s taking me so long? This is a cardigan by Eva Weichmann, owner of Eva’s Needlework in Thousand Oaks, CA, which I’ve mentioned before.

Top Down Beret from Hell

I’m beginning the decreasing toward the brim . . . not soon enough!

Hat in Design Mode

I found an issue here – bobble placement. Back to the drawing board.

Golden Autumn by Lucy Sweetland

Just a gorgeous hat, but I got sidetracked. Lucy is one of my favorite designers and photographers.

Gloves

One hand down, another to go.

Mittens in Design Mode

Out of my Cascade 220 stash.

The Relentless Scarf

So boring I can’t stand it.

Socks

Lots of socks. Too many. And this is not all the inventory, either.

Socks to be Ripped

The yarn is from Riihivilla in Finland, naturally dyed with cochineal and indigo. I’ve decided that the yarn is too pretty to hide on my feet, so now all this is sitting on my desk while I reconsider how to use the yarn to show it off.

Victorian Lace Shawl

Nearly done. It’s been sitting on a shelf for two years. I don’t know what is taking me so long, but I think it will get finished pretty soon. It is a beautiful yarn, perfect for the pattern, and the colors have a lovely iridescence.

What’s a girl to do?

Thockies, ii

Having another week off before returning to school is soooooo nice! I’ve been able to sort out yarn, focus on designing a few things, and soon enough, get some sumi-e done as well.

I was pretty sure I would make socks out of the Riihivilla yarn – and decided that is exactly what I would do. My final choice of contrasting yarn was a warm, naturally creamy white. The warmth of this white is far nicer with the colors than the stark, wintery white I first considered, and does a lot to bring out the warm reds of the cochineal and purple of the variegated yarn.

You can see from the pictures that the color differences, while subtle, are readily apparent. The hand of the wool is very pleasant and has a nice bounce to it. I’m looking forward to wearing these socks!

When you dye with natural dyes, it is very easy to make a yarn become harsh and unpleasant, partly from the handling of the wool – such as extreme temperatures – or the chemicals involved. These yarns are mordanted with alum, and obviously handled properly. Having dyed with plants myself, I know only how easy it is to mess up and ruin an otherwise nice yarn. Leena Riihelä, the owner of Riihivilla in Finland, has done a great job!

Thockies, i

Recently, I bought some lovely vegetable dyed Finn sheep yarn from Leena Riihelä in Finland; her company is Riihivilla. She blogs and writes in both Finnish and English. Her service, communication, packaging, colors and yarns are fabulous! She also designs mittens and other items, and sells complete kits with enough yarn to complete the project.

I chose her purple colorway, dyed with cochineal and Japanese indigo, which consists of three skeins in three colors. Two of the colors are solid, a rather deep wine rather than violet, and they are different in shade so that when knitted, there will be definite color contrasts. The third skein is multicolor, and ranges in violets to the reds of the solid skeins. Together, the three are very attractive and coordinate well. My plan for them is to make socks, but I want something that will help set the colors up to be seen and appreciated. Because these colors are so beautiful and the yarn is so nice, they definitely need something special to show them off!

My first inclination was to pull out some white sock yarn close to the Finn in weight, but the white was a very bright white, and rather harsh a contrast as far as I was concerned. I thought maybe black, but that was too grim. Other considerations were a warm cream color or a heathery grey, such as found in natural sheep wool colors. As I’ve been spinning for years, I rummaged through my handspun stash, singles and plied, and came across a large ball of 2-ply in a light grey.

The ball I’d wound the yarn into was falling apart, so I decided to rewind it into new, tidy balls. This is when I realized that the yarn as it was would not work. For a while, I was into making very fine, very softly spun yarn, to ply together with the goal of cobweb or lace weight yarn, and this yarn is representative of that time period. Rewinding it into new balls brought out the fact the yarn was weak – the spin too soft – and it would break apart – really, just slide apart – as I was rewinding it.

Given the time it takes to spin up yarn, I decided to recycle it by plying it into a 4-ply with a tighter twist, and a lot of knots. I can always weave in ends where I untie the knots. The result is a very twisty, fine 4-ply which is about the same width as the Finn. As I write this, the final skein (185 yds) is soaking in warm water with hair rinse before it is hung to dry and set the new twist.

Meantime, as the grey yarn dries, I plan to design a sock which will show off each of the three colors in a stripey way, with a pattern of some variety in there using the grey yarn.