For Madelon

In november the daughter of G. did let me know, in her own subtle way, that she is fond of my crocheted blankets, and especially the one made from almost white wool and many colors. So I checked my rather huge stash of Riihivilla yarn, wool from Leena Riihela, a finnish woman. In the spring she collects fleeces from Finnsheep, an old landrace from Finland. Wool from finnsheep is soft, and it contains lots of lanolin which makes it warm. She takes the fleeces to the mill where they are spinned into yarns, and they are processed as little as possible. She used to have her own flock of sheep, but didn't have the time anymore.
She dies her yarn with natural sources, plants, mushrooms, barks, and even insects, like cochineal.  I remember the days, over 30 years ago, I died this way too. Many of her colors come from historically proven natural dyes, reds from madder and cochineal, and blues from indigo bearing plants. She also uses lots of mushrooms, which was new to me.
Leena has a weblog where she often describes the dying proces of the yarn. It's very interesting to read.
I think the colors she dies are amazing, and I do like the touch of the yarn.
Over 8 years ago I started to collect her yarns, I stopped about 2 years ago, because our income decreased a lot.

This is the blanket I crocheted for Madelon, I will give it to her on her birthday next month. (she doesn't read my blog) . I used so many colors. I had called Madelons mother if she knew how big Madelon would like to have her blanket, and it measures 2x2 mtr. The biggest one I made.