Knitting Iceland Part 4: Textile Museum in Blönduós and Intarsia Knitting

The next part of our Knitting Iceland tour brought us to the picturesque seaside town of Blönduós. Blönduós boasts a population of 1000, spectacular salmon fishing, and one of the most amazing textile museums of all time! We were lucky enough to stay at an old women's college that is right next door to the textile museum and right on the water. The rooms were decorated with wallpaper, photos of past graduates, and antique sewing machines!


The textile museum at Blönduós houses the amazing collection of Halldóra Bjarnadóttir who had an affinity for weaving, knit items, traditional costumes and all sorts of woolen treasures. We were lucky enough to have the museum opened just for us (it usually closes September 1st for the winter) and we were allowed to don white gloves and handle the collection.


One unique part of Iceland's knitting tradition is their woolen shoe inserts. These inserts were knit with amazing garter stitch intarsia. It is very rare to see intarsia done in garter stitch, but it was probably used because garter stitch produces a fuller fabric that would have been warmer in Iceland's harsh climate. The inserts were put into traditional fish skin shoes and would wear out quickly when walking across the sharp lava fields, so they were a wardrobe staple that was knit often. They were very colorful - the perfect way for a knitter to use up scraps of bright yarn! The textile museum has an impressive collection of these inserts and it was inspiring to see all of the colorful patterns.


There were so many mittens! There were knit mittens, embroidered mittens, mittens made from naturally dyed yarn, and photos of naalbinded mittens. If you need ideas for knitting mittens, may we suggest a trip to the textile museum of Blönduós?


Amber and I found the most amazing artifact of all time in the textile museum - these shoes that were naalbinded with horsehair. We're not sure who would have worn these shoes which were perhaps the pokiest, prickliest shoes we've ever touched. It would take a real Viking man or woman to wear these shoes!


There were many examples of knitted lace. Our favorite were these two shawls which showed the difference between knitting with the thel versus the tog of the Icelandic sheep. Icelandic sheep are unique in that they are dual coated. The outer layer of wool is called the tog and consists of coarse, long hairs that are durable and waterproof. The undercoat is the thel and is soft and fine. The shawl in the foreground on the right is knit with just the soft thel and is very light and airy. The shawl in the background toward the left is knit with just the tog and is stiffer and holds the shape of the lace very well. Lopi yarn uses both the thel and tog together and that is what makes it so warm and lofty while also being sturdy and durable.


After our visit to the textile museum (and the super-fun Blönduós swimming pools) we sat down for a class on intarsia knitting with Hélène Magnússon. Hélène is one of the founders of Knitting Iceland and is also the author of the book, "Icelandic Color Knitting" which features modern intarsia patterns inspired by the patterns found in the traditional Icelandic shoe inserts. Hélène taught us how to do garter stitch intarsia while making a tiny shoe insert. Intarisa is challenging, but super exciting once you get the hang of it.


Hélène also showed us how to do Slynging (pronounced slinking) an old and traditional type of weaving that was often used on the edges of the shoe inserts (a future Lost Crafts Series class perhaps?).


Check back tomorrow for our trip to the Hvanneyri Agricultural College where we get to spin Icelandic wool and learn about dyeing yarn naturally with Icelandic plants...

Knitting Iceland Part 3: Sheep Sorting in Auðkúla

Ragga and Hélène had a super awesome surprise for us on our journey from Hveravellir to Blönduós: a stop in the rolling countryside of Auðkúla for sheep sorting, or réttir day! There are no large predatory animals in Iceland, so every spring Icelandic sheep are let loose in order to graze all over the countryside. In the fall, the sheep must be brought in so they can spend the harsh winters in the shelter of their respective farm. As you might imagine, the sheep get very mixed up out in the wild so it is quite a task sorting them all out - here's how it happens.


First, all of the sheep are rounded up and brought into to Auðkúlurétt by people on foot, on horseback, and on ATVs - this is called göngur. Once all the sheep have been gathered, everyone in the surrounding areas arrives to help the farmers for réttir.


The sheep are separated out into more manageable batches of about 100 and herded into a central corral where everyone is waiting to sort them. Coming off of this corral are about 20 long pens - each one is marked with a code above its gate that designates a farm. This central corral is where all the magic happens.

this photo courtesy of Debi Stolier

Everyone grabs a sheep by the horns. Once you have a sheep you will want to throw your leg over it and straddle it for better control as they are wily! Next you try to get a look at the tag on your sheep's ear which will have a code printed on it - this designates which farm the sheep belongs to and will correspond with the code above one of the pens attached to the main corral. You find the correct pen and steer or drag or carry your sheep (depending on how cooperative it is) to the right pen and put it in the pen through the gate. Yay! You've just sorted one sheep. Now grab another one and do it again and again and again. Once all the sheep in the corral have been sorted, its time to go back into the main field and separate out another 100 sheep to sort and the whole process starts again.


Everyone can help out on sheep sorting day. It is hard work and takes hours to get all the sheep in the right place. All of us were able to lend a hand sorting the sheep and the Icelanders were surprised to see tourists not afraid to get their hands dirty wrangling sheep. Of course, we could hardly wait to get our hands on those woolly, fluffy cuties! From top left moving clockwise, here are some of the sheep wranglers: Ragga, Debi, April, Amber, cute Icelandic boys, Mary Ann, cute Icelandic girl, and Ysolda. Nice work everyone!

clockwise from top left photos 2, 6 & 8 courtesy of Debi Stolier

Some of the sheep were born after they were turned out to pasture in the spring and therefore do not have tags. These lambs are collected into a pen in the middle of the corral for sorting later. They are not opposed to cuddling.


Once all the sheep from the main pen have been sorted, its not over - there are thousands more sheep in other pens waiting for their turn. The new batch of sheep are herded into the main pen. It was awesome to watch so many thousands of sheep running and jumping into the main pen. Those sheep can really jump high!



Well, it looks like there are a few thousand more sheep to sort, but we must head to Blönduós. Good luck Auðkúlurétt!


Check back on Monday for our visit to the Textile Museum in the lovely seaside town of Blönduós...