Better Know A Crafter: Knitting in the Wild North Edition

Jaime and I had so much fun in Iceland--it was seriously magical. Iceland is an amazing place. One of the things that made it so incredible was the lovely and inspiring knitters we met on our journey. We adored each and every one. Here are the folks that made Knitting in the Wild North so fantastic!

Ragnheiður "Ragga" Eiríksdóttir

Ragga is one of the ladies behind Knitting Iceland, the folks who organized the Knitting in the Wild North tour. Ragga is a native Icelander, and has a great passion for the Lopi wool and Icelandic knitting tradition and it was catching. After taking Ragga's Lopi sweater class and seeing the many sweaters she was knitting while on our trip we were hooked. Thanks so much for sharing your passion!

Hélène Magnússon

Hélène is another amazing lady behind Knitting Iceland. She totally impressed us with her amazing intarsia. Hélène showed us many samples from her book on Icelandic Color Knitting and we were blown away by the complex color work. It was great to learn intarsia from such an expert. Hélène also was our hiking leader and showed us which mushrooms and lichens to pick and stowed away coffee, tea and chocolate in her backpack, for which we are grateful.

Ysolda Teague

photo of Ysolda in her Lopi Sweater courtesy of Ysolda Teague

Ysolda has been inspiring us with her amazing knitting patterns since back when we first fell in love with her Urchin hat pattern. Since then we've knitted with fervor her plethora of beautiful patterns. Her Coraline, Damson, Emily and Ishbel are just a few of our favorites! It was great to meet Ysolda and get to know her. She blew us away with her ability to make up a pattern for a fitted sweater in a slip stitch pattern on the fly while riding on bumpy buses. It was so inspiring to take her shaping class and we are looking forward to her upcoming book on sweaters. We can't wait!

Ingibjörg

What would we do without Ingibjörg? This fabulous viking lady was our chef, driver and tour guide extraordinaire--not to mention a fabulous knitter and naalbinder. That's right, Ingibjörg is helping to keep the endangered viking craft of naalbinding alive. She amazed us with her many talents!

Shannon

Can you believe this sweater? And these mittens? And this shawl? And this hat!? Shannon impressed us with all of her handknits. Shannon hails from Toronto and was very adventurous with her eating habits and willingness to try every Icelandic dish put in front of her.

Mary Ann

photo of Mary Ann in her Ripley courtesy of Hélène Magnússon

Mary Ann is from Portland, Oregon. She is seen here staying warm in the Icelandic highlands in her Ripley hat, another fantastic Ysolda pattern. When not knitting, Mary Ann can be seen wrangling sheep in the Icelandic countryside. She was the best sheep wrangler of us all and showed us all how to get in there and wrastle a sheep!

Diane

photo of Diane in her pretty sweater courtesy of Diane

Diane is from Wisconsin. She is retired and spends a lot of her time knitting hats for the troops. She has knit something like three million hats to donate to the troops and luckily kept this one for herself (this may be an exaggeration, but she's knit a lot of them!). She also knit the awesome sweater she is wearing in this photo. Thanks for inspiring us with your giving nature, Diane!

Debi

This is one of about 50 knit or crocheted items that Debi brought along. She has only been knitting since February, but you can tell she is on her way to knitting stardom with her prolific knitting. Debi was the first knitter we met on the plane to Iceland - we could pick her out because of the cute Owls sweater she was wearing. Debi, I wish I could finish half of the things you do!

Cindy

This is Cindy from the Netherlands showing off a small portion of the stash she acquired in Iceland. We loved Cindy's bubbly personality and adorable accent. Here she is wearing a sampling of the gorgeous lace she knits. I wish we could meet her children which I imagine to be decked out in knits from head to toe!

Amber

Amber is from Minnesota. Like everyone, Amber was sporting super-hot handknit garments everyday such as this owl sweater and another brown sweater knit on tiny needles that was gorgeous. What we loved best though, were her mittens. Adorable colorwork mittens with robots or koi made us want to knit some so bad!

Catriona

Catriona is from Canada--we now are under the impression that Canada is filled with nothing but amazing knitters who just wear handknit garments at all times. Here Catriona is showing off a stunning Koigu shawl and purple cardigan, photographed in her natural habitat surrounded by yarn.

April

photo of April in the elf hole courtesy of Debi Stolier

April, also from Canada, was so awesome because she could fit into elf holes and we believe she might secretly be an elf. She also had a sweet urchin hat knit out of a "Unicorn wool" so you know we loved it. It was so great to meet you, April!

So these are all the amazing ladies we were fortunate enough to travel through Iceland with. We were inspired daily by them and it just makes us so proud to be a part of the worldwide knitting community. This concludes our reports on Iceland, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

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...