Photo Recap: Knit Iceland September 2016

I'm back from taking my first knitting tour to Iceland... and without hesitation I can say THAT WAS FUN!!! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram I was posting photos and videos from my phone during the trip, but this post will give you a little more detail about what we saw and did!

You'll quickly see that in 6 days we did ALOT, that it was cold, and that I want to go again and again and again! Every day had a wool focused activity but we also got to see and learn a great deal about Iceland's culture, geology, and history. This is just an overview, I took over a 1,000 photos, and life is too short to process them all!

Day 1: Arrival in Reykjavik...
I dub this... the day of the zombies! We took an overnight flight and then had a tour of Reykjavik while we waited for hotel rooms to be ready. We saw the Hallgrímskirkja Church, visited the Iceland Handknitter's Association, found coffee and more!

Önd our fearless leader at the Perlan on Öskjuhlíð hill

Welcome dinner at the harbor.... I wish you could see the view we had, it was amazing!

Day 2: The Golden Circle and Pingborg

What a day.... we learned a ton about Iceland's geology while visiting Thingvellir (a rift where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet),

Gulfoss (you know I love a waterfall)

Lunch at a geothermal hydroponic tomato farm... first we learned about hydroponic farming in Iceland and then we ate REALLY yummy tomato soup and bread!

We ended with a visit to Pinborg a wool cooperative with a gorgeous array of yarn and handmade items... I got a kit of naturally dyed lopi to go with some Plutolopi I got there a few years ago!

Day 3: Istex Factory, Alafoss Factory Store, the Icelandic Museum and the Northern Lights
A visit to the Istex Factory where we learned about the wool industry in Iceland and got to see how raw fleece is turned into yarn, lopi style. This is the only wool mill in Iceland.

Afterwards we went to the Alafoss outlet where everyone shopped for yarn (I have no photos from this as I was helping everyone spend their money....) There was also a quick photoshoot (see below) and then a visit to the National Museum of Iceland. Then we took a break because..... that night we went out searching for the Northern Lights! We had a 50% chance of finding them... and guess what?

We found them... the camera actually picked them up much better than the naked eye.
Next time I need to take my tripod, it was hard to hold the camera still enough!

Day 4: The Saga Trails and dyeing workshop with Gudrun
This day we drove out to the Hvalfjordur (Whale Fjord) along the drive our tour guide, Gudrun recapped some Icelandic Sagas while we drank up the scenery and knitted (the best kind of book on tape ever!)

We stopped at Barnafoss on our way... there was literally a waterfall coming out the side of the riverbank, it was breathtaking...

Then we stopped at a Deildartunguhver Europe's most powerful thermal spring where 180 l/sec of 100°C hot water is gushing out of the ground... it was hot, and smelly like sulfur, and addictive to watch!

Then after a lovely lunch it was time to learn about natural dyeing with Icelandic plants from Gudrun Bjarnadottir. Gudrun is an expert in her field and was clearly passionate about her work.... we learned alot from her and I think we all wish we could have spent the whole day soaking up her knowledge!

And then we fell in love with her yarn. This is all Eiband (Laceweight Lopi) that she has dyed. You can see her work in her Etsy shop. I got a skein of lovely green (shown above)

And I'm going to use it to knit myself a lopi sweater just like this! That is my favorite elongated stitch that I use in ALOT of my designs... in fact the first section of my book is devoted to it! I think I'll use the body from Stopover and then figure out the yoke.

Finally, even though we were tired, we stopped at a sheep farm which ended up being AMAZING! We hadn't learned yet about Icelandic sheep farming (an essential part of the Icelandic wool chain)... the farms owners were passionate, funny, and informative.

Day 5: Exploring Reykjavik!
This was our day off... I didn't actually get that many photos, as I was walking and knitting and eating lamb hot dogs. We did start our day at a rehearsal of the Icelandic Philharmonic at the Harpa... that made me feel quite cultured!

Working on my "maybe" Rhinebeck sweater (we'll see if I can get it done!)

Day 6: Blue Lagoon and Home... (insert sad face here)

The Blue Lagoon (a mineral rich man-made lagoon which is fed by the water output of a nearby geothermal power plant)

Me... being the 12 year old I actually am... we have silica mud masks on, the perfect way to end out trip!

What made this trip super special? THE PEOPLE!
I know I missed a few of you... next time I need to have a checklist to make sure no one gets missed in the shots! A huge thankyou to Mary and Mary from Edventures who helped make this dream trip a reality for us all!

You might have heard a rumor about (or seen a photo of) a new sweater...

It's off for a final tech edit now, and will be released next week. I've had a SLEW of test knitters working on it, so you'll get to see it with lots of different mods, on many different shaped bodies, and in many different yarns! Can't wait to share Vindur with you!

(PSA.... there are just a few spots left in March's Knit Iceland trip, the landscape will be different as there will be snow in March, and I expect it to be phenomenal!)