More Iceland!

And to wrap up my fantastical Icelandic adventures, here are some more photos from the land of wonder, in no particular order.

Early on in the trip, I was lucky to teach classes at Storkurinn, a beautiful yarn shop in Reykjavik. Unfortunately I forgot my camera but was glad to return for photos. Such pretty displays!

Storkurinn

They had copies of my book on display.

Books at Storkurinn

During some down time, Ragga showed off her lovely handknit socks while spinning.

Ragga spins

We headed to Alafoss where the mill used to be located.

Alafoss

They have one of the best vans ever:

Alafoss van

Then all the international knitters arrived. Here they are listening attentively to Ragga. She is probably warning them not to fall into the middle of the earth. This is the site where the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plates meet. They are shifting apart and leaving a giant hole in the earth.

Knitters in Iceland

These people are ignoring the somewhat hidden signs that say not to step near the edge.

These people could fall into the earth

Do not walk here

Here is the site of the first parliament ever.

Allthingy

We took a trip down and saw a fantastically clear pool surrounded by moss.

Pool of water

People toss coins into the pool and make a wish. Someone could make a lot of money diving in there and collecting them all, but then all their wishes would probably never come true.

Glittery coins

Of course we stopped by a yarn shop that was connected to a cafe with the most delicious mushroom soup I’ve ever had.

Yarn shop!

The nearby town is yarn bombing the area. Here we have a knitted dude.

Yarn bomb

And of course his wife is a knitter with needles and all.

Knitter yarn bomb

We saw lots of pregnant ewes. Some of them had triplets and were HUGE! They were skiddish about our presence because they’re protective of their unborn lambs.

Pregnant sheep

Here’s a ram. Also known as one of the big papas. Isn’t he regal?

Ram

This pretty horse loooooved attention, jumping in front of the camera and pushing away his other horse friends.

Pretty horse

This poor horse has an awesome ‘do. I joked that next time I’d bring a perm kit.

Whoa

Then we headed toward Geysir, the geysir for which all other geysirs are named. The water there is HOT!

HOT

The steam amidst the landscape was stunning.

Ominous

Here is Little Geysir bubbling.

Little Geysir

Geysir and Little Geyser are not that active anymore, but their neighbor Strokkur spouts off every few minutes. I got to catch it in action!

Strokkur

Wow, that’s a lot of water.

Strokkur

Then we headed to Gullfoss, the waterfall with the most volume of water in Europe. It was so massive, I couldn’t get it all in my frame.

Gullfoss

And then we headed to Isafjordur in the western fjords. It was gorgeous, but cloudy. I was too busy running about that I didn’t take very many pictures.

Isafjordur

Ragga taught an awesome class on traditional Icelandic lopi sweater knitting. Here is the mini sweater I finished and steeked in class!

mini lopi

On our last day in Isafjordur, we got stuck in a pretty intense snow storm which resulted in flight delays.

snow storm

So we spent our time knitting in the local knit cafe that serves booze! Natalie got some work done on her Wayward socks from the February sock club shipment.

wayward

I think she likes the color red. Notice the matching red nails with her handknit sweater.

natalie

Iceland is a pretty small country, so the local news heard about knitters stranded in Isafjordur and came to videotape and interview us. I think the camera man was surprised when we turned our own cameras on him!

interviewer

Iceland is such a wonderful country. I highly recommend the trip if you can manage it. So much knitterly and sheepy goodness with the most amazing scenery.

5 Responses to “More Iceland!”

  1. Brandi says:

    I love the that your sharing about this trip. I would like to do something like this one day(when i retire from the farm). The scenery is most beautiful and full of knitterly, sheepy goodness.

  2. monica says:

    Wow! Wow! Wow! The scenery is breathtaking! I have to move Iceland up on my list of places to visit.

  3. Rani says:

    Ah. Isafjordur is where my family is from. We took the kids there for a family trip but alas, the yarn shop had not yet opened. Just another reason for us to go back, I suppose.

  4. Janice says:

    What a great trip. Thank you for sharing it with us.

  5. Jessica says:

    Oh wow. Great post on your trip. Now I want to visit Iceland! Also, the photo of the horse with the unfortunate hair-do is amazing!