Crochet, Cake and Hot Chocolate...

 It goes without saying that Iceland at the end of February is very very cold! For me, it was a real novelty to see proper snow and I just loved wrapping up warm and walking around the city just taking it all in :)

 This is the snow that snowploughs have scraped up off the road and they just leave it in a big mountain!

 Of course, all this walking about in the cold means that you have to stop every so often to warm up and refuel! We found so many quirky coffee shops/cafes in Reykjavik city - they have a lot of personality and GREAT hot chocolate, cakes etc.

 C is for cookie was one that was really highly rated on Trip Advisor so we had to give it a go :) One thing we found about all the coffee shops we frequented is that they don't rush you -- you can buy a drink and a slice of cake or whatever, and sit there and just take your time.

I'm guessing that this is different in the peak tourist season (through July/August) but it was really great for us as we were able to use the free wifi that a lot of the coffee shops offered, to also rest our tired feet and to warm up before heading out sight-seeing again.

Peter was a bit disappointed with the cheesecake here as it was SO highly rated on Trip Advisor; I think he'd psyched himself up too much for it so it was bound to be a disappointment! My hot chocolate was gorgeous though ;)

 I REALLY loved these arty cross-stitch signs for the loos in the coffee shop :) - and then there were all these rats trying to get inside ;) :)

 This was our favourite coffee shop of them all I think -

It was really spacious, with seating upstairs and downstairs - it would get quite busy at times but we were always able to find a table. Peter was delighted that they served draught beer as well as hot and cold beverages ;)  -- and they served the best carrot cake we'd had all holiday!

 As always, I brought my crochet with me pretty much wherever we went, especially on the days where we just had a wander round the city. One of our tour guides had said that everyone of us should go inside the Harpa building (concert hall) by the sea and I'm so glad that we did - the architecture was amazing (and I'm not usually a huge big fan of modern architecture) and we could warm up and have a rest too.

 The scale and light in Harpa just made me speechless - I was so glad that we heeded Siggi's advice and went in to explore it, instead of just viewing it from the outside.

On our last day in the city we stumbled across this treasure while wandering down some of the back streets - it's a record shop and a vegan/vegetarian cafe!! 

We liked it so much that we had our lunch here - a lovely vegan lasagna - and I had a great hot chocolate too! We wished we'd found them earlier on in our holiday - I hadn't found them on Trip Advisor (they only had under 10 reviews so they didn't show up on my searches) - it looks like they only opened late last year so I guess they are still trying to get established and 'found' on sites like TA or Lonely Planet.

I have to say that this was probably our best holiday ever foodwise as well as everything else -- as we are both vegetarians it sometimes has been difficult to trace veggie/vegan restaurants and often there's been a language barrier when we've been abroad....but this was by far our best holiday as vegetarians :)

Wool Shopping in Iceland - PART THREE

Before we'd gone to Reykjavik on holiday we'd bought ourselves a copy of the 'Lonely Planet' guide to Iceland - and one of the things they mentioned for anyone spending a weekend in Reykjavik was to check out the local 'fleamarket' which is open every Saturday and Sunday morning.

We thought we'd give it a go as we were having a lazy day around the city :)

It was a bit of a mish-mash of different things - people at one end selling potatoes, shark meat and other foods (there were lots of free samples but we didn't try them!) and then at the other end you had book sellers, jewellery makers, second-hand toys etc and this wool/handknit stand!

I'd recommend to anyone going to Iceland who was wanting to buy a Lopi hand-knit jumper to go here first (there was more than one seller selling them in the market) - they were a fraction of the cost of the ones being sold in the flash high-street shops.

I still love the one that I'd bought from a shop in the high-street but if you just wanted a very traditional one, in regular colours then the market would be a better option.

I was over the moon to see that this lady was selling 'cakes' of wool from her stand as well as the jumpers, scarves, hats etc. ..so I bought these three 'cakes' -- I'm not sure what I'll do with them just yet but I'm sure I'll find a use.

It's a fine, single ply spun yarn, made from pure wool.

I haven't started using any of my wools from Iceland yet as I have been trying to restock my Etsy shop and it's quicker and easier to work with stuff I've already used (no working out if I need to alter the pattern or think about which size hook to use etc)

I've also made two pairs of wrist warmers in the King Cole 'Galaxy' in black yarn - one with silver holographic sequins and the other with sequins in all different colours --- they are for someone locally. Working with black yarn just about drives me cross eyed (especially in the evening) but I love how they turned out; I haven't taken a photo of them just yet though!

Wool Shopping in Iceland - PART TWO

Iceland is famous the world over for the quality of its wool - walking round the city practically all of the souvenir/tourist shops were selling hand-knitted items/

 This was my favourite of the shops in the city and it's where I bought my Lopi hand-knitted jumper -- I'd wanted one but didn't want to choose just any old one, it had to be the 'right' one ...

So this is it! It wasn't cheap by any means but I love the colours and the pattern. It's a lighter-weight yarn than a lot of the others ones are, so I think I'll wear it a lot more. I love the shade of purple so much :)

And LOOK! I found some crochet as well as all the knitted stuff - this was in the window of the Icelandic Handknitting Association's shop...that crocodile stitch gets everywhere.

As part of one of our coach tours, we had a stop here (for lunch etc but we had brought snacks with us rather than having to queue up and then wait for hot food) -- it was the cheapest place to buy the Lopi wool!

They had SO many different colours (more than I photographed) and it was quite reasonably priced too.

I'd already blown my budget at the wool shop in the city so I tried to be restrained (for me) in my choices.

The two at the top are a dark blue and the two on either side of the cream are deep purple. It's lovely quality wool and I'm excited about using it.

Seeing all the hand-knitted items has made me want to give knitting a go again - it's a long time since I last knitted (I had to give it up because of my tennis elbow) - though I'll be back at work on the ferry again soon so I'd imagine it'll be put off and I'll wait til next winter to start up again ;)

Wool Shopping in Iceland - Part ONE

Just a quick blog update before I go and get our dinner ready - I thought I'd write about my wool-shopping in Reykjavik!

I was excited about finding some new brands to try while we were over on holiday and Iceland didn't disappoint. We just found one dedicated wool/craft shop in the city itself, though a lot of the craft shops in the city were also selling balls of Lopi wool.

 Storkurinn is located up on the first floor of a building, above a supermarket but it's easy to find as the city is just small - even I didn't get lost there (and I'm infamous for my bad sense of direction)

 They were closed the first time we visited but I could still go upstairs and peek through the window!

 We went back the next day and they were open - yay!

 I was delighted to see that they had a whole 'wall' of Icelandic wool! - and in all the colours of the rainbow.

 It is a nice spacious shop with a large range of international brands too - such as Rowan, Hoooked, Debbie Bliss (I think), Noro etc - all good quality yarns and there wasn't any cheap scratchy acrylic! 

I love to see a wool/craft shop that obviously runs classes in the shops - I wish I had somewhere like this locally. They had tonnes of pattern books etc too and also sell fabrics, ribbons, buttons etc.

I had originally intended to just buy Icelandic yarn from there but this is some of what I selected!

None of this is from Iceland but it's all stuff that I LOVE!

I fell in love straight away with the skein at the bottom of this photo - it's made by Malabrigo yarn and is made in Peru! It's pure merino wool in a sock weight - I'm going to have to research this company; it's a new one to me. The skein above the blue one is made by the same company and is also merino wool and is a slightly thicker yarn (4-ply I guess)

The three balls to the left of the photo are all made by Schoppel and it's a yarn that I bought when we were in Germany! - it makes gorgeous crocodile stitch wrist warmers. They didn't have the full range of colours but I managed to choose three that I liked ;)

The final two are a German brand as well - I'd never seen these big balls of sock yarn though - they are 150g! I just loved the colours so they made it in the bag as well :) I will use them for more crocodile stitch wrist warmers!

Look! I did buy some Icelandic yarn there too- though the fluffy grey one in the middle is from Denmark! It's a brand I hadn't come across before so I thought I'd try them out.

I'm happy to say that the rest of the wool in the photo is actually Icelandic - the skein on the left is a pure wool, made by 'Hespa' (another new one for me - I need to check out their website). They seem to use all-natural dyes for their brand - my blue one was dyed with indigo. I could have easily bought more of this blue, or the different colours, but it was expensive.

The other yarns (the purple and light grey in the photo above) are also Icelandic - they are a fine lambswool, made by Gilitrutt so I now have yet another new brand of wool to try and a new website to check out.

The wool shop was lovely and had friendly staff - I'd really rate it if you're a crafter and are visiting Reykjavik. Buying wool in Iceland isn't cheap - but everything there is more expensive than here, it's just a fact of life and I've always believed that it's worth paying a little more for good quality.

They have a their own website (sadly all in Icelandic but the pictures are nice!) http://nytt.storkurinn.is/
and this is their facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Storkurinn/

March already!

I'm not sure how it happened but we're already in to March! I've got so much to catch up on in here - we're just back from the holiday of a lifetime -- we finally went to Iceland!

Prepare for many blog posts about it but I'm still sorting through my photos (835 on my camera and a few on my tablet too) and trying to put things in order.

Just before we went away I ordered these from Deramores in the UK - I really only needed two balls of the green/purple 'Country Tweed' but they've discontinued the whole line so I thought I'd better do a stock up while I still can.

Luckily my Mum was able to take delivery of the order and now we're back home I can hopefully get started on the pair of wrist warmers for my customer some time this week.

These will all be wristwarmers! It'll take me a while to work through all this (as well as everything else I have in stock) but I really wanted to stock up on the 'Country Tweed' while I still can.

Pictures from Kenya!

I'm so thrilled -- the other day I had my first picture and update on my second sponsor child :) I'm so delighted that I've been able to take out a second sponsorship - and of course, it's all thanks to my Etsy (and local) customers.

I'll get two pictures and updates a year and of course I can write to her and send postcards etc - I was in the village yesterday and bought three cards to send to her: I'm sure Ireland looks so different to Kenya!

Even More Wrist Warmers!

I still have about six more colours to make these in (all King Cole riot or their country tweed) - I really need to try and build up my listings on Etsy and restock my shop.

At the moment I'm up to 100 listings over there but only 18 of them are wrist warmers...