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...

More Wrist Warmers!

 I've been using up some of my newest yarns to add some new wrist warmers to my Etsy shop .... the silver one with sequins is a new shade for me (called 'Mercury') and the one below is a new one for me too. The crocodile wrist warmers made in self-striping yarn have always sold really well for me so far and are more interesting to make (rather than using plain coloured yarn)

I've finally got around to putting away all my newly ordered wool from Black Sheep Wools and Deramores - it was a bit of a squeeze fitting them all into my cupboard but I managed it!

It won't take me THAT long to start working my way through them all though & I really do need to try and plan ahead this year and get more wrist warmers made now rather than waiting til just before Christmas and practically selling out...though I know I say the same thing to myself every year! 

What Does the Sea Mean to Me?

My friend Lucy is running a project about 'what the sea means to you'...and I thought I'd use this space to try and get my thoughts some bit straight on the subject; it's something that I've been mulling over in my mind since she first mentioned the book project a few months ago.

For me, as a beach comber rather than, say, a diver or sailor, the sea is full of conflicting thoughts. It can bring precious treasures - such as all these sea beans (seeds carried on the gulf stream from the tropics). Each one has been measured, photographed and documented and will be on the Irish records.

At the same time, the very same storms and currents that bring treasure also bring marine litter - mostly plastic based and sometimes from the other side of the world too.

I think it's my nature, as a beach comber, to try and find the interesting, the intriguing and the mysterious in amongst the plastic junk that comes to these shores.

At times it is over-whelming: especially when faced with a scene like this...

 ..or this...

...or even worse...this...

But you either just look at it and shake your head and tut-tut about modern society and how wasteful we all are or else you decide to try and do something about it - and that is what I have done.

Last winter I collected over 150 bags of rubbish from the local beaches! It really is a never ending battle as each tide brings in yet more rubbish but as long as I am physically able I am determined to do my bit and collect it up.

One good thing to come out of my time picking up rubbish on the beach has been making connections with people on the other side of the world - I guess that's another thing that the sea means to me -- it really does unite us from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

Something that has ended up in the ocean off the US/Canadian coast can wash up on the coast here in Waterville and through the wonders of social media and the internet, I can trace it right back to the company who made it or in some cases, the fishermen who lost their gear in storms.

 A fly swatter from New Jersey, found in St. Finan's Bay, Ballinskelligs!

This is part of a stone crab trap from Florida, which I will soon be posting back to the fisherman's widow. He had etched his name and port onto it, which is how I was able to start tracing it backwards.