anna travels - icelandic yarn stores

I am back from my visit to Iceland! It was a short but wonderful trip. We ate great food, toured downtown Reykjavik, relaxed at the Blue Lagoon (a geothermal spa), and saw many natural wonders, including an active geyser and a waterfall bigger than Niagara Falls. Fares on Icelandair (from Boston at least) are very affordable, and you can even stop over in Iceland on your way to Europe at no additional cost!

I could talk about Iceland all day - if you have a specific question, please leave me a comment! - but let's get down to knitting. Iceland is full of its own knitting traditions, and even has a unique type of wool called Lopi, which is specifically made from Icelandic sheep. You can read more about Lopi here.

My frist day in Iceland, I visited the knitting store Storkurinn located in the heart of Reykjavik. It was a very cute store that reminded me of knitting stores in the US. There was a nice selection of yarns from all over the world, including Icelandic Lopi.

The next knitting store I visited was Álafoss wool factory; an outlet for Lopi located about 20 minutes outside of Reykjavik.  

Check out this cute yarn-bombing in the town:

At the Álafoss wool factory, I bought this gorgeous yarn from the Icelandic company Kambgarn. The colors are Kambgarn (Rosebloom) and Kambgarn (Glacier Green). I think I will use it to make a pair of mittens...

Iceland has so much to offer knitters. I would love to return and visit yarn stores on the northern side of the country. It would also be cool to take some knitting classes while there, which are offered in most of the yarn shops. I hope to go back and perhaps take a class on traditional Icelandic designs (see some of my favorite here) using Lopi.