Letters
Lazy Sunday: 3 Quick Trips to Iceland
Dear Kay,
I’ve got Iceland on the brain right now, wishing I could travel there. All this talk of lopi yarn has me wanting to pack a bag with rain pants and hiking boots. We gotta get to Iceland to see those Icelandic sheep in their element.
Until then, here are three prime videos that get us there without needing a passport.
A Ramble with Kristy Glass
Last year, in the Before Times, Kristy took a trip to Iceland. She takes us on a tour of the Reykjavik studio of Hélène Magnússon, the knitwear designer who offers workshops and trips in Iceland. Such a treasure box of a studio, with gorgeous handknits all over the place.
Volcano!
The big news this week was a volcano erupting in Iceland, a smallish one apparently, not too far from Reykjavik, the capital. It was in an unpopulated area, luckily. If you somehow did not see the drone footage of the eruption, do not miss this.
Surfing in the Arctic Circle
Finally, in the Dept. of I’d Never Do That But Right On Y’all, we have a 2017 documentary, Under an Arctic Sky. A group heads out to the northern part of Iceland (because clearly the southern part isn’t icy enough) with the idea of going surfing. A team of filmmakers trails along, making this as much a documentary about the art of filmmaking as the mad dream of surfing under the Northern Lights.
This documentary has the effect on me that the documentary Free Solo did—you know, the one where Alex Honnold decides he wants to climb El Capitan without ropes? You gotta root for them, even as you’re watching with your hands over your eyes.
I’ll leave you with the mural outside Héléne’s studio.
Love,
Ann
I love this Ann, your descriptions are priceless. I find the dept. Of I’d never do that but right on y’all gets bigger as I get older lol. Thanks for these recommendations, I’m off to watch the volcano 😀
I miss Iceland so much
I love the inspo nourishment of your posts. Thank you, thank you. I’m adding a virtual visit to Iceland to my own lazy Sunday.
I’m excited to watch these, my daughter is getting married in Iceland in August and it will be our first trip there.
I’ve been there! It’s awesome! Two takeaways. I found a lovely little yarn store and selected some beautiful blue lopi-like yarn to make a sweater for my first grandchild, who was about to turn 2. The woman at the counter, as I checked out, looked at the yarn, then at me, and said “What? Only one color?” The other, as I watched the volcano footage above, was “what a waste of energy.” Iceland’s power comes almost completely from underground lava streams – like the one that created this volcano. So all that steam floating away could have been – might have been – used to heat houses, or bake bread. Lovely to watch, but sad, too. I’ve also seen people in Iceland bake bread in the hot sands, so maybe not so awful to loose a little steam… Anyway, if you ever get the chance, GO.
I recently made Helene’s “Starri” mittens in Lopi yarn. Love her designs and would love to take one of her tours on horseback before I get too old…
I don’t even ride, but I dream of taking a horseback tour of Iceland.
I did a hiking trip with Hélène just a few years ago and had a wonderful time. It was the Knitting with Elves tour. How could you not do that trip? I’ve also knit the sweater that Kristy is wearing. It’s been my go to comfort sweater this past winter!
We had the chance to visit Iceland in 2002 and I’ve been trying to get back ever since! It was my idea of the perfect vacation – driving for miles without seeing anybody, millions and millions of horses and sheep, mountains, glaciers, something new at every turn. We didn’t go where the tourists go and didn’t have much trouble finding those places. Since Iceland has become such a DESTINATION, I’m concerned that a trip there now would be quite different and not so magical, but it’s still on the list.
My daughter and I did a 10-day drive around Iceland trip in October 2017. There were plenty of people in Reykjavik and quite a few busloads at Jokulsarlon (the glacier lagoon), and then — almost nobody. Everything was open, but we were almost always the only tourists in sight. We had only one day of rain and no snow so we still had the spectacular views every day. Definitely try to schedule your visit off-season if possible.
Ann, have you read Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland? It’s been on my to-read list ever since I read two excellent novels by its author, Sarah Moss: Night Waking and Bodies of Light. It’s an account of the year her family spent there.
Thank you for the Sarah Moss tip! Couple with another highly entertaining anecdotal author, Lawrence Millman, writing of his encounters with terrain and unique personalities in Last Places: A Journey in the North – his travels thru knitty geographies of Iceland, the Faroes, etc.
Thank you, Ruth Ann and Martha, for the suggestions. Totally fascinated!
Thank you so much! This was a wonderful tidbit of Iceland. I want to go back so very much! Such a lovely country, such wonderful yarn!
Another fan of Iceland here – I’ve been lucky enough to have been there once, and hope and wish to return *many* more times.
We started watching the new “Zach Snyder’s Justice League” the other night and inthe early moments with Aquaman in what looks to be Iceland, the variety of lopapeysa the locals are wearing is just stunning! As my spouse noted, leave it to me to ooh and ahh over the sweaters first and zowie Jason Momoa’s physique second!
The Iceland tourism folks have invented a little mental vacation for you to replace your pandemic doomscrolling. They call it joyscrolling, and it’s delightful: https://joyscroll.lookslikeyouneediceland.com
Mother Earth is a maker, too! Just like us! I think her “fiber” would be too hard on my hands, though…
I have 1987 photos of me, happy and unconcerned, standing on solidified lava inside the cauldron of Mount Bromo, a kinda-dormant volcano in Indonesia. Dormant, until it erupted in 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2015. Crikey!!