Postcards from Iceland vol. 1

About a year ago Emily and I were on the phone, as we are every Monday, and we were discussing the things in our lives we would like to do. Some goals were craft oriented (sewing projects and sweater wardrobes), some were food oriented (learning a few new ‘everyday’ recipes is always on my list), and some were travel related. What places did we want to see? And then we had a crazy idea: we should go to Iceland. Not just the 2 of us…..ALL of us! So 3 weeks ago we packed up our husbands and kiddos and jumped a plane to Iceland for a 16 day trip all the way around the land of fire and ice!

It wasn’t really an ‘all play’ vacation. We were on a mission to photograph our upcoming collection (be ready for September!). In addition to our two families we had Nina of Rainbow Heirloom (our lovely model) and her fiancée, Ross, came too. For the first few days we just drove around Reykjavik taking thousands of photographs against the stunning backdrops….and stopping regularly for coffee and pastry of course!

We had the pleasure of spending an evening with Helene Magnusson , the Icelandic Knitter, while we were in Reykjavik too! We headed to her beautiful studio where she let us comb through her beautiful trunks of samples (and a whole drawer of beautiful colourwork mittens!), while she described her knitting journey, her special Icelandic yarns, and her wonderful knitting and hiking retreats. Hiking in Iceland with Helene has been officially added to the bucket list!

One of our favourite days was our trip to the Blue Lagoon, we all piled into the cars and headed for the warm blue waters. They were amazing! It was a perfect sunny day (a rarity on the trip), the kids were happy to be floating, grown ups enjoyed the steam and sauna, and the view couldn’t be beat! That blue is indescribable!

The best part of being in Iceland was the amazing outdoors. Both the weather and the scenery changed frequently, one minute you were looking out at the vast Atlantic, the next you were on a mossy hill, then passing a field of Icelandic horses! There were mountains, vast expanses of volcanic rock, green and brown mossy hills, and black pebbled beaches. It was a wonder everywhere we turned.

We had a wee chance to check out the local yarn shop and we couldn’t miss the Alafoss shop as well! There were beautiful lopi sweaters everywhere we looked. At the coffee shop, on the street, in the shops, and yes, there was lopi yarn in the grocery stores too! There was too much to cover in just one post so there is more on our fantastic journey to come!

More Road Trip Knits from TCK: