Teresa and I were incredibly excited to be teaching on the Arena Tour to Iceland.

After meeting up at Heathrow with our lovely group of knitters, of which four were mother and daughter, and Hedda our enthusiastic and efficient tour guide, the adventure began!

An adventure always starts with hearty breakfast!

It was snowing when we landed at Rejkavic Airport and there was an icy wind as we made our way to our coach but there was a warm welcome at the Centrum Hotel in the heart of Rejkavic.

The next day we were met by the delightful Helene Magnusson, author of Icelandic Colour Knitting and Icelandic Hand Knits, a favourite book of mine. Helene took us first to the Arbaejarsafn Open Air Museum which was built to give an insight into the way Icelanders once lived.

Helene and June outside the turf roofed church.

Helene showed us these fascinating shoe inserts that were knitted in garter stitch. Inspirational ideas for the workshops later perhaps?

Next on the tour was a visit to the Lopi/ Itex mill in Mosfellsbaer where they make the famous Alafosslopi yarns for hand knitting.

Bales of colourful fibre that will be blended in to more neutral shades.

Back at the hotel the workshop begins as the group start to work on squares inspired by our trip. The squares can be assembled to make a cushion cover or throw as a reminder of our trip.

Hard at work, who said knitting was relaxing!

In the evening Teresa and I were invited to a fabulous dinner to meet the customers of yarn store Storkurinn which is owned by Hannele Henttinen. Afterwards I showed garments from the latest A/W collections.

Two happy knitters try on designs from the A/W issue of my magazine.

Tuesday started with a visit to the Hand Knitting Association where we saw a huge quantity of lopi sweaters with the familiar patterned yoke. I was surprised to learn that they had only started to be knitted in the 1960’s and were not traditional to Iceland.

A pile of monochrome sweaters at the Hand Knitting Association.

We then continued on to the UNESCO World Heritage site at Pingvellir where the first Icelandic parliament was founded in the year 930.

The landscape was stunning and the golds and greens set against a monochrome background made my hands itch to start working on some fair isles!

After a visit to the hot spring Strokkur, which erupts every 5 minutes, we ended the day by visiting the beautiful Storkurinn store.

I was greeted by a table of pink and red DB yarns to celebrate Breast Cancer day.

Wednesday was a full day of knitting where the group also shared the images that had inspired us on our trip by creating a Pintrest board. Icelandic Inspiration. It was a great chance to share ideas and discuss projects but the group also had the opportunity to try on garments too.

Jean and daughter Sally – Ann loved the Loopy Gilet in Elektra and the Dog Tooth Check Baseball Jacket from the A/W issue of the Debbie Bliss Magazine.

Adda loved the Shoulder Cape in Lara!

All too soon the trip was over, on Friday we gathered for a group photo, and I was delighted that they all chose to wear DB knits from the new collections in the shot!

Back Row: Betty, Dana, June, Carol, Jean, Sally-Ann, Me. Front Row: Adda, Teresa, Jan, Mel, Annabel.

I had the most wonderful time and the group were some of the nicest and most enthusiastic knitters I have met!
Thank you to Arena Travel for arranging such a well thought out tour. I can’t wait to return to Iceland, it has completely captured my imagination.