International Yarn Shop Review: Storkurinn - Reykjavík

 

Although we got back from Iceland last Friday, I wanted to do a post about an adorable local yarn shop we found in 101 Reykjavík, the district where we were staying.  It's called Storkurinn, and it has a great selection of yarns including Icelandic Lopi yarns, Rowan, Malabrigo, Debbie Bliss, Skacel's Schoppel line (of Zauberball fame), and Artesano.  There was also a wall of quilting fabrics, a wall of notions and needles, and a wall of books with lots of Rowan and Debbie Bliss pattern support, as well as a good selection of more well-known English language titles.  Overall, the atmosphere of the store was very quiet and pleasant, and I roamed the shop happily petting yarn for close to an hour between our two trips.

My favorite wall in the place, quite predictably, was the wall in the second and third photos, which had a whole lot of colors of BC Garn's Jaipur Silk Fino, which comes in a range of amazing jewel tones.  Not gonna lie - I ended up buying one more skein when we went back the day before we left.

It's funny how knitters around the world understand each other - as I was getting ready to take these pictures, I asked a woman in front of My Favorite Wall if she would mind stepping back for a moment so I could grab a few pictures.  She smiled knowingly and joked, "Of course, you must get good photos of the yarn!"

Yarn obsession appreciation knows no language or cultural barriers.

So if you're ever in Reykjavík and have a few moments to spare, I'd highly recommend checking out Storkurinn!

Of Mice and Yarn

 

These are the fruits of our first local yarn shop trip in Reykjavík - two skeins of gorgeous silk laceweight in an icy blue, and these three little wooden mouse buttons.  Sometimes I swear I'm still a six year old girl, because certain types of cute - usually small rodents and fish - make my brain start squeaking and flapping its arms up and down with excitement.

We've had a rather quiet last couple of days.  I haven't been sleeping well, and Tuesday the insomnia finally turned into my first migraine ever.  (Note to self: in the future, bring NSAIDs to foreign countries!)  That's not to say we haven't been having a good time, however: we made it out to some awesome local yarn and fabric shops (details to come!) and ate some great Thai food, I drooled over some amazing shoes, and we stayed up to watch the US election results early Wednesday morning - the results weren't called until 6 a.m. Icelandic time!

We're going back to the US tomorrow afternoon, and although we've had a great time, I'm also very ready to sleep like a normal human being in my own bed, cuddle with Mr. Mackie, and get back to work at school.  I have been soothing my growing homesickness with pictures of my favorite tiny person:

And luckily, I will be seeing his face in person tomorrow.  Yay!

Blue/Orange

The light here does funny things.  I've been waking early every morning, stirred by some internal sense of the time of day halfway around the world.  Rising out of bed to pad along the cold wood floors, arms folded, the light outside blue and eerie.

The wind is bitterly cold, and so strong that yesterday, we barely left the guest house except to eat - reports say it hit 150 mph.  Someone took a video of the wind whipping the sea up over the cars along the waterfront, and I feel a little better about staying inside, warm and dry.

But there's a kind of magic here.  Every country I've been to has its quirks: the ghosts in the groves in Bali; the quiet nods between strangers in Kansai; and here, something harder to pinpoint.  In the early morning, the whole city is quiet, and the sky glows blue while the incandescents of insomniacs shine a warm yellow-orange.  Our upstairs neighbors' feet creak across the floor in the early morning, and occasionally we hear music.  It feels like there are secrets everywhere.

Dispatches from Reykjavík

Late-night snack, complete with owl timer.

The door to our guest house.

Leaving to get breakfast.

Frost or snow?  No idea.

Upstairs at a cafe - perfect for people (and wool) watching.

Lots of coffee here.  Iceland, you and me are gonna get along just fine.

A statue at the top of a hill.  It was very sunny, and very windy, and absolutely freezing.

There's water almost everywhere you look.

I am so freaking glad I brought Crown Prince, as he is the warmest shawl I own.  I have been wearing him babushka-style when it gets windy, because hats fly right off my head.

Too cold - time to go buy some proper mittens.

We were totally not lost on our slightly-longer-than-anticipated walk - see, we found the big church!

Iceland Bound

I blocked the Salt Creek cowl in the nick of time, and this afternoon, Lumberjack and I are getting on a plane to Iceland!  The bags are packed, Mr. Mackie is safely with my parents, and I'm definitely not freaking out at all, really, I swear!!

Have a great couple of weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to check in while we're there!

Stash Appreciation: Shalimar Yarns Breathless

Sigh.  Yet again, I have fallen off the yarn wagon.  Not too hard, though - just this little skein of a fabulous merino/cashmere/silk blend.  I've had a hankering for a warm lavender fingering weight for a while, but it wasn't until I stopped by LYS a few weeks ago that I fell in love this color of Shalimar Breathless, called Wisteria.  I hemmed and hawed for a while, and then mentioned to Lumberjack that I was rather deeply coveting it, and he told me to stop being silly and go buy it.

(Just the one.  No, don't stop at the new Dream In Color lace-of-the-month club offering.  One skein, and tell your LYS owner with a completely straight face that you're on a stash diet, but you're saving that 20% discount for a sweater's worth of Madelinetosh, because it's not like you think about this stuff all the time, or anything.)

SIGH.

As an aside... when I think of wisteria, I think of Byōdō-in.  I took a Buddhist art history class while I was living in Japan, and we went on a field trip to visit a bunch of temples around the area.  Byōdō-in was the family villa of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful regent family of the Heian period whose representative flower was the wisteria.  They converted the villa into a temple in the 11th century, and the Phoenix Hall in the photo above is so iconic that it's on the ten-yen coin.  Though it was autumn when we visited and the wisteria arbors were just leaves and vines, I remember thinking that they would be beautiful in full bloom.

I've been thinking more and more about traveling lately.  One of the irons at the school fell on the floor and burnt some of the carpet, and weirdly, I smelled the market in Ubud and felt a pang.  Lumberjack and I are taking a trip to Oberlin at the end of the month, and I can't help but daydream about taking a driving trip down the California coast in the summer, or going to London to see the Victoria and Albert Museum, or going back to Kyoto to visit my host family and go to the Kyoto Costume Institute and maybe a hot springs or two...

I think I'll blame it on all the books I'm reading.

And in the meantime, pretty yarn will do.

Whirlwind tour of Portland

Sort of on a whim, Lumberjack and I decided to take a 2-day jaunt down to Portland.  Portland was on the short list of cities that we considered moving to after I graduated from Oberlin.  I went to Sock Summit with Lumberjack and my parents back in late July, but since I was in classes all day I only got to see a little bit of the city.  This time, we've done a quick food, yarn, and fashion tour and are on our way home tonight.

I've really loved the food - so far we've eaten at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place called Santería, a fabulous brunch restaurant called Bijou that reminded me a lot of Black River Cafe in Oberlin, and an izakaya called Shigezō, where we took these pictures.  Above you can see the leftovers of our okonomiyaki appetizer, complete with the little metal serving spatulas.  We also shared some chicken katsu curry.  The super green drink was called Godzilla, and had Absolut Citron, Midori and Calpis in it.  Eating in an izakaya made me really miss Japan... sigh.

I've picked up a couple of really good things while we've been down here.  In an exceedingly strange turn of events, Lumberjack and I went into a vintage shop, where he bought a shirt, and I bought... nothing!  Annnnd since I don't really buy books, and I've been holding out on picking up some knitting books that I've been lusting over, what better place to lose my willpower than at Powell's?

And holy crap, there's so many amazing yarn and sewing shops here... I have my eye on some Liberty of London cotton lawn and maybe another Colette pattern, and probably some Brooklyntweed Loft (hooray!).  Today we're hitting up Knit Purl (again - yesterday I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't choose what yarn to buy!) and Dublin Bay Knitting Company, where I have very strategic plans about what I might get.  I sort of wanted to get a sweater's worth of Shelter in the gorgeous red called Long Johns, but all the stores pretty much everywhere are sold out.

Now we're off to eat breakfast... I know it's a total cliche, but I think I love Portland and want to move here...

Leaving for Sock Summit!

Armed with sock yarn (much more than you see pictured), a multitude of projects, some good reading and snacks (mm Gushers), I'm off to Sock Summit!  Hope to see you there!

Stash Appreciation: Pigeonroof Studios

So remember how I said I was going to pick up a skein of Pigeonroof Studios?  Well, I'm super speedy!  I got this skein of cashmere/merino/nylon fingering weight yesterday.

I was thinking about getting one of the semisolid colors, which have a beautiful depth.  But what I really love about Pigeonroof Studios is her ability to combine colors - all of her colorways are a touch gothic, blended like watercolors, and often consist of shades that you wouldn't ordinarily combine but end up looking gorgeous.

I don't know if these will become socks.  I think this yarn would look awesome in garter stitch, so I might have to find something with simple lace and garter.  The yardage is a little skimpy - 380 yards - because of the cashmere content, but I'm sure I can find something. 

The last few days have been really great - Lumberjack and I have been hanging out with one of my good friends and her boyfriend, hanging out at a really cool coffee shop in New Haven, and taking naps in the middle of the day - basically the perfect vacation.  Saturday we went to New York to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met, which was breathtaking.  It was really great to see the sheer breadth of his creativity.  All of the clothes were intricate, hand-beaded, intellectualized and yet still beautiful.  The world has lost a genius, but he left an incredible legacy behind him.