In 874 A.D. the Vikings brought sheep to Iceland. After 1100 years of isolation withstanding severe climates, Icelandic sheep have developed unique and special twofibre wool. One fibre is called tog and is long, hollow, glossy and water repellent. The other fibre is called þel and is soft, luxurious and insulating. This combination of fibres, having no counterpart anywhere in the world, results in a wool that is warm, light weight and water-repellent. Icelandic wool existis in a wide range of natural colors; black, brown, taupe, beige, charcoal and grey. The wool has kept Icelanders hot for many decates.

Nature in Design is a group exhibition with around 30 exhibitiors, all icelandic designers. The exhibition will open the 19th of June, at the Ljósafoss powerstation, and will be open everyday until the 28th of August. Selected items from Vík Prjónsdóttir will be on display so if you are on the road in Iceland this is close by Þingvellir, the national park.

Vík Prjónsdóttir is taking part in a Nordic Knit festival at the Nordic House in Reykjavík. A lot of events and happenings will take place so if you are interested you can read all about the program at their website: www.norraenahusid.is

Loops 2010 is an all-encompassing yarncraft festival taking place between the dates of June 17 and July 4. The festival features exhibitions, performance art, workshops, inspirational talks, markets and off-venue events. It celebrates the creativity found in knitting and crochet and ushers you into a world where everything is soft, colorful and intricately crafted.

Loops 2010 simultaneously reaches into the past and explores the present, capturing the essence of the Nordic knitting tradition and its current usage in art and design. The event will serve as a platform for guests to unravel the mysteries of different knitting techniques, to share collective knowledge and to be inspired by the work of artists and designers to see yarn-crafts in a new light.

As everyone knows the third eruption in Iceland has affected big part of the world. Nature is once again reminding us that she is the boss and we can´t fight her power. However, hopefully this can be a reminder for all of us that the earth is our home and we have to respect and be humble to the power of nature. The ash cloud has affected thousand of people the last days but we want to send our warmest thoughts to the people in the area of the volcano that have not been able to get out of their houses because of the ash cloud. The ash is now raining over Vík so at the moment the whole village has to stay inside. But special regards goes to all the farmers that have to worry about their animals, their land and their harvest.

On the image you see horses running from the ash cloud. Photo by Rakel Ósk Sigurðardóttir.

Víkurprjón orders all the wool from Ístex. Everytime Vík Prjónsdóttir needs to select colour for the design the designers go on a mission to Ístex. On the image you see Þráinn, he has worked at the factory for 30 years, here he is at the wool barn.

Wool processing has been a trade in Mosfellsbaer since 1896, previously with the the company Álafoss of Iceland. In 1991, the company Ístex was formed and took over the wool processing. Ístex stands for Íslenskur Textiliðnaður which translates into Icelandic Textile Industry.
Ístex are manufacturers of industrial yarns for knitting, weaving and carpet manufacturing. All the products are made out of high quality Icelandic wool. Ístex is buying the wool directly from the farmers in Iceland and then process it to yarn.

A volcano between the two big glaciers in the south of Iceland has woken up after 200 years of sleep. The eruption is located in the middle of the Landscape blanket and is very close to Vík, the town where Vík Prjónsdóttir is produced. The volcano started erupting just before midnight yesterday and has ripped a 1km-long fissure in the earth. At the moment the eruption is rather small and no one is in danger. "This was a rather small and peaceful eruption, but we are concerned that it could trigger an eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, a vicious volcano that could cause both local and global damage," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Science.

The photo above is taken this night by RAX. The photo below shows an overview of the area and is from the RÚV tv news taken this morning.

The Landscape blanket:

Víkurprjón/Vikwool, the knitting factory, is located on the southern coast of Iceland, south of one of the country’s largest glaciers. Under the icemass sleeps one of the most active volcanos of the island, Katla, which wakes up once in a century. The last eruption in Katla was 1918 so now people are waiting...

Vík Prjóndóttir is taking part in this exhibition called "Í barnastærðum" or "Children's Sizes", from 13th of March – the 2nd of May, in the museum Hafnarborg. We will be showing old models of our Baby Seal but new version of the Baby Seal will be presented later this year.

Here´s little text from the museum about the show: "An exhibition of selected design by Icelandic and international designers who have influenced design for children as well as influenced the children's world or environment.  The emphasis is on three dimentional design, toys and furniture, particularily objects that are user friendly for children and designed with their special needs and ideas in mind. A large part of the exhibition will be a designated workshop where children and other guests can create their own designs on the walls of the museum as well as an interactive room with toys such as wooden speedster or racer cars." To read more you can click here.

We are extremely honored to have been awarded the annual DV cultural prize (Menningarverðlaun DV) for design. The ceremony took place this afternoon. Only Brynhildur is in Iceland at the moment so she attended the event on behalf of the team, giving a tearful speech as she received the prize. You can find more here and here...sorry, only in Icelandic.

We congratulate all the other winners and especially our friends Þórunn Hafstað and Daníel Bjarnason.

Vík Prjónsdóttir is nominated for "Menningarverðlaun DV" (cultural awards of DV) that will be awarded for the 31st time today, 10th of March. The awards are given in eight categories - literature, architecture, theory, design, cinema, theatre, visual arts and music - for an outstanding performance in the cultural sector during the past year. In all, the nominees are currently forty and you can reed more about it here if you understand icelandic. This is the second time Vík Prjónsdóttir is nominated for this prize. Also some of our models are nominated; Þórunn Hafstað for her film "Íslensk Alþýða", Sara Riel in the fine arts category and Högni Egilsson and Daníel Bjarnason in the music category, we send them our gratulations for their great work.

Vík Prjónsdóttir was a special guest at the Sthlm Design District party with a performance in collaboration with acting students from Södra Latin theater school. It was an honor for us to have the opportunity to present our products in such a way. It was absolutely crowded at the party so during the performance the models had to be escorted by a security guard through the crowd to get to the stage. They did a wonderful job and we are so grateful for their participation.

Tuesday the 9th of February we launched the new product line with a little exhibition at Aplace (PUB department store). It was a wonderful evening, meeting a lot of great people and friends from home. The exhibition will be open until the 28th of February so for those of you that are around in Stockholm you can have a close look and get to know the new blankets there.

We want especially to thank the owners and all the people at Aplace for their hospitality. ....and finally thanks to Skjálfti the icelandic brewery for the liquid support.

Vík Prjónsdóttir will be launching the new product line during Stockholm Design Week. The process started in our workshop in the Westfjords last June. And now finally we are proud to present the new world. The premiere will be the 9th of february at APLACE from 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm; PUB Department Store, Hötorget (entrance from Gamla Brogatan). The next day, Wednesday the 10th, Vík Prjónsdóttir will be special guests at The Stockholm Design District Party; Magasinet, Rosenlundsgatan 40, (by invitation only).

The photographer Gulli Már worked with us before, shooting The Seal Pelt and The Beardcaps, so we asked him to join us again in photographing our new products. The models brought life into the blankets with their beautiful presence; Valgerður Rúnarsdóttir and Sophie Mara in The Hidden World, Þórunn Hafstað and Pétur Már Gunnarsson in The Shield of Wings, Högni Egilsson in The Snow blanket, Daníel Bjarnason in The Black or White, Númi Þorkell Thomasson and Linda Loeskow in The Helm of Disguise and Jóhanna Friðrika Sæmundsdóttir in The Seal Pelt.

Also we want to thank our models that contributed to the first product line; Sara Riel, Gústaf Jarl Viðarsson, Björn Kristjánsson, Tinna Ottesen, Janus Bragi Jakobsson, Magnea Guðmundsdóttir, Íris Saara Henttinen Karlsdóttir, Ólöf Arnalds, Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir and Ragnar Ísleifur Bragason.

We are very greatful to all these wonderful people for participating in the realisation of our products because for us this dialouge is extremely important.

Vík Prjónsdóttir is a brand build on honesty. It´s our passion to use local material and have the production locally to support the community. Sadly, it seems that honesty can be a difficult for some people and thats the case with the people behind the fake brand Beardhead. These people have copied Vík Prjónsdóttir's Beardcap, started a company and are selling it around the world. Scandinavian Grace, our retailers in New York, even has a documentation that they ordered a Beardcap from the store in January 2008. We mostly feel sorry for all the ones that have bought the fake Beardcap with out realizing it. If you feel like supporting Vík Prjónsdóttir then you can to a lot by commenting on their Facebook wall, on the blogs they mention at their website etc. because you can be powerful enough to make a difference.

After the workshop in the Westfjords there was a long process in developing the new products. The designers live in Copenhagen, New York and Reykjavík and then the factory is in Vík so that makes the process quite complex...anyway, we made it and here is a little glimps.

The designers finally united again in the Westfjords last summer to work on their new product line. 
There was no internet and no mobile connection to disturb our brains but a lot of fresh water from the river and a lot of heat from the sun.

Vík Prjónsdóttir participated in a show organiced by The Trade Council of Iceland at 100% Design Tokyo 2008. Brynhildur, Finna and Sandra, our project manager, went as a representatives for the team. The whole trip was an extremly inspiring experience but still we are working on getting Vík Prjónsdóttir into the japanese market.

It was in the middle of the summer 2007 that Fredrik and James at Scandinavian Grace invited Vík Prjónsdóttir to put up a little show at their store in Williamsburg. This was the first time we presented the project in the US so it was a great opportunity to get all the feedback and response however it was quite strange to present these wollen products in the summer heat.

We have launched our new website today, 1st of February 2010. Vík Prjónsdóttir was created 2005 by Icelandic designers Brynhildur Pálsdóttir, Egill Kalevi Karlsson, Guðfinna Mjöll Magnúsdóttir, Hrafnkell Birgisson, Þuríður Rós Sigurþórsdóttir and the knitting factory Víkurprjón.

We will launch a new range of products on Tuesday the 9th of february in Stockholm and here on the website. In the meantime you can browse our current range of products. We very much hope you enjoy our site and find everything here that you want to see. Also, we would like to thank Phoebe Jenkins for a wonderful collaboration designing our website and the programmer Mani for his great work.

...the image above shows an Inuit Shaman that was an important inspiration in the process of making the new products.