Teachers at the wool week

Anna Dóra Jónsdóttir, born in 1962, raised on a farm in a small agricultural community called Gaulverjabæjarhreppur which is now known as Flóahreppur. She learned much in handicraft from her mother, went to the homemaking school at Laugarvatn and has a degree in office skills. She has focused on knitting in the past years and especially knitting from Lopi. She published a knitting book called Lopalist with her sister Margrét Jónsdóttir in 2015. She now works at Þingborg wool work shop. Anna Dóra will be teaching a class with my sister in Lopi knitting and the structure of the lopi sweater


Guðrún Bjarnadóttir is a botanist. She colors yarn with plants according to old Icelandic traditions but she uses modern help like electricity although the methods are the same as in the old days. Gudrun became interrested in natural colors while she was writing here Masters Thesis about etnobotany in Iceland. She came across old information about coloring with plants and started experimenting. Gudrun grew up in a family with a rich handcraft tradition and here mother was a sewing teacher and her grandmother tought here to recognise the plants and use them for dyeing. Gudruns has a open pland dye studio Hespuhúsið near Selfoss where guests are welcome to visit and take a look into the dyepots. She will be giving a talk and demonstration on „The colour blue“.


Guðrún Hildur is a taylor and dress maker as well as a historian. She has taught the making of Icelandic national costumes since 1997. She has been researching the different Icelandic costumes and their history. In 2011 she founded Annríki – national costume and jewelry – and is running this with her husband who is a mechanic and goldsmith. She will be teaching a class in traditional Icelandic embroidery with wool.

My name is Helga Thoroddsen and I am a passionate knitwear designer as well an enthusiast about everything and anything that has to do with creating beautiful and unique textiles. I have a M.Sc. degree in textile science from Colorado State University (1988) as well as a bachelor’s degree from Iceland University of Education with emphasis on textiles and crafts. Sweater design holds a special passion for me as well as sampling and figuring out the most stubborn knitting patterns to the point of losing sleep when things do not work out. I see knitting as a miracle to ease the mind, forget time and place, challenge the brain, create harmony and flow as well as unique one of a kind garments that make me happy. My other passions are horses, family, friends, cooking and keeping my vegetable garden and green house at my small farm Straumar in Ölfus. I will be teaching a knitting class with colour and design sampling.


Laura Senator, AKA “Laura Spinner”, is a pediatrician and fiber artist of Rainbow Twist Shop (on Etsy), based in New Jersey, USA.  She is known as a creative yarn spinner and colorful dyer of wool and has taught workshops in the US and in Iceland. She is an honorary Spunasystur. Laura will teach microwave dyeing of loose wool and yarn as well as a creative spinning class together with Maja.


Hello I’m Elísabet Jóhannsdóttir and I will teach you how to felt.
I’m a textiles teacher from the University of Iceland.  Teaching was my work for many years.  Now i’m an owner of a Guesthouse and that is my main work but my passion is almost everything regarding the Icelandic wool.  I’m a member of the Spinning sisters. I’m a proud owner of a small flock
of sheep and I’m working mainly with wool from my flock. I will be giving a presentation on the rare but remarkable Feldfé sheep of Iceland.

Liz has a  degree in Floristry which has given her a good botanical knowledge and 6 years of developing new techniques. She also felts, grows her own dye garden and keeps native sheep at Dalmally Railway Station in Scotland. She is looking forward to sharing the joy of imprinting with you.


Maja is an artist and architect living her dream on a remote farm in Iceland, renting out cottages when she does not have her hands in wool. She has been spinning and knitting since childhood and loves to make things. In the past decade Maja has developed a serious love affair with Icelandic sheep and their wool.

She has taught spinning in Iceland, at PLYaway in the USA and at Shetland Wool Week. She is the event coordinator for Woolweek 2022. She will be teaching carding for creative spinning with Laura.


My name is Marianne Guckelsberger. My main interest are viking age and medieval textile production methods with a focus on distaff spinning, suspended spinning, needle binding and finger looping using appropriate traditional tools. By combining academic and historical sources with practical experiments it is possible to get an idea of the immense work load of women in history without which life in Iceland would have been impossible.
I teach workshops of the crafts mentioned above at Heimilisiðnaðarskólinn (School for traditional crafts in Reykjavík) and other institutions in Iceland and abroad and have recreated dresses such as the 10th century Blue Dress from Ketilsstaðir, a 14th century dress from Herjólfsnes, Greenland as well as their accessories. You can find me on Facebook under my name Marianne tóvinnukona. I will be teaching Fingerlooping for parent and child teams.

On academia.edu Marianne Guckelsberger you can find some of my papers.


My name is Margrét Jónsdóttir, I am a dairy and sheep farmer. I have been surrounded with handicraft since I was a toddler. My mother is a lover of all kinds of crafts and has both knitted and sewed a lot and many more crafts, I learned good quality craftsmanship from my mother. I learned handicrafts in primary school with excellent teachers and have also learned a lot in the group at Þingborg wool workshop. I have been a part of the group at Þingborg wool workshop since it began in 1990 and I have designed a lot of Lopi sweaters and published the knitting book Lopalist in 2015 with my sister Anna Dóra Jónsdóttir. I taught a course at Shetland Wool Week in 2017 , I also am the shop manager at Þingborg Wool Workshop. I will be teaching a class with my sister in Lopi knitting and the structure of the lopi sweater, as well as beginner spinning on a wheel.

Þórey was born 1949 in the East of Iceland and lived there until in her 20s when she moved to Reykjavik. She worked as a practical nurse and has always had a keen interest in all kinds of crafts. Þórey has studied at the housekeeping school at Hallormsstaður as well as The Icelandic Wool School and taken workshops at Þingborg Wool Workshop. She has been a member of Þingborg wool workshop since it began in 1990 and amongst other things oversees the quality control. She designs and knits sweaters and is an avid hand spinner. She will be teaching beginner spinning on a wheel together with Margrét.


Marled is a former teacher and a passionate self-taught weaver of some 40 years. She focuses on archeological and historical textiles in research and reproduction and has a broad knowledge of ancient textiles handcrafts like dyeing with plants, band weaving, sprang, needle binding and more. She loves to work with natural fibres like wool and silk especially with Icelandic fleeces.

She has given courses in plant dyeing, weaving on the warp-weighted loom, bandweaving and much more in Germany, France, Switzerland and Iceland. She will be teaching band weaving.