Aðalbjörg Runólfsdóttir

My name is Aðalbjörg Runólfsdóttir. I have been knitting for a very long time. I learned to knit when I was young but didn’t start knitting anything seriously until I was in my twenties. I owned and ran the craft store Skrínan from 2004 to 2010. I taught a few courses during that time, mainly for beginners. After that, I often wished there were more hours in the day.
Today I work part-time at the Þingborg Wool Store. I think I can knit almost anything. My favorite knitting projects are socks and mittens

Alice Sowa

Alice Sowa is a Belgian/American textile designer and researcher from California who has been living in Iceland for the past four years. She has a studio practice in Öræfi, where she works with local fibers through weaving and knitting. Her current research explores turning invasive lupine into a textile resource, alongside developing Ullarkögglar, a wool pellet initiative. She is an ambitious and curious researcher, creative and focused on regenerative textile processes and community based work.

Snow Princess and Mountain Man

The Snow Princess is an accomplished crochet designer who represented Iceland in the 2024 Nordic Cosplay Championship in an outfit she made herself. The Mountain Man is a lover of the outdoors with a soft spot for all things woolly. Together, they’ve spent years bringing joy to children across Iceland through storytelling and play, and now they’re bringing their love of craft to the wool festival to guide young adventurers through their very first crochet stitches.

Guðrún Bjarnadóttir

Guðrún Bjarnadóttir has a degree in nature science. She dyes yarn according to old traditions with herbs, but uses modern technology, for example. electricity, although the methods are basically the same as before.

Guðrún started dyeing when she wrote her MS thesis on herbs and their use in Iceland, but plant dyeing is one form of that, but then she found old sources about dyeing that piqued her interest. Guðrún was brought up in a strong handicraft tradition, but her mother was a handicraft teacher and her grandmother taught her to know the herbs and use them. Guðrún runs the herbal dyeing workshop Hespuhúsið by Selfoss, where visitors have the opportunity to look into the dyeing pots and learn about the old dyeing tradition.

Helga Thorodssen

My name is Helga Thoroddsen and I am a knitwear designer but I also love everything related to textiles and textile work.

I have a master’s degree from Colorado State University with a special focus on Icelandic wool, its properties and processing, as well as a B.Ed. degree in needlework from the Iceland University of Education.

My favorite thing to do is design sweaters and I love working with Icelandic wool, from fleece to finished garment.

Hulda Brynjólfsdóttir

Hulda Brynjólfsdóttir is a Spinning Sister who went all the way with spinning; she quit her job as a teacher and, together with her husband Tyrfingur, opened the country’s first small spinning factory; Uppspuni.

Uppspuni is located in Lækjartún in South Iceland. Hulda and Tyrfingur live with cattle and sheep and spin yarn at home on the farm from the wool of their sheep. People can also bring wool to them and have it spun into yarn according to their wishes. Hulda runs a small shop above the spinning room and sells the yarn she spins in the natural colors of the sheep and dyes the colors that the sheep don’t have.

Kathy Schneider

Kathy’s passion for fiber arts began in childhood, ranging from knitting to beadwork

She later deepened her expertise, earning her Master Spinner Certificate from Olds College in 2018, where she completed an In-Depth Study on the Navajo Churro Sheep.

With a background in education, she teaches students of all ages, guiding them from raw fiber to finished work. As an active guild member, she demonstrates and teaches at regional events, including the Estes Park Wool Market, Taos Wool Festival, and the Master Spinner Program at Olds College.

Kathy Sparks

Kathy Sparks, The Hand Maiden,  is celebrating  50 years as a fiber artist.  Living in the Midwestern United States (Indiana),  Kathy retired from teaching science at the college level and now devotes her life to researching traditional fiber arts, especially natural dyes.

“Everything I produce is By Hand, using locally sourced fibers, or crops I’ve grown on my farm. When someone works with yarn I have created, they hold in their hands a product that has been infused with color, naturally produced, locally grown and created with inspiration provided by nature.”

A popular workshop instructor, Kathy has taught spinning, weaving and knitting workshops around the globe. As breeder of Connemara Ponies, she continues to serve the breed society as Chair of the Inspections Program.   A grandmother to three active young boys, Kathy is the author of three books, including The Song of the Muskox which focuses on her favorite fiber – Qiviut.

Kristjana Kona

I learned how to crochet in 2010 and was hooked from day one. I particularily love to make baskets. It is ideal to keep your craft projects handy in these beautiful baskets in your home. I enjoy working with natural materials and I crochet my baskets with wool yarn.

I hold a teachers degree from Universiti of Iceland in handcrafts/textiles and have been teaching under the name of my label and company “Hringlandi” since 2018. I enjoy seeing people get excited about carfting and witness the beginning of new interests and hobbies.

Laura Spinner

Laura Senator, also known as Laura Spinner, is a pediatrician and fiber artist from New Jersey, USA. She has a passion for Iceland; it’s landscapes, food, animals, and fiber artists and has visited numerous times.

She is known for creative “art yarn” spinning and dyeing colourful wool and yarn. Laura has taught classes and workshops at PLY away, Utah, and in Iceland. She can be found at Rainbow Twist Shop on Etsy and on Facebook and Instagram as Laura Spinner.

She is an honorary Spinning sister.

Leslie Anne Meyer, ScribbleKnit Studio

Leslie Meyer is a fiber artist from Seattle, Washington, USA. She is currently at work on a knitted collection inspired by Icelandic and Nordic landscapes.
Using Icelandic wool as her base, she knits in an intuitive freeform style, without patterns or gauge. Drawing on memories, photographs, and videos, she translates them into knitted forms, creating pieces to be displayed as framed artworks or worn as
treasured garments.
She is honored to teach at Ullarvikan for the first time this summer.

Elísabet Sörensen

I enjoyed all kinds of handwork right from school and when it came time to choose a university education, I went to the Textile Department of the Icelandic Institute of Technology and graduated from there with a teaching degree in 1996. I continued to add to my knowledge and in 2025 I completed a weaving course from Laugets vævekurser in Denmark. Today I am primarily a weaver and weaving teacher. I have a studio – Þræðir Textílsetur where I teach about weaving and work on my artistic creations.

Liz Gaffney

Liz has a  degree in Floristry which has given her a good botanical knowledge and 8 years of developing new techniques. She also felts and grows her own dye plants

She teaches workshops and is looking forward to sharing the joy of imprinting with you.

Find out more about her on www.heartfeltbyliz.com  or facebook  Heartfelt by liz.

Margrét Jónsdóttir

My name is Margrét Jónsdóttir and I am a dairy and sheep farmer, but my main job is to run the wool shop at Þingborg.

I have been surrounded by handcrafts as long as I remember. My mother has always knitted and sewn a lot along with other handcrafts. She taught me to do things well. I have taken classes here in Iceland and abroad and learned a lot from the women in Þingborg over the last 3 decades. I have knitted and designed a lot of lopapeysur and together with my sister Anna Dóra we published the book Lopalist in 2015. I have been teaching classes in how to make a lopapeysa in Shetland Woolweek 2017 and at the Swiss Yarn Festival in 2023.

Anna Dóra Jónsdóttir

Anna Dóra Jónsdóttir is born in 1962 and raised in the farm Syðri-Völlur in Flóahreppur. She learned a lot of hand crafts from her mother when she was growing up. 

She went to school in Laugarvatn to study home making and is also an office technician. She has focused on knitting in the past few years and especially knitting from Lopi, she published the knitting book Lopalist with her sister, Margrét Jónsdóttir, in 2015.

Marianne Tó

My area of interest is viking and medieval textile techniques such as hand spinning like the settlers of Iceland did, drop spindle spinning, quilting and finger looping, along with other tools that are unknown to many people today.

By combining scientific and historical sources with practical work, we have a clear picture of the absolutely incredible labor contribution of women in earlier centuries. I have held courses in the above methods at the Home Industry School as well as other institutes both in Iceland and abroad and worked on the restoration of various ancient textiles, like clothing from Ketilsstaðir and Herjólfsnes along with accessories.

Marled Mader

I am a former primary school teacher and have been retired for several years. For 40 years, I have traveled regularly to Iceland.
I have been working with wool for 30 years; I spin, dye with natural plant materials, weave, and engage with ancient textile techniques—particularly those from the Iron and Viking Ages. I teach various courses, and through this work, I found the *Spunasystur*—something for which I am deeply grateful.

Textílbarinn

Textíl Barinn is a design studio run by the duo Hildigunnur and Hrafnhildur.
We specialize in giving previously beloved textiles a new life. We recycle, redesign and make textiles more attractive and accessible.