From boom to bust and back again: Knitting and the Icelandic economy

The importance of knitting to the Icelandic economy and culture is evident to any visitor when they see the rows of shops in downtown Reykjavík selling Icelandic jumpers. While knitting in Iceland does not date back as far as the Viking days, there is evidence that it’s been a staple of the island’s economy for over 500 years.

Early knitting industry in Iceland

Historical documents from as early as the 1600s indicate that Icelanders knitted and exported hundreds of thousands of hand-knitted goods per year, including socks, jumpers and mittens. That’s no small feat when you consider that the population was probably only around 50,000 at that time. Approximately 20% of Iceland’s population worked in the wool trade for six months of each year, doing so mainly through the winter months.

Back then it was necessary and hard work.  Knitters wore thimbles made of sheepskin to prevent blisters and sore fingers. Female knitters were expected to produce a pair of socks in a day. Some worked in pairs to produce jumpers, in which case each woman was expected to knit four jumpers per week, or six jumper bodies. It wasn’t only women who did the work; even young children had quotas to meet, with smaller children expected to complete a pair of two-thumbed mittens per week. The work quotas had to be met even when herding animals, people would continue knitting when walking from one place to another.

It's no surprise that the run up to Christmas was the busiest time of year for knitters. They needed to produce more inventory for sale as gifts, while at the same time making enough to keep family members and farmhands outfitted through the winter months.

Shifts in the knitting economy of Iceland

By the 19th century, industrialisation was fast changing the knitting business, knitting machines and appliances were set up in homes and workshops. Automation enabled faster production, but at the same time, wool-based Icelandic textiles and knitted goods were also becoming less popular as an export. Towards the end of the 19th century, wool factories were established, one in 1896 in the town of Mosfellsbær, and one a year later in the town of Akureyri. By 1900, Iceland was only exporting wool and not knitted goods.

Automation changed more than the lifestyles of Icelandic people and how they were making a living, but the type of wool and wool textiles being made because machines were unable to replicate the wool separating processes formerly done by human hands.

The 20th century brought two world wars and the Great Depression. Collectively these world events forced Icelanders to return to a self-reliant lifestyle and knitting in the home was revived as a source of income.

As finances began to improve in the 1950s, knitting emerged as a hobby activity with the development of printed knitting patterns inspired by traditional Scandinavian dress.

Then, the dip in the textile industry throughout Europe in the late 1970s led to the closure of the original Icelandic wool factories. It was during the 1970s that, despite the downturn in the market, Icewear began producing its first Icelandic wool jumpers.

Modern knitting in Iceland

Today, Icewear continues the tradition of producing wool products from Icelandic yarns. In addition to retail locations, Icewear oversees wool and garment production at various locations in Iceland including sewing rooms at Asbru and Hvolsvöllur. Visitors to Mýrdalur in the south of Iceland are welcome to visit the Icewear Víkurprjón factory shop to observe the process of producing wool garments first-hand. Icewear continues to use Icelandic wool in knitted goods, using the Plötulopi and Létt-lopi varieties for hand-knit garments and Icewear uses "loðband," or industrial yarn, for machine-knit goods.