The architect gets an idea

Artikle by Rakel Sveinsdóttir for Vísir.is

The Idea was to make the einrúm wool yarn, yarn for handknitting. ” For many years, since I was about nine years old, I went to my grandmother’s Katríns house every Saturday. I walked from our house in Álfheimar to her house in Efstastundi to sit in her small kitchen, where we knitted together with the background sound of the radio. For lunch, grandma cooked salted cod with hamsatólg (melted fat!), we had rye bread soup with raisins or rhubarb porridge for dessert. At three o’clock she baked waffles” says Kristín Brynja Gunnarsdóttir, architect and co-owner of the company Einrúm, on the inspiration for the creation of Einrúm Icelandic wool yarn. The Icelandic wool yarn Einrúm is a combination of Icelandic wool and Mulberry silk and sold to 15 countries.

“For example, I thought that knitters in Italy and South Korea were not a target group for Icelandic wool yarn like Einrúm, but something else has come to light. I find that delightful to experience, “says Kristín. The Einrúm Icelandic wool yarn is an innovative idea that became a reality in the decade after the bank collapse.

Eco-friendly houses

Kristín and her husband, Steffan Iwersen, are both architects. They founded the architectural firm Einrúm in 2001. At the moment, they live in Denmark. Kristín and Steffan met while studying in Copenhagen, but after that, Kristín got Steffan to move to Iceland for a few years. In 2011, the couple moved back to Denmark, where they have specialized in the design and construction of eco-friendly houses made of solid wood units.

When back in Denmark, Kristín once sat in the kitchen with two Danish friends. One of them, the goldsmith Lina Christenssen, had just returned from a trip to Thailand, where she runs a small goldsmith’s workshop. Lina says that in the small rural district of Surin, where her goldsmith’s workshop is located, the unique silk is a resource for the local people. The locals use the silk for products sold on local markets, or they use it themselves.

In the chat, Lina says she finds this silk to be a unique raw material and would like to support this silk production. “Knitting from it was the first thing that came to my mind. I can mix it with the wool, I said excitedly” says Kristín when she recalls this conversation at the kitchen table.

No turning back

After this idea hit Kristín in the head, there was no turning back. She felt she had to find out if it was possible to mix these two ingredients into one band.”Of course, I had heard that some people find that the Icelandic wool is uncomfortable to use, rough and coarse. I wanted to show off its unique advantages and saw an opportunity to show Icelandic wool in a new light.” It turned out that her friend Lina sent Kristín silk from Thailand as samples.

“I started by knitting a sample of wool, single-stranded, only, then added one thread of silk. 100 grams of yarn is about 500 meters but 100 grams of the silk I had is about 5000 meters, which is to say very thin” says Kristín and adds:” I then continued with one thread of wool and two threads of silk and so on until I had one thread of wool and ten threads of silk. There I could see how these materials worked together and what happened to them as their relative proportions changed. ” Kristín still felt it was important for Icelandic wool to play a leading role. She, therefore, chose samples with two and four threads of silk where the ratio was 20-40% silk and 60-80% wool.

To make a long story short, this experimental activity ended in the spring of 2012, when Kristín herself went with Lina to Thailand and visited a small family-run company that produces silk. “I still buy silk from this company today.”

From grandma to Icelandic wool yarn, Einrúm, all over the world

Kristín says that the idea of ​​the Einrúm yarn can be traced entirely to the interest she got in knitting when she was with her grandmother.
After all, she admits that as a teenager, she was a bit of a nerd.

“As a teenager, my favourite thing to do was to sit and listen to a book read out loud on the radio each afternoon,” says Kristín. Kristín says that her grandmother not only taught her how to knit but she also taught her to appreciate the qualities of Icelandic wool. “My grandma was actually a handicraft teacher and knew it well.”

Kristín’s grandmother taught her, among other things, that in knitting, a good rule is to use quality raw materials. Because if that is done, it almost doesn’t matter how well, or even badly, the knitting itself succeeds. “When you have pressed, as my grandmother did or washed the piece as I do today, the most uneven knitted work is almost always smooth and beautiful. Everything knitted in Icelandic wool will be smooth and beautiful, “says Kristín. Like her grandmother, Kristín has always had a great fondness for Icelandic wool. Not least for the insulation value, it has.

“Of course, I have knitted from a different material, but I have always returned ‘home’ to Icelandic wool. “Kristín learned early on, that the clothes the fine ladies she saw in her grandmother’s magazines in fancy dresses, jackets, hats, or sweaters, were all garments that looked like they were bought in a store though they were homemade.

“It simply came to my attention then. If I saw a sweater I wanted but looked like I could knit it myself, I did it, from Icelandic wool, of course. I wanted to show that it was possible to use Icelandic wool in other garments than ‘lopapeysa’ sweaters.”

The first sales steps for the  Einrúm wool yarn 

After the trip to Thailand, Kristín decided to go into formal production. “I went home to Iceland after the trip to Thailand and had a meeting with Ístex where I offered them ideas. Ístex did not bite the bait, so I decided I had to do it myself. Ístex, on the other hand, supported me well, and after many attempts and trials, we had the prototype in our hands, “says Kristín.

Kristín says that what makes the Einrúm yarn so unique is that by twinning the silk thread into the wool yarn, the hard twist on the wool thread is released, and the Icelandic wool becomes open and light and softer.

As something out of a movie.

 Kristín described getting the first 200 kilos of the test yarn from production as something out of a movie. “It was well past five in the evening, and it was dark, raining and windy. My friend Björg Pjetursdóttir and I, who was helping me, had already decided on the three most beautiful yarn shops we found in Reykjavík. I went into the first one and proudly showed the owner the product. I was absolutely sure that she would be as thrilled as we were. She was not! “This is not something my customers would want” she said. For a moment, Kristin hit a wall. I have 200 kg of this yarn, she sighed. 

 But fortunately, the next two stores welcomed Kristín and the Einrúm yarn. With that, the product was in its first sale. Today Kristín’s yarn, the Einrúm yarn, sells in 54 stores in 15 countries. From South Korea to Canada.

The big opportunity

Kristín says that Icelandic wool has a loyal fan base. The same goes for fans of the Icelandic “lopapeysa” sweater. They are also extremely loyal fans. Kristín, on the other hand, wanted to show that it was possible to knit many more garments than a “lopapeysa” sweater made of Icelandic wool. “I wanted to reach out to those who knit simple but beautiful garments for everyday use. And where Icelandic wool was perhaps not at the front of their minds for those projects. “

The next task was to design knitting patterns to support the Einrúmyarn and show how one could use it. Kristín got good support from Halla Benediktsdóttir and Harpa Birgisdóttir working the patterns. More and more designers have come to like the yarn and design patterns for it. Einrúm received a grant from the Technology Development Fund in 2017, which enabled Kristín to start marketing for real in Europe. Located in Copenhagen, Kristín says this European marketing is even easier than it would otherwise be.

 “One summer, we hit two birds with one stone. We combined our summer vacation with a sales trip. We drove between yarn shops in northern Germany with our boot and back seat full of Einrúm yarn and just enough space for our youngest child. It went much better for the boy on the way home after we had managed to sell all the cargo, and the summer vacation was brilliant and memorable, “says Kristín.

Good advice

Kristín says that she has had good assistance on her yarn journey. She mentions as an example the help of her friend Ragnar Bjartmarz, who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and has given her guidance.

Kristín has found it most challenging how many different hats an entrepreneur has to put on. “I wear the hats of the bookkeeper, the designer, the producer, the purchasing manager, the marketing manager, the salesman, the webmaster, the customer service representative, the graphic designer, the finance manager, and the warehouse manager, to name a few, but maybe just one of these hats clicks,” says Kristín. Unfortunately, I do not have time to learn all these roles well, but I find them incredibly interesting and challenging. And since the hats are many and cool, I sometimes try to wear many hats at once, but I do not recommend it. ”

Her main advice to entrepreneurs who want to follow up on their innovation projects is to find partners. “Find partners and take joint responsibility for the entrepreneurial project. Being alone in a project like this is a bit like talking to yourself, always! It’s always more fun when someone other than yourself answers. There is always a better solution that more people solve. The cart that is pulled by many is always lighter. ”