Everyone that has been to Midgard Base Camp knows Jónina. She has so many responsibilities that a job description could easily fill a whole book. Setting up the breakfast buffet, giving amazing travel advice, cleaning the rooms, helping out in the kitchen, serving at the bar or just being an amazing and always super helpful and friendly host are just some of the things she does (don’t ask how the laundry room or a Midgard Adventure catering would look like without her…). Short, she is one of the super good and vital souls you will meet soon after entering Midgard.
Even though we feel that she pretty much lives at Midgard, Jónina finds other things to do outside her (pretty long) working hours. For Jónina there is no better way to relax after a busy day than with knitting or sewing. So the best chance to find her outside Midgard is probably at a knitting shop, where she often goes to browse all materials or to get inspiration for new recipes and starts to plan new projects.
Handicraft has always been her biggest passion – all her life she has spent a lot of time sitting with her mother and grandmother, watching them and learning as much as possible. To deepen her knowledge she took a semester at the School of Housewifes in Reykjavík where handicraft courses are taught, along with other skills, such as cleaning, cooking and a lot of theory behind it all.
Knitting plays a big part in the Icelandic culture – easily visible by the beautiful lopapeysur (wool sweaters) you will see when visiting Iceland. But it’s not only the end product that is important, even more important is the quality time of actually knitting them together with like minded people. The concept of Saumaklúbbur (“knitting club”) plays a big priority in many people’s lives. A “saumaklúbbur” is a group of close-knit friends meeting up – some actually do meet to knit together, talk about their daily life, have some coffee; others use it as an excuse to meet up, spend time together and go hiking or biking, drinking too much red wine and usually forgetting about the knitting part (ask Björg, our CEO, she meets regularly with her Saumaklúbbur, but we haven’t seen a self-made Lopapeysa yet…). Midgard has been the base of several Saumaklúbbur enjoying their hobby on an evening or even spending a whole weekend hanging out together in our cozy lobby.
While Jónina loves to be at Midgard, being surrounded by our amazing guests, she also found a way to make the best out of the Covid times and all the unexpected free time that came with it. So she has been keeping herself busy with knitting A LOT. Together with Anna Kristín, a good friend of her here in Hvolsvöllur (and a great knitting genius, a publisher of several knitting books and the owner of Prjónafjör) she was working on a recipe that will share their joy of knitting. Please find the recipe for the Lopapeysa Garpur here. Gather your friends, build your own “Saumaklúbbur” and try this recipe – honestly, we can’t wait to see the results!
