Nammi means “candy” in Icelandic. The vibrant and luscious colors makes us knitters feel a bit like kids in a candy store.

Ragnheiður Eiríksdóttir (Ragga) designed and developed nammi for Knitting Iceland. She runs her tiny yarn-dyeing operation from her kitchen in Reykjavík, Iceland.

This is what Ragga says about how it all started:
“I wanted to do something funky and fun to the lovely Icelandic one ply, lace weight wool known as Einband or Loðband. So Nammi was created in vibrant summery colors irresistible to knitters. It knits up lovely for shawls, hats, sweaters or whatever you like.”

The dyeing process has a nice effect on the wool. It seems to “open up” a little bit, becoming somewhat softer and fuzzier. When knitted up the garments gain a soft and wooly halo.

The Icelandic wool is really kind of special. The breed of sheep around here is very old, got isolated at the time of the settlement, around the year 874. So these furry creatures have remained the same ever since. The wool has two different types of fibers, þel (pronounced thel, with the “th”sound as in thorough), which is the warm, soft, isolating stuff closest to the body and tog, the long water repellent fibers on the surface. So the wool has unique qualities being warm, soft, very light and water repellent at the same time.