18-Day ~ Transatlantic Knitting Cruise (July 2016)

18-Day Viking Passage Knitting Cruise w/ Maggie Jackson

This popular knitting cruise is onboard Holland America Line's ms Rotterdam sails from Rotterdam to Boston.  While onboard participants will enjoy learning new knitting skills from a professional knitting instructor and the instant community of being with other knitters.  While in port experience local inspiration through privately arranged visits with local designers, knitters and yarn producers.  This is the perfect cruise for knitters and cruising enthusiasts alike.  The North Atlantic is known for its rugged beauty and cool summertime temperatures. Take this voyage and you'll keep cool while stimulating your creativity in the company of other knitters.

Join Maggie Jackson on this knitting cruise visiting some of the hottest destinations for knitters including Norway, Shetland, Iceland and Canada.  Maggie Jackson is an expert knitter, designer and teacher who loves to cruise and is very much looking forward to visiting these destinations with other knitters to learn about their techniques and patterns.  Maggie wants to help you learn to think outside the box to take your knitting to a whole new level and invites you to join her on this knitting cruise adventure.

2016 Viking Passage Knitting Cruise Highlights

• Visit Weldraad, Amsterdam’s leading yarn shop for natural fibers produced using environmentally-friendly processing methods.


• Attend a presentation about traditional Dutch Ganseys and learn the stories behind these Dutch fisherman sweaters. Like their British counterparts, Dutch Ganseys gave fisherman the warmth and protection needed to survive the harsh conditions of the North Atlantic and how the patterns, unique to each fishing village, were used as tools to identify fishermen when they drowned.


• Tour the Oleana sweater factory and textile museum outside of Bergen next to a beautiful fjord and then shop for yarn at Bergen's top shops.


• Visit the Shetland Wool Brokers, Jamieson and Smith to shop for yarn and learn about the 700 knitters, farmers and designers who transform Shetland's wool into high quality yarn, knitwear and blankets.


• Visit the Shetland Museum for a private museum tour with an emphasis on Shetland lace.


• See demonstrations of traditional spinning and knitting given by the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Weavers, Knitters and Dyers at the Böd of Gremista and Shetland Textile Working Museum.


• Shop for Icelandic wool and popular kits at Klæðakot in the beautiful town of Ísafjörður in northwest Iceland.


• Enjoy a Wild & Woolly Tour of Reykjavik combined with the top highlights of Iceland's famed Golden Circle.


• Visit Alafoss, the company that founded Iceland's wool industry in 1986 producing fiber, yarn and garments for distribution around the world.


• Enjoy a traditional Icelandic fish lunch at Kaffi Álafoss.


• Take an Icelandic Mitten workshop with Guðrún “Hannele” Henttinen at her yarn shop, Storkurinn, in the heart of Reykjavik.


• Search for handspun Qiviut in Greenland while enjoying cool temperatures and spectacular scenery.


• In St. Johns visit the Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA) and shop for hand knit garments made by locals. For over 95 years women have been raising money to supplement their family incomes through the promotion of traditional knitting in areas of high unemployment.


• Shop for local Canadian indie dyed yarns from The Clever Cat and Island Sweet Fibers at Cast On! Cast Off! in St. John's


• See some of the prettiest yarns in Canada hand-dyed at Handmaiden and Fleece Artist yarn in their hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia


• Visit Tradewind Knits, home of Lucy Neatby, to see her work and shop for yarn, patterns and instructional DVD's.


• Meet Ilga Leja and see her designs that are inspired by the natural world combining colors and stitch patterns to create interesting garments that are a delight to knit.