On the 14th of January 2025, my father-in-law passed away.
He was a remarkable man in many ways, yet in this post, I am only going to talk about how he put his mark on Uppspuni.
Sveinn was always very active and happy if he could have something to do, but he could be restless if there were no projects ahead or work to be done somewhere. Therefore it was a bit hard for him when he got older and had to slow down in the things he used to take care of every day of his life. I guess it is similar with so many people when they get older and stop working in their “normal” work. Then it is so important to find something that is satisfying, has some meaning and even leaves something behind that is worth something.
Sveinn was lucky enough that there was a Lathe for woodworking in the garage, a Lathe that had not been used for many years, but did not need much attention to be usable  again. And it was a HUGE happiness for Sveinn. He took a short course, asked those who had tried something like that before, watched videos and started practising on his own. To make a long story short he spent every day in the garage making something in the lathe for several years. Early in the morning we could hear the lathe’s humming sound from the garage. It stopped very shortly for lunch and then it was back in action. Sveinn used leftover timber from carpenters or if he could somewhere find a good quality piece lying around,- it didn’t have to be a big one, he could make something with it. And he used the trees he needed to cut down in the garden or in the hedges around the farm. He also was given some timber from family and friends if they found a good quality piece of timber or cut down a good tree in their garden.

Dusty and smiling Sveinn made things from wood, polished and gave away or sold if someone wanted to pay him for it.

Soon after he started using the lathe, I asked him if you could make troll-needles for my Tröllaband. I remember this so well. It was around 9.30 in the morning of a working day. I was at the mill and showed him what I was thinking. It should be a knitting needle 25 mm to knit in a round, please, and it had to be smooth so the yarn wasn’t tangling to the wood.
At 12:35 he brought me the first sample.
After few adjustments we were happy with the result and he started making some of those needles. The cord in the middle was change-able so one could knit short and long pieces. The tube in the middle was bought in a hardware store, meant for water or airflow and it worked perfectly. I sold those needles from him in my shop and they always caught an eye hanging on the wall, a bit of a decoration as well.

Whenever I asked Sveinn if he could maybe make something that might be useful in the mill, he always said yes, paused a little and asked how I wanted it to look and then he was off to do the work. The thing was, that he liked it best if he got orders, because then he had a task that needed to be done. Making something useful was more of a delight than just making something. He made boxes, baskets, vases and plates for different products to put in the shelves.
And then he made bowls. All kinds of bowls. Oh so many and so pretty. Sometimes he glued different colours of wood together and then made the bowl of that so the bowl was two coloured. There are so many that have gotten a beautiful bowl, that Sveinn made and many have told me that they treasure these bowls and think warmly of Sveinn when they look at it.He also made cups from whole branches or a trunk of a tree and sometimes he used driftwood in his work. Most of those things are like an art piece, even though he said it was just a damaged timber.

On the 28th of January 2025, which is also Sveinn’s birthday, his funeral takes place.
To honour Sveinn, his farm, that his son Tyrfingur and I took over in 2011, and all the work Sveinn did on the farm and in the garage, we are going to have Uppspuni closed for the day of January 28th 2025. If you read this, please take a moment to admire the photos attached to this post. They are a very small example of the things Sveinn made, and then  there is one of the winter view he had from his home’s porch and the opening photo is of himself in his best places of all, the Icelandic highlands. 
Thank you Sveinn for being the person you were. We are better humans because we got to know you.