Latvian Mittens: Traditional Designs & Techniques

A great book , but not the best. I find it a bit difficult to see the patterns since they are like copies of copies and to black - and to figure out where to set the thumb. Really nice patterns and some words from the different designs.

This is a pleasure - great pictures, and lots of charts, and good stories about the patterns. I have read it several times since receiving my copy a few weeks ago. If you are interested in knitting, knitting charts, traditional knitting, gloves and mittens, or Latvia, you'll find this a fun book.

I also have been waiting for my Latvian Mittens book since Nov. 19 /06. There is a delay now until April I am told. What gives? I have never had this problem with Amazon before amd have ordered lots of books in the past five years. But I really want this book...maybe I will start looking elsewhere.

Whatever shipping time they post is a lie. I ordered in November, said it would be here for Xmas, extended shipping to January, then early February, and now just exteneded it again until the end of Feb, be ware of ordering this book, you may never get it even though it appears available.

I just received this book in the mail. I love it. It has a great overview of the history and importance of handknit mittens in Latvian history. It also includes several Latvian poems about mitten knitting, which I thought was fantastic.

There are several full length patterns in the book that explain the different techniques used to create the mittens in the book, but then there are many, many more charts in the back of the book, as well as color photographs of finished mittens corresponding to the charts. I don't think this is a great book if you are a very beginning knitter, but I do think that if you've learned how to knit, purl, increase and decrease and done a stranded color project, you should do fine with this book. As another reviewer said, you have to piece together the techniques from other sections of the book to make any of the charts in the back, but really, it's not that hard, and the instructions are clear.

My only criticism of the book is that the charts themselves are in black and white and a little crowded together. Otherwise, I found this book to be well worth the money I spent, and I plan to make lots of the mittens found in it, as well as probably mixing and matching to make my own, unique, mittens.