Latvian Mittens: Traditional Designs & Techniques (Paperback)

~ Lizbeth Upitis (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Schoolhouse Press; Revised edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0942018141
• ISBN-13: 978-0942018141
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,577 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ethnic knitting and inspiration for your designs, February 14, 2001

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Elizabeth Upitis has included many models of Latvian mittens from the various regions of the Baltic state. Mittens play an important part in courtship and marriage rituals in Latvian culture. The patterns are rich and decorative, with edgings of fringe or scallops and small patterns reminiscent of Fair Isle knitting.

Even though you probably won't want to make as many mittens as a Latvian bride should need for her dowry, you will be inspired by the variety. The patterns, colorways and edgings are quite useful for adapting to other knitting designs like sweaters, hats and vests.

All my grandparents came from Latvia, and I wish they'd been able to bring some of these wonderful folk handworks with them when they came to America. I would have loved to have seen some from the old country. The author has done a great job in documenting the patterns and the lore behind them.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Latvian Mittens, November 3, 2006

By	JSB "JSB" (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews

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.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book!, August 24, 2006

By	L. Breyer "http://knitternutter.blogspot.com/" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a fabulous treasury of traditional patterns with its colorful pictures. All techniques are covered in detail with drawn illustrations. This is, however, by no means a pattern book for a beginner. To construct a certain mitten, the techniques and patterns must be picked out from different parts of the book and put together. On the practical side, the binding of the book could be better; mine is already falling apart and loosing pages after a couple of weeks of use. Nevertheless, I'm very satisfied with the purchase, and will make many of the mittens in this book.