Mittens from Around Norway: Over 40 Traditional Knitting Patterns Inspired by Folk-Art Collections

Sæther celebrates traditional knitwear from Norway, her homeland, “where it’s easy to end up with cold fingers more than six months of the year,” with this collection of 40 classic knitwear design patterns best suited for advanced knitters. The book requires prior knowledge on how to knit “in the round” and produce Fair Isle color work. Readers must know how to follow pattern charts, including being able to “mirror” a chart for the second mitten. But even nonknitters will appreciate the book’s histories of guilds, needles, and ball hooks over 400 years and the tales of prized mittens held in cultural intuitions such as Norway’s Røros Museum. Delightful snapshots of Sæther as a child knitting with her mother sit among photographs of many mittens in bright colors. The whole book delights and instructs. (Aug.)