Maruta Grasmane - Latvieša cimdi

I am planning a somewhat more substantial post about books on Latvian knitting, but after reading and looking in this book for hours I will write about it now. "Latvieša cimdi" by Maruta Grasmane was published in 2012 - and we missed it! Woe! I read about it on a blog and got the feeling that I had really missed out on this one. I told my husband about it and he searched the internet and managed to find a copy second hand. Great Joy! The edition is only 3000 copies - if you find one I recommend that you invest in it.

433 pages of treasures from Latvian mitten heaven. Mostly featured with a photo of a mitten on the right-hand page and the chart for the same mitten on the left-hand page. You will be spoilt for choice if you decide to knit a design from this book - it took me hours before I could decide which mittens to knit (and then I changed my mind the next day!).

The mittens are from the regions of Vidzeme, Latgale, Augšzeme, Zemgale and Kurzeme. There are introductions to each region, but only in Latvian. At the end of the book there is an English Summary "The Symbolism of Mittens in Latvian Folklore" by Janina Kursite, and an English Introduction and presentation of the different regions by Maruta Grasmane.

This is not a book that will teach you the different techniques of how to knit Latvian mittens - you will have to find that information elsewhere. What it is, is a treasure of patterns of fantastic traditional mittens from Latvia. I find it extremely inspiring.

If you want to see more about the author, the book and the mittens there is this clip on Youtube from Latvian TV (sorry, no translation - but it is worth viewing).

Book information:
Author: Maruta Grasmane
Title: "Latvieša cimdi"
ISBN 978-9984-9945-5-0