Pages

Monday 7 January 2013

Nordic Knitting Traditions Book Review.

Do you ever look at something and think "I'd love to have a go at that, how difficult can it be?"?
Well, if it looks difficult, then it probably is.
As with Nordic knitting.


The end results are quite stunning. Getting there is another matter.

I jumped at the chance to review this book, just in case it turned out that these lovely things are easier to make than I thought they would be, sadly not. However, if you are an experienced and accomplished knitter and want to give this style of knitting a go, then this is the book for you.

It's a lovely book, well written, and includes patterns for 25 Scandinavian, Icelandic and Fair Isle accessories, a few of which you can see here:





As you can see in the pictures above and below, each pattern includes a very detailed and thorough colour coded diagram to follow.


The book is a paper-back, with 144 pages, which includes an introduction, a page on Stranded Knitting techniques, a page on materials and tools, an index and a full page spread of general knitting information and yarn weight guidelines. The patterns themselves are very well written with lots of full colour illustrations, as you would expect with knitting as complicated as this, and if you are an experienced knitter, and decided to give it a go, I'm sure you would be able to read and understand the patterns very easily. However, this is not the sort of knitting you would be able to do while relaxing in front of the TV or travelling on public transport, unless you were very, very good at concentrating on one thing at a time, while cutting out all external stimuli.

I may be tempted to have a go, one day, but not yet. If you decide to give it a go I would love to hear how you get on.

The cover price of the book is £16.99 in UK, $24.99 in USA and $25.99 in Canada,
however, if you click here you will be taken directly to F&W Media (the UK distributors) where you can purchase it for £12.74.

4 comments:

Lotti said...

Wow .... those patterns are truly amazing. Love the socks, they look stunning. It would be nice to give this a go. Actually I've always wanted to try making socks, but don't know if I'd start with anything this advanced. Would love to see pictures if you do try to make some.

Lizzy said...

Looks a lovely book, but the patterns take a lot of concentration, not the sort of thing you can just pick up and do a bit while you cook the dinner!

Lizzy said...

Hello Joy, me again. I need some advice! I want to put ( I don't know what it is called) a link thing to a thing I want to take part in on somebody elses blog - like the photo and words saying "photo scavenger hunt" and I don't know how to do it. You seem to have quite a few so must know how!! Can you explain to me please? Thank you Lizzy

joy said...

Lizzy, do you mean the ones on the right hand side of my blog? If so, then its a bit complicated, I'll do it tomorrow morning for you, I've had a couple of glasses of wine this evening xx
email me directly at joy@treetopsystems.co.uk