Traditional Knitting in North Russia is a kind of tough book to review. It is interesting and informative, on the one hand. But kind of frustrating on the other hand.

It is self-published by the author, Catherine Maslova, and was pretty clearly written and published on a shoestring. The author is clearly very knowledgeable. She shares a lot of information she has gleaned from both public sources, like museums, and private sources such as family members. There is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book if you want to learn more. There are lots of photos of knitted items from Russian cultural museums, but they are kind of blurry and shaky, like pictures I take through glass with my phone. There’s not much attempt at a slick layout, just really dense words and images. Kind of like a thesis on the topic. I don’t mind that, but it could have been so much more. I think what frustrated me was how good it already is, and the idea of how much better it would be with some funding behind it.

Anyway, if you are interested in ethnic northern Russian knitting, this book has got you covered. There really isn’t much generally available information on this topic aside from stuff about Orenburg lace. The author breaks out the different regions of northern Russia and details the type of knitting done there. Almost all of the pictures are accompanied by her charts of the patterns shown, which is why I don’t have any examples to show you. I do have this though:

In addition to the regional overviews, the book contains a few patterns. One each for mittens, a sweater, socks, and a hat. The patterns are very basic and assume you already know how to knit. Each pattern can be personalized with the many motifs charted throughout the book. The author does not give you a lot of explanation, but all of the garments seem pretty doable for reasonably experienced knitters.

The author also has a few other books – Knitted Slippers from Russian, the Caucases, and Central Asia, and Small Russian Bags. I have not read either of these, but am planning to once the TBR book pile gets read down a little.

I really like this book, but it isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If you need more detailed patterns or are a beginning knitter, this will likely not suit you. If you like ethnic knitting and have made some garments already, then give it a try!