Green Books Campaign- Ethnic Knitting Discovery: The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and The Andes by Donna Druchunas

This review is part of the Green Books campaign.

Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.

I am very excited to be a part of Eco-Libris' Green Books Campaign-"It's Time for a Green Book": 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews. My book choice, Ethnic Knitting Discovery, was printed on 50% post consumer recycled paper and processed chlorine free as part of the Green Press Initiative.

Now, on to the review.

Donna Druchunas is a well known name in the world of knitting. Her book, Arctic Lace is quite popular with knitters and is one that I have wanted to get since beginning to knit lace. Ethnic Knitting: Discovery- The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and The Andes share the patterns and techniques used in the countries and regions above. Ethnic knitting doesn't give you traditional patterns that I am used to seeing in most knitting pattern books. Instead we are given a sort of workbook. You plug in the numbers and you get yourself the number of stitches needed, gauge, and inches for length/width of the different sweaters and smaller projects.

The author states that Ethnic Knitting doesn't usually include "line-by-line instructions" so you will not find that here. This book is definitely for the more experienced knitter, one willing to leave the written patterns behind and ready to try something a little different. So, if you are that knitter pull out your circular needles and some yarn, find yourself a copy of this book and get started. It will also give you the techniques needed to help design your own sweater.

4/5

I wanted to knit something from the book to share with you all, but with the little time I had and my fear of steeks (cutting the knitting) I decided to take on one of the smaller projects, a Danish nightcap. The book gives three pattern options for knitting: Visual plan, Worksheet and Step-by-Step. I went with the worksheet. I picked my yarn, needles and picked the stitch patterns I wanted to use from the Danish pattern stitches shared. Here is what I ended up with:

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