This is a book review of Wild Mittens Uruly Socks 3: 25 More Outrageously Unique Knitting Patterns
All the Details You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book:
Author: Lumi Karmitsa
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books
Copyright Date: I’m reviewing the English language translation of this book, which has a copyright date of 2022. This book was originally published in Finnish with a title of Villit Vanttuut & Vallattomat Villasukat 3.
ISBN 13: 978-1646011629
ISBN 10: 1646011627
Book Formats:
This book is available in the following format(s):
- Softcover With Perfect Binding
Number of Pages: 160
Topics Covered in This Book:
- Mitten knitting patterns
- Sock knitting patterns
- One knitting pattern for fingerless gloves
- Choosing colors for stranded knitting
- How to do stranded knitting (includes illustrations)
- Duplicate stitch tutorial: How to do horizontal duplicate stitch and vertical duplicate stitch
- Choosing yarns
- Knitting abbreviations
Recommended Knitting Skill Level: Experienced
The Focus of This Book:
You’d want to consider adding this book to your library if you want to own 22 new and unique, colorful patterns for knitting mittens and socks.
- 8 of the mitten designs are standalone patterns.
- There are 2 sets that each consist of a matching pair of socks and mittens.
- 8 of the sock designs are standalone patterns.
Knitting Projects Included in This Book:
1. Bad Hair Day Mittens Pattern
These bold, graphic mittens each feature a female human faces with bright red lips. I’m enchanted by this eye-catching design!
You can see a picture of these mittens on the upper left corner of the book’s front cover, or you can click through to Amazon and check out a book sample that shows you pictures of bunches of the projects in the book.
2. Bambi Mittens Pattern
These adorable mittens incorporate playful deer faces side by side with historic Scandinavian knitting motifs. They are quite lovely.
3. Llamas Without Drama Fingerless Gloves Pattern
These fingerless gloves have a separate thumb hole, and they feature lines of llamas circling the hands. You can see these mittens pictured on the upper right-hand corner of the book’s front cover.
4. Kind Clowns Mittens Pattern
I’m not sure why Karmitsa named these “Kind Clowns.” At first I thought, “Is this sarcasm? Or maybe a translation error?”
Then I saw that there is a note by the author in the book’s foreword, where she wrote of these clowns, “They truly are very kind!”
Well, okay. She seems pretty convinced, so who am I to argue with that? Um, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, and all that?
(But, between you and me, I secretly think these clowns do NOT look kind. I think they look mean and scary.)
That said, this design is really playful and funny, too. I mean, the clowns have loopy yarn (knitted in loop stitch) on the fingertips. How can you see that and not giggle a bit?
And don’t even get me started on the traditional argyle pattern paired with the very cool and innovative twisted cuff design on these mittens. I just spent a few moments staring at that and wondering “How did she even do that?” before it occurred to me to look at the instructions.
I can appreciate the genius of this design without actually wanting to knit a pair of these mittens for myself; but if weird, creepy, evil-looking clowns are your style, you’d have a hard time finding any that are cooler than these. In that case, you really need your own copy of this book.
5. Home Sweet Home Mittens Pattern
These mittens feature images of charming little cabins in the woods.
6. Maharajas Mitten Pattern
In the remarks introducing these mittens, Kumitsa writes, “Do you like to daydream about Mauryan palaces, Hindu temples, and all the glory and finery of a majaraja?”
The mittens feature repeating elephant motifs, Maharajas and abstract motifs that might or might not be lotus flowers; I’m not sure.
I am sorry, but if you are not actually Hindu or Indian, wearing a design like this could be perceived as cultural appropriation.
I can appreciate the creativity, artistry and imagination that went into designing these mittens, but I can also appreciate that there are people who get angry when people who are not part of a certain culture “borrow” (or steal) designs, motifs and styles from that culture.
So, I do not put my stamp of approval on this.
Furthermore, knitters of other faiths besides Hindu should be aware that this book contains the above-mentioned language and design work that they may find objectionable on religious grounds.
I’m not the cultural appropriation police, and your mileage may vary. You do you. Either way, my conscience is clear for having warned you about this and explained the issues to you.
7. Sparks of Happiness Mitten Pattern
I love this exuberant mitten design, featuring an image of a girl throwing outstretched arms up in the air in an expression of pure joy.
8. Lullaby Mitten Pattern With Cute Kitten Motif
These sweet mittens feature sleeping kittens that appear to be tucked under dainty blankets. The blanket portion of the mittens incorporates a scalloped edge design and traditional Scandinavian style motifs. Dreamy lace cuffs adorn the wearer’s wrists. Overall, I think this is an extremely appealing pattern.
9. Magic Fox Mittens Pattern
Fox heads adorn the fingertips of these mittens,
10. Magic Fox Socks Pattern
This pattern includes variations for making both long socks (knee socks) and short socks.
These foxes have disembodied heads floating above and below repeating floral motifs. You can see the longer version of these socks pictured on the lower right-hand corner of the book’s front cover.
11. Froggie Went A-Courtin’ Mittens Pattern
On these playful mittens, Froggie is holding an armful of flowers, and there are bunches of stray flower motifs scattered across the palms and thumbs.
These mittens are sized for women’s medium, but you can make a child’s size by using a single strand of yarn instead of holding the yarn doubled as instructed in the pattern.
12. Froggie Went A-Courtin’ Socks Pattern
The same froggies and buttercups from the mitten pattern are echoed in the sock pattern, too.
13. Amigos Sock Knitting Pattern
Cute Chihuahuas adorn these short ankle socks.
14. C’est La Vie Sock Knitting Pattern
This intriguing design features flying birds, a diamond grid design and the actual French words, “C’est La Vie,” circling the legs and the toes.
15. Gangsta Bunnies Sock Knitting Pattern
These silly bunnies are good for a giggle. On the fronts of the socks, the bunny heads are wearing sunglasses. On the backs of the socks are repeating boom boxes (And if you’re Gen Z, you’re probably thinking, “There are WHAT?” because that is some old tech, right there. )
16. Nerdy Bunnies Sock Knitting Pattern
These socks are a variation of the Gangsa Bunnies mentioned above. In this version, the bunnies are wearing spectacles, and instead of the boom boxes, you get a diamond lattice grid design on the back of the socks. The colorway is also different, and some of the other little details are different.
17. Dog Days of Summer: Includes Variations for Knitting Knee Socks and Short Socks
It’s interesting to me that these are called the “Dog Days of Summer” socks. Are summers in Finland chilly enough that people need to wear knee socks?
If you’re in Florida , Texas, Sydney or anyplace with hot summers, these socks are going to be better suited for winter wear. But, no matter, if there’s ever a time when you’d want to wear socks, these are lovely ones to have in your wardrobe.
You can see the knee socks pictured on the lower left-hand corner of the book’s front cover.
18. Istanbul Squares Knee Socks
Turkish tiles inspired these multicolored knee socks.
19. Istanbul Scares Short Sock Knitting Pattern
These socks are very similar to the “Istanbul Squares” pattern, but they have some important differences:
- The “Istanbul Scares” design incorporates skulls alternating with the Turkish tiles;
- The “Scares” socks are short anklets, whereas the “Squares” socks are knee socks;
- And the colorways are dramatically different. (Of course, you can recolor either of these designs any way you want to.)
20. Gaze Sock Knitting Pattern Featuring Horse Motifs
21. Little Fawns Sock Knitting Pattern
22. Year of the Tiger Sock Knitting Pattern
Tigers, chevrons and Chinese characters spelling out “Tiger” adorn these socks.
Did I Somehow Overlook 3 Other Knitting Patterns?
On the front cover of the book, the book’s subtitle claims there are 25 patterns – but I only counted the 22 patterns I mentioned above.
Did I miss some, somehow?
Maybe I did. I went through the book bunches of times, but even so, mistakes are possible. I’ll be the first to admit that I make them all the time. If I find mistakes in this review, I will update this page and correct them as soon as I figure out where I went wrong.
Maybe they counted the socks with short and long variations as two different designs?
Beats me! But I think this is probably the likeliest explanation for the apparent discrepancy.
The Best Things About This Book
Three test knitters are credited in this book, which implies that these designs were tested. It’s reassuring to know that others have successfully made these projects before you spend money on yarn and time on knitting them.
The color photography in this book is stunning!
You’ll be able to see pictures of human models wearing all of these projects. This is really helpful for figuring out how these patterns actually fit, and for drawing inspiration on how to style your new accessories.
8 pairs of the mittens are also photographed flat, too, which will be helpful to you if you need to scrutinize these photos to understand how the details come together.
A bonus: Some of the projects designed with animal motifs are also pictured with animals, in addition to the human models. I have really enjoyed looking at these fun and creative images.
The charts are generously sized, and they are printed in full color.
I LOVE IT how in cases where the left and right mittens are not identical, this book gives you separate charts for knitting your left and right mittens. This is fantastic!
In many cases, the mitten designs are mirror images of each other, but they are the same otherwise.
In comparison, some other competing pattern books give you only one chart in situations like this, along with instructions to “reverse this chart for the other mitten.”
Although it’s technically doable to reverse a pattern, this can lead to knitting mistakes and massive frustration.
It’s possible to make your own mirror image chart by reversing the pattern on a photocopy machine, assuming you have access to a machine with that capability; but if you do that, it means you pay more for the copies over and above the cost of the book.
But you won’t have to hassle with that when you work from this book, because it looks to me like the charts you need are all included.
Things to Be Aware of Before You Buy This Book
All the projects in this book are knitted starting at the cuff and working your way down; and all the projects require sets of 5 double-pointed knitting needles.
So, if you don’t enjoy using double-pointed knitting needles, this book isn’t going to be a good purchase for you. In that case, I’d recommend checking out Toe-Up Two-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan Oakes, because that book will teach you how to knit socks on circular knitting needles.
Many of the colorful details in this book are added using duplicate stitch. This makes the projects more beautiful, colorful and appealing, but it is an awful lot of extra work!
Conclusion
This book is really a mixed bag.
There are a lot of delightful things about it; but there are also multiple possible deal breakers, depending on your patience levels, your knitting experience level, your worldview and what your personal sense of style is like.
The design work in this book is incredibly creative and imaginative, but each pattern has an aesthetic that is very specific. This means that each design has niche appeal, and there are definitely going to be people who appreciate each of these designs; but there are also going to be people who really just don’t like them.
There are also multiple designs that could be perceived as problematic from a cultural appropriation standpoint.
I’d definitely recommend the book to Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American knitters; I think the most outstanding designs in the book are the ones where Karmitsa has relied on her own knowledge of Finnish tradition and has used it to create innovative new patterns based on historic Scandinavian motifs and styles.
Beyond that, the question is, will any of these designs appeal to YOU, enough that you’d want to knit them?
Because you’re better positioned to answer this question than I am, I encourage you to click through and check out a sample of the book before you buy it.
Furthermore, I’d only recommend this book to you if you are an experienced knitter who enjoys working with double-pointed needles.
If you’re not an experienced knitter, you might still want this book, as long as you understand that you will have to build your knitting skills to the point where you can achieve success with these techniques. Knitting is not rocket science, and you can absolutely do this if you put your mind to it! So please don’t let lack of skill hold you back, if you really want this book after having thought it over.
Where to Buy Wild Mittens and Unruly Socks 3:
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About Your Book Reviewer:
Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds an Associate of Arts degree in Textile Design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College. She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.
Amy learned to knit as a teenager, and she still enjoys knitting all these years later. She worked in the textile industry for about a decade, and “knit designer” was one of the many job titles she held in those days.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles. Nowadays she uses online platforms for sharing her knowledge about textiles, crafts, current color trends and current design trends.
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This page was last updated on 12-21-2025.
