Smooriken mittens

Smooriken Mittens by Olach Designs

What is Being Made

Smooriken mittens are a pair of knitted hand coverings designed with a heartwarming narrative. The name "Smooriken" comes from Shetland dialect, meaning a kiss, and the mittens are decorated with kiss and love motifs throughout the design. The pattern includes a subtle smiley monster hidden within the colorwork, adding a playful element to these cozy accessories. These mittens are suitable for those seeking an intermediate-level knitting project with meaningful design details.

Techniques Used

The Smooriken mittens are created using colorwork knitting, a technique that incorporates multiple colors to create the kiss and monster design elements across the fabric. The mittens are worked in the round, which is the preferred method for creating seamless tubular garments like mittens. This technique requires working with double-pointed needles (DPNs) in two different sizes to accommodate the varying gauges needed for different sections of the mittens.

Stitches Used

While specific stitch details are referenced in the pattern, the construction employs standard knitting stitches worked in the round. The pattern utilizes a cuff section and a body section, with a separate thumb component. The colorwork design is achieved through stranded knitting techniques, where two colors are carried across rows to create the decorative kiss and monster motifs.

Materials Required

The Smooriken mittens pattern offers flexibility in yarn choice, with two premium options available:

• Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift: 100% Shetland wool in 4-ply weight. Main color (MC) requires 2 balls of shade 160 Midnight (50g total), and contrast color (CC) requires 1 ball of shade 304 White (25g). Total yardage needed is approximately 105m to 115 yards in the 25g ball weight.
• Kate Davies Designs Milarrochy Tweed: An alternative yarn option that creates a different aesthetic while maintaining the same pattern structure. This option is shown in the rear pattern images.

Needles: The pattern requires two sets of 2.25mm double-pointed needles for working the cuff section and two sets of 2.75mm double-pointed needles for working the body and thumb. Alternatively, knitters may use their preferred method for working in the round, such as circular needles or other techniques suited to small circumference knitting.

Pattern Context

These mittens carry sentimental inspiration drawn from a bedtime ritual involving blowing kisses to children as a comfort measure against nighttime fears. This emotional foundation is woven into the design, making Smooriken mittens more than a functional accessory—they represent love and reassurance. The intermediate difficulty level makes this project suitable for knitters with some experience in colorwork and in-the-round construction, while the meaningful design story adds depth to the crafting experience.