During World War I, the American Red Cross asked knitters on the home front to make sweaters, hats, scarves, and socks for US troops in France. This is a modified version of a pattern for “Thumbless Mittens or Wristlets” published in The Delineator, November 1917.

In addition to striping the original plain mitts, this rewrite adapts the pattern from use of double-pointed needles to two circular needles, increases the circumference to fit modern hand sizes, and shortens the overall length from 14 inches to 8 inches for increased comfort.

The original 1917 pattern can be found courtesy of Hathitrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858046092270...

The yarn used here is a fingering weight with nylon content. Just about any fingering yarn will do, even if it has no stretch, as the original ribbing creates a nice stretch for the finished mitts.