Honeycomb Fingerless Mitts Pattern — The Story Behind It

My mother brought some French knitting magazines back from Algeria in the late 1970s. I wrote about the magazines — and about climbing onto a chair stacked on a stool to pull them off the highest shelf — in this article.

I first came across the honeycomb stitch through contemporary Danish designer Anne Ventzel’s work. I kept seeing it in her work — on Instagram, on Pinterest. The texture stuck with me. Then one day I was leafing through my mother’s stitch pattern book again, and there it was: pattern no. 238. The magazine is from 1977, almost fifty years old! And the stitch itself is older than that: it’s part of the Aran knitting tradition, where it stands for hard work and its rewards. I think nobody knows exactly how old it is.

Fingerless mitts were an obvious choice. It’s a format I come back to constantly — warm enough for October and a mild January, while keeping your fingers free for everyday things like a phone, keys, or a coffee cup.

I posted the finished project on Ravelry — just as a project, not a pattern. One of the knitters who had tested my laptop sleeve pattern saw it and asked if I’d be running a test knit for these mitts too. That question turned into the Honeycomb Fingerless Mitt Pattern.

The pattern is for fingering-weight yarn — smooth or fluffy, both work!

See the pattern details here:

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