A couple of years ago, Judy gave me the most adorable pair of knitted mittens with owls on them. Each winter I wonder why I haven’t knitted more like these for myself. They are thin, but warm and adorable with the owls staring up at me as I wear them.

I found myself with a little extra time to knit a few weekends ago so I cast on for a pair to give those owls a rest. No thumb gusset, just scrap yarn knitted in where the thumb should be, only to be pulled out and picked up to knit the thumb.

I was making good time until I was just about to the top of the 2nd and I realized this….

…no scrap yarn for the thumb. Just some lovely 2 color knitting…rather than unraveling (which was Judy’s solution), I decided to do a little surgery.

Examining the other mitten along with the pattern, I found the spot where the stitches “should have been”. The left and right dpns are showing the edges of the should-be thumb hole.

With a good scissors, I clip the center pink and yellow stitches. Colorwork doesn’t provide straightforward stitches as there are floats and actual stitches.

Once they are clipped, I gently pulled the wool out of the stitches. There are not 12 top and 12 bottom stitches as they were originally knitted. Stitches have to be made and holes need to be closed up.

Believe it or not, they are picked up here. Not pretty, but it will work.

They are done! With the nice cool weather we are having, I’ve actually worn them too!