I'm really proud of myself--last night I salvaged a pair of mittens by reknitting the thumbs. I made these mittens in 2000 from a pattern found in Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitter's Almanac." They're based on a traditional Norwegian star pattern. The mittens are super warm, and I've loved wearing them for the past 5 years. Last winter, the right thumb got snagged in a zipper, and a nasty hole was torn in it. I patched it up, and the patch held until recently, when it started to work its way loose from the rest of the fibers. I was thinking of just repatching it when the left thumb mysteriously got a big hole in it, too. So I decided, "Aw, heck with it, I'll just reknit the thumbs." I managed to find some quiet time last night (and the cats left me alone for once), and I cut off the tops of the thumbs and unraveled them down to the base of the thumb gore. Then I picked up the stitches and knit new thumbs. Luckily, I still have some of the same black yarn I used in the originals, so the new ones don't look out of place. They turned out nicely, my thumbs won't get cold any more, and I didn't have to go out and buy (or make) a new pair of mittens.
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