What to do with leftover yarn? I had about 2/3 of a skein of Cricket in Paradise leftover from a pillow cover project I finished, so I decided to try my hand at some fingerless mitts. I usually prefer fingerless gloves, but I needed a simple project I could hopefully complete in a weekend and this was it!

I found a few patterns I liked but they involved cabling, which I haven't ventured into yet. If I can't find what I'm looking for, I will usually piece things together myself. Sometimes it's Frankenstein's monster and sometimes it works out! This time it did. I found a stitch I liked, called broken diagonal stitch. It's done in multiples of 6. I started with a 4 x 2 rib for the cuff, then did the broken diagonal rib stitch until I got to the thumb. How in the heck was I going to do the thumbhole? I'm sure you more advanced knitters are thinking to yourselves, "Isn't it obvious?", but I was momentarily stumped. More googling ensued, but I really couldn't find what I was looking for. I knew I wanted it to be vertical and not horizontal like a buttonhole. How do I create that gap? Duh! Turn my work and knit a few rows back and forth, and then connect it back on the round and keep going.

I made sure that my beginning and ending two stitches were K (RS) so that the perimeter of the thumbhole looked finished. This worked for me, but now that I'm thinking about it, I probably would have cast off (per horizontal buttonhole protocol) one or two stitches so the bottom and the top of the hole were also finished.

Unfortunately, these mitts were too big for me. But my loss is my husband's gain. And even though Paradise isn't really his color (he's more of a Charcoal guy), he loved them!

What do you think? What projects have you Frankenstein'd?