How do I "attach" yarn at the thumb of a mitten when there is no yarn there to attach with?

Answer 1

You have to pick up stitches around the hole for the thumb. I can't explain how to do it...you need to get someone to show you or look at illustrations in a book. If you have any knitting books you'll probably find an explanation in there, or you can look it up online--try knitting.about.com. Look for "picking up stitches."

Answer 2

Do have live stitches (stitches that are available to be knit) at the thumb, either from having had them on a holder, or worked over them with waste yarn? If so, then you simply need to take your ball of yarn and begin knitting these stitches with the tail, which gets worked in either now or later as you choose. You may need to also pick some stitches up at the corners to prevent holes. If these make your stitch count too high, decrease them in the next round of the thumb. If you don't have live stitches, then you need to pick up with new yarn around the thumb hole in order to knit the thumb.

Answer 3

I like using a crochet hook to pick up stitches around the thumb. Basically you take the yarn you are going to use, leave a tail to weave through, and pull the yarn through from the inside to the outside, and put the loop on your needle. You keep going around the thumb hole, pulling loops of yarn through the stitches around the thumb, til you meet back at the beginning. if you feel you are short of yarn to finish off the thumb, a contrasting yarn makes a really cute thumb. Try knitting.about.com to see if they have instructions on picking up stitches, or diynetwork.com, knitty gritty, they may have video.