To get the thumb right side out, after you pick up your stitches, you may have to push the needle around to the front of the fabric, if that makes sense. What might also work–I think this is how I did it for the second sleeve–is to take note of how knit stitches look on your needle (which part of the V is on the needle, I guess, is a way to describe it), and make sure that your picked up stitches match. Then when you start working the thumb hole from the picked up stitches, be sure you start with the first stitch you knitted onto waste yarn. As you get halfway around, keeping your working yarn tighter may eliminate the hole you wound up with. Check each individual stitch carefully to make sure it’s still in pattern. I honestly don’t remember how that worked when I did it, but you may have to knit back a few stitches and change how your needle is in there. Good luck! You’ll love them when they’re finished!

[here's a laugh...my 'CAPTCHA' code is 'YNAP'. Why? I'll tell you 'why nap?'!...hehe.]