I recently saw a video by Billie Lauder in which she mentioned that the best seam ripper was an eyebrow razor. I didn't even know there was such a thing.
I had a heck of a time finding one. Finally located it at WalMart in with the other razors. It's about the size of an eyebrow pencil. The one I got is pink and has the tiniest blade (very, very sharp) with the sharp edge exposed just a miniscule amount.
It works beautifully! Billie Lauder was right - I flew through my work and as for the "picking," I use the "stiff" side of a piece of velcro; absolutely pulls the little pieces out and hangs onto them.
How do I know all this? (Sigh.)