Knitting

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Finishing Workshop: Buttonholes

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knit buttonholeI admit to not being much of a cardigan knitter, and I stick with pretty basic buttonholes when I do need them, either doing a decrease or a bind off for however many stitches and then casting on stitches to replace them in the next row.

It’s not elegant, but it works for my purposes.

But every time I think about buttonholes, I think about Maggie Righetti, who dedicated a whole chapter in her excellent book Knitting in Plain English to the buttonhole, called “Buttonholes are Bastards.” Her complaint is that all the common options are kind of ugly and floppy and though she offers a solution it’s rather complex and I’ve actually never tried it (shame on me!).

The common choices are the eyelet buttonhole (aka yarn over, knit 2 together), horizontal buttonholes made by binding off stitches and what’s commonly known as the one-row buttonhole, in which you bind off, turn back and cast on, then turn back and work across those stitches again, all in the same row. (Check out this video from Knitting Help if you need a visual.)

There’s a great roundup of your options at Vogue Knitting, which also has a tip for buttonhole spacing. There are lots of pictures in a tutorial from Knitty.

Do you have a buttonhole preference? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo via Knitty.]

Comments

  1. Hi Sarah – Thanks for the great web sources for button holes. I tend to make buttonholes a couple of different ways, depending on the size of the button and the stitch pattern of the button band.

    If I just need a hole for a small button (like on a baby sweater), I usually do an eyelet buttonhole. If I need a bigger opening, I’ve usually knit a one row buttonhole. But none of mine come out as clean and lovely as the buttonhole in your photo 🙂

Have you read?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.