Hi Knitters,
What method do you use to do neat buttonholes? I’ve just done a garter stitch button hole band using the cast off 2 stitches on one row and then cast on 2 stitches on the following row. My buttonholes are never clean holes, they are always a funny shape!
I may be doing something wrong. Do I knit or slip the stitches that I’m casting off? On the cast on row what method should I use?
I’d be very interested in what other methods other knitters use. Thanks.
Neat buttonholes
Not so long ago I learned to do buttonholes this way and they should be the same size as the two row buttonhole you did.
K2tog, yo, k2tog (or ssk)
Next row: K1, p1 into yo.
There are other ways to work two stitches in a yo but this is easiest and worked well for me. The instructions were for using two k2tog’s but autopilot had me doing mirrored decreases and I liked that way better anyhow.
Thank you. I’ll try this
There are other nice buttonhole techniques but they are little more time-consuming. Nice but more effort.
The one row buttonghole:
and the tulip buttonhole.
They both work for buttonholes of any size or stitch number.
This video has a neat firm button hole using cable cast on and a tip to wrap the last stitch.
Thank you so much for this video. This has solved my problem of the loose thread and also the methods of casting off and casting on.
Can I just ask you one more question? If the pattern says for example K11 stitches between button holes do I count the stitch already on my right hand needle after doing the cast off?
Great videos. I don’t mind the extra effort as long as the button holes look neat. I will definitely try these. Thanks for sending.
Great to have these videos all in one place to refer back to too. I’m loving this site site. : )
I would say yes count the stutches in the right needle, ie include the stitch you had to knit in order to cast off, that’s 1 worked already.
I haven’t made lots of things with buttons but when I have I counted the stitches and marked the holes before starting the row, this way I make sure I have counted correctly and also I can see how they are spaced, if I want them closer or an extra button or the same number of buttons but with the top one closer to the top of the cardigan etc. In one cardigan I decided to have a button hole in the neckband and this wasn’t included in the pattern so I altered the spacing a little.
Thanks fo the tips. The child’s cardigan I’m knitting a bit longer than the pattern so need an extra button hole.
I always liked this method for buttons and buttonholes from Eunny Jang:
Oh thank you for sending that. Takes all the guess work out of it
The Party Lyons three row buttonhole works well for me!
This one gives really neat edges !
That’s great thanks, and really simple. I always do cable cast on anyway as I think it’s neat so this will suit me fine.
I tried lots of different buttonholes in garter stitch, but I was not really happy with any of them. They all seemed a little wonky to me. And then I found THIS technique! It makes perfectly straight, almost invisible buttonholes! I love it!
A Dandy (New) One-Row Buttonhole
That looks great. Thank you it’s very helpful.