5 Better Buttonholes

In her Facebook Live broadcast about buttonholes, Kelley showed five of her favorites. Here are tutorials for working all of these buttonholes so you can add them to your repertoire!

Eyelet Buttonhole

This is one of the most common buttonholes. To work it, simply yarn over and knit the next 2 stitches together.

The eyelet buttonhole is often used for smaller buttons because it leaves a smallish hole, depending on your gauge. If you want the buttonhole to be a little bigger, you can work a double yarn over, which is simply wrapping the yarn twice around the needle.

Horizontal Two-Row Buttonhole

Kelley found this example from Fiona Morris Designs on YouTube. It's a great buttonhole, and Fiona shares a tip for working on the wrong side to keep things snug between the new and old stitches.

Knitting Buttonholes in Ribbing

This is a nice tutorial from Julie Weisenberger of Cocoknits, showing how to knit buttonholes in both k1, p1 ribbing and k2, p2 ribbing. If you're making buttonholes in ribbing, this method makes them almost invisible when they're not in use. So let that cardigan fly open with no gaping buttonholes!

Crochet Cast-On One-Row Buttonhole

This is one of Kelley's favorite discoveries, found on the cottonandcloud YouTube channel. The crochet cast-on is used to create the top of the buttonhole, making this a terrific technique for a one-row buttonhole. This cast-on is very sturdy, so your buttonhole won't stretch out. You've got to try this one!

Classic One-Row Buttonhole

Kelley used this one on her Adele Cowl, a free pattern from Alpaca Direct.

Your pattern might call for a certain size button and tell you how many stitches to use while working this buttonhole, but if you want to a larger or smaller button, simply set the button on your knitted fabric and see how many stitches it covers. Use that number, minus one stitch, to work your buttonhole.

Work to where you want the buttonhole to be, bring the yarn to the front, slip the next stitch purlwise, return the yarn to the back.

1. *Slip the next stitch purlwise to the right needle, then pass the second stitch over the end stitch and drop it off the needle. Repeat from *. (Slip all stitches purlwise for this buttonhole.)

2. Slip the last stitch on the right needle to the left needle and turn your work. Move yarn to back and use cable cast-on method to cast on the proper number of stitches as follows: *Insert the right needle between the first and second stitches on the left needle, draw up a loop, place it on the left needle. Repeat from * for each stitch of the buttonhole. Turn your work.

3. With yarn in back, slip the first stitch from the left needle and pass the cast-on stitch over it and off the needle to close the buttonhole.

You'll get a great result with technique.

Now put those buttonhole skills to work with these beautiful cardigan sweater patterns!

From left to right: Wist Cardigan, Go-To Cardigan, Tallulah Cardigan

We hope these techniques help you up your buttonhole game!

Cheers,