A Better Buttonhole

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May 31, 2010

A Better Buttonhole      My new button! I found the most beautiful button the other day. It's a heavy button though, and it'll need to be reinforced with a little clear plastic button on the inside of the sweater I finally choose to put it on. And because of its irregular edges, this button will need a really sturdy buttonhole to withstand the stress of buttoning and unbuttoning. Guess what? I found that perfect buttonhole in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits! The regular Knits department, Beyond the Basics, introduces a new buttonhole construction, the tulips buttonhole. This is just the type of feature that you can expect from Beyond the Basics every issue: our knitting professionals delve into a subject to bring you step-by-step details and instruction. Beyond the Basics is a sort of Master Class of techniques, one that'll push your knitting further with each issue. Here's Knits editor Eunny Jang to demonstrate the latest Beyond the Basics topic, the tulips buttonhole. Plus, there's an interview with its creator, TECHknitter. Take it away, Eunny. The Tulips Buttonhole I love cardigans. In Colorado's crazy desert climate, dressing in layers makes life a lot easier—it's nice to be able to cover up or cool off as needed. TECHknitter's beautiful pile of buttonhole swatches I don't, however, love knitting buttonholes. The usual one-row buttonhole is easy to work, but the results are a bit flimsy. As a firm adherent to the theory that finishing details can make or break a sweater, traditional buttonholes have never quite satisfied me—they're not quite symmetrical from top to bottom; they pucker and gape at the corners; they need reinforcing after the fact with hand-whipped buttonhole stitches if they're going to stand up to real wear. And who wants to do that? In the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits, the ever-inventive TECHknitter introduced us to the brand-new "tulips" buttonhole. This buttonhole is a bit trickier to work than the usual one-row horizontal buttonhole, but it solves all those niggling little problems: the tulips buttonhole is perfectly, truly symmetrical (a chain bind-off is reflected by a chain cast-on at its two edges); its corners are tight and strong (this buttonhole won't stretch after being buttoned up a few times); it's already double-reinforced. The finished result is neat, tidy, lovely to look at—extra effort, but worth it. To learn more about the tulips buttonhole, we’ve posted a ”how-to” video on the Knitting Daily site as well as an interview I did with TECHknitter about how she came up with the tulips buttonhole. Check it out! At Interweave Knits, we're always looking for innovation. Every knitter fine-tunes and refines classic techniques to fit the way he or she knits and solve problems—we may not even realize it, but we're all moving the craft forward every day. Knit on,

Kathleen Cubley is the editor of Knitting Daily. Kathleen's Knit-Along We're knitting the Sleeveless Tuxedo Shirt. Come knit with us! More Knitting Daily •  Blogs •  Galleries •  Knitting Daily TV •  Free Patterns •  Join Knitting Daily •  Share Your Comments

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