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HOW TO DO A ONE-ROW BUTTONHOLE

Copyright 1997 Esther Smith Bozak. All rights reserved.
Please full copyright notice at end of document.
Want a buttonhole which won't sag or stretch, one which won't need reinforcing or any further finishing to look neat and tidy? Try a one-row buttonhole. I first ran across this technique in the Fall/Winter 1985 issue of Vogue Knitting, in an article called "Best Buttonholes" by Mari Lynn Civelek, who based her directions for this type of buttonhole on work by Barbara G. Walker. (You can find similar descriptions, with slight variations, in various other knitting "how-to" books including those by Vickie Square and Elizabeth Zimmerman.)

Step 1: Work the row up to the point where the buttonhole will begin. Bring the yarn to the front of the work. Slip one stitch from the left needle to the right and then return the yarn to the back of the work and leave it there.

Step 2: Slip another stitch from the left needle to the right. Pass the first slipped stitch over it -- one buttonhole stitch bound off. Repeat, slipping stitches from the left needle to the right and binding off previously slipped stitches, until you have bound off as many stitches as you wish for your buttonhole. Slip remaining buttonhole stitch back to left needle.

Step 3: Turn your work. The yarn should be at the beginning of the left needle; bring it to the back. Using a cable cast-on, cast on the same number of stitches you just bound off plus one extra. (For example, if you bound off 3 stitches for the buttonhole, cast on 4.)

Step 4: Turn your work and keep the yarn to the back. Slip the first stitch from left needle to right and pass extra cast-on stitch over it. Resume working across row, making additional buttonholes as above.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright 1997 Esther Smith Bozak. All rights expressly reserved. This document may be used by individuals for personal use only. It can be distributed to and shared with others as long as it remains fully intact, including this copyright notice. It may not be sold, used to produce items for sale, or used in a compilation or archive of any kind without the expressed written permission of the author.
Last Updated: June 24, 1998
Esther S. Bozak, ebozak@cs.oswego.edu
URL: http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit/esb-patterns/buttonhole.html