On Friday, Therese and I are going to the biggest button store in New England. We are pretty excited.
Whenever possible, I like to purchase buttons after a project is finished. For one thing, you have a better idea of how many buttons you'll need. But being an urban, pedestrian Church Lady, I don't have the option of lugging several almost finished projects with me to the button store.
Instead, I've come upon a technique that gets extra mileage out of your gauge swatch. After you've worked the requisite number of rows, knit a few rows in garter stitch, then, while knitting in the button band stitch pattern, work a button hole every few rows. You'll get a sense of how much the buttonhole stretches and what size button you should purchase. You can also experiment with different kinds of buttonholes to see what works best with the fiber. And on a lighter note, all you'll have to carry is the gauge swatch.
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2 comments:
I have knitted for years, putting up with weird buttonholes. Just last year I heard about the "one-row buttonhole". It's beautiful on a band of any stitch, doesn't stretch, blends in, and is gorgeous. I found the directions both on line and in the Vogue Knitting book.
I am looking at the hat in the latest Interweave Knits, which has a button band. I've never done buttons before and am thinking this might be a relatively painless way to start. Unfortunately I live across the country from Windsor Button!
--Janet
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