Buttonhole, buttonhole - who's got the buttonhole?

I live about 1 mile from a small airport. Every once in a while strange things show up in the skies by my house. Out driving today I had to stop and take a quick picture of what was flying around. Hard to tell from this pic but -

It's the Good Year blimp. Not even one of the "other" blimps. This is the real deal. The PGA golf tournament at Hazeltine has brought a lot of excitement to the southwestern suburbs but I didn't expect it to make it all the way to the north end of town. Guess out little airport worked out better for the blimp.

I do know we have had the Good Year Blimp hang out here before and earlier in the week was another blimp but I can't remember the name on it. The airport is locked up unless you have a pass so I couldn't get any closer than this picture.

Knitting Pictures - finally

I know I've been saying for a long time I'd be posting pictures soon and well - I'm finally getting around to catching up some on the pics.

I finally finished the Opal Circus socks I started in February and only worked on them between other projects. They finally got close enough to done that I decided to just do it.

They are plain garter rib socks. The yarn is a bit rough but we'll see if it softens up after a few washings.

I also finished the Diagonal Lace Socks. These are a Wendy Johnson pattern made from Opal Cotton 2008 yarn. I made a fairly plain pair to go with my boring work clothes.

There's been a bit more knitting and I'll show you some of it next post. But in the meantime - I played around with buttonholes.

Buttonhole mania

I've never been real pleased with how my buttonholes turn out. Since I had a few days off I decided to play around with techniques and see if I could come up with one that would make me happy - I did.

Here's the 7 buttonholes I tried out.

We'll start with the first one and I'll tell you what I discovered along the way.

Picture above -

Buttonhole #1 (bottom): This was the most basic. It's a YO, K2tog. Your basic little hole. This would work for a small button.

Buttonhole #2 (2nd from bottom): Another simple one. Will work for a slightly larger button.

Row 1- SSK, YOx2, K2tog

Row 2 - on the YO work purl front and back

Buttonhole #3 (3rd from bottom): worked fine but the top look very different from the bottom of the buttonhole.

Row 1- BO 3

Row 2- M 3 fairly tight. When knitting them on the next row be careful not to let the yarn from the M 3 get loose between the stitches. If you need to see how the M3 is done take a look at the video at Knitting Help - look for the Backward loop cast on.

Buttonhole #4 (4th from bottom): the top of the hole looks unfinished. The right hand side is pretty loose. I didn't like this buttonhole.

Row 1- BO 3

Row 2- Cast on 3 using knit cast on. Knitting Help does not show a video of this but if you watch the video on the Cable cast on it's similar. The difference is, instead of putting the needle between thru 2 stitches to pull thru the yarn you put your needle in the first stitch as if you were going to knit, pull the yarn thru the loop and put the new loop on the same needle. Repeat with the new loop (needle thru loop, etc).

Time to head to the next picture......

The first button hole is #4 from the last picture.

Buttonhole #5 (2nd from bottom): YUCK! The right side really ended up loosey goosey with an extra loop just hanging there looking ugly. With that loose loop its hard to see but the rest of the button hole looks nice. The top and the bottom look similar but, oh my, that right side........

Row 1- BO 3

Row 2- Cast on 3 using the Cable Cast on method.

Buttonhole #6 (3rd from bottom): Looks ok but very putsy and ending up a bit more open than the other ones. Again the right side had that loose stitch problem but not as bad.

Row 1- BO 3

Row 2- Cast on 3 using crochet cast on. Using a crochet hook, make 3 chain stitches catching the knitting needle with the back loop of the chain.

Row 3- Knit the 3 crochet cast on stitches

Buttonhole #7 (top): Yup - a winner. The top looks like the bottom (mostly). The hole didn't grow and the right side loosey stitch loop has been taken care of. Best of all it's easy to do.

Row 1- BO 3

Row 2- Cast on 3 using the Cable Cast on, On the next stitch pick up the stitch plus the loop of the stitch on the row below.

Row 3- Knit across picking up the loose loop on the right hand side with the stitch before the buttonhole.

Since playing around with all these buttonholes I have found out there's some videos on line with a few other technique ideas but I like the fact that I figured this one out on my own. It makes me feel empowered in my knitting!