Knitting -- sweaters

Huh? Ain't I been teachin' you how to knit sweaters?

This is where us Yanks differ from the British. I taught you a pullover; the British call that a jumper a lot of times.  When they talk "sweater", they mean what Yanks mean by "cardigan". Which isn't really accurate either because you can make a sweater or cardigan with raglan sleeves.

A sweater or cardigan buttons up the front, usually in the middle although I think I've seen designs that button up off-center.

Anyway. There are two ways to do this. One is to do steeking up the front Fair-Isle fashion and attach a separate button band. I like to do as little sewing as possible and the shoulders fill my quota. YMMV.

I knitted some sweaters a long time ago and I stopped because I didn't like how the buttonholes turned out. They were too stretchy. But I found a video online which shows how to make nice neat sturdy buttonholes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEgiHQrrg-k

What it does is basically the same thing you do if you make buttonholes in woven fabric. There, you stitch bars at the end to make them sturdy; here, we're going to wrap yarn like we did with the argyle pattern.

1. Your hem is the usual except -- add six stitches, four of them to overlap and center the buttonhole and two so that the ribbing comes out the same on both ends. You will not be joining them and working in the round, you will work rows, probably in stockinette.
2. Work 4 rows of rib.
3.  Buttonholes are usually on the right side in ladies' wear. When you start to work row 5, which is on the RIGHT SIDE, work the first 5 stitches of rib and then start the first buttonhole.
4.  You are going to wrap the ends of the buttonhole to stabilize them.
    Bring the yarn to the front, slip the next stitch purlwise to the righthand needle, take the yarn to the back, and slip the stitch back to the lefthand needle.
5. Now bind off 4 stitches: slip the next stitch purlwise and pass the previous stitch over it. When you have slipped 4 times, put the last stitch that has a slipped stitch over it onto the lefthand needle and do the next step.
6.   Your working yarn has been left back where you wrapped stitches and you have to go back and get it.
      Turn to the wrong side and do a cable cast on for the top of the buttonhole. Put the needle between the last two stitches on the lefthand needle and knit the working yarn through the gap between those stitches, then put it back on the lefthand needle. Do that four more times for the top of the buttonhole, total of 5 stitches cast on.
7.   Turn the work back to the right side. Slip 1 stitch purlwise from the left to the right needle, pass the last (5th) of your cable-on stitches over it, and return it to the left needle.  Now you have the working yarn back at the body of the knitting and can finish the ribbing in that row.
Now work the other four rows of ribbing.

Make sure you are on the side with the buttonhole. Now do the following at that end to start the buttonhole placket: K2/P2/K2/P2/K2 and then P1, a total of 11 stitches.
Knit to the end of the row.
Turn to the wrong side, K2 and purl to the placket, K1/P2/K2/P2/K2/P2.
Repeat these two instructions to the next row where you need a buttonhole, then repeat the above steps to make the buttonhole.
Finish the buttonhole placket, then knit. Work this sweater in stockinette.

Four rows below the last buttonhole, stop working the buttonhole placket and work k2/p2 rib to the shoulder. Turn inside out and knit it together, then work to the other shoulder and do the same, then finish the row.

Now work in rib for 3 rows. Your next row after that will be worked on the rightside; make your last buttonhole, and then do 5 more rows of rib, binding off the last row.

Do your sleeves and sew on your buttons, and you're done. Imagine this in a multicolor yarn with 10 different buttons and you have something eye-catching.

Here are the rules.
a.  Usually there are 10 buttonholes up a sweater. The last one will have 5 rows of neck ribbing above it. Calculate how many rows to work between buttonholes so they are evenly spaced.
b.  How large a button you can use depends on the yarn weight. For fingering weight yarn like Palette wool or Lindy Chain linen/cotton blend, binding off 4 stitches will give you room for a 3/8 to 9/16 inch button. The heavier the yarn, the larger the button that the hole will fit, as well as the larger the button you probably want.
c.  If you want a larger button than 4 stitches will allow, bind off more stitches. In step 5, bind off that number and in step 6, when you cable on, cable on the number of stitches you bound off plus 1. So if you bound off 5 stitches, cable on 6.

So I was working in a fingering weight wool using size 3 needles, and I cabled on 286 stitches. Then
10 rows of hem rib with a buttonhole in row 5,
110 rows and the armpits in row 111,
bound off a total of 14 stitches at the underarms and cast on steeking.
I started the neck rib and knitted the shoulders together (30 stitches) in row 90. (Yes, that's a purl row.)
10 rows of neck rib with 5 rows above  the last buttonhole, which was in row 195.
The other buttonholes go in rows 27, 49, 71, 93, 115, 135, 155, and 175.

Notice that there are only 20 rows between the last 5 buttonholes. That's because I only worked buttonholes in knit rows. The video also gives you hints on putting them in purl rows, which should allow you to have them exactly evenly spaced.

Here are the top two buttonholes, marked with darker pink yarn bows. 




It will take you only a little longer to do a sweater than it does to work a pullover and so the dreaded "curse of the sweater" goes away now that you are an experienced knitter.

Lindy Chain will be comfortable in warmer temperatures, Palette in cooler ones. You can add lace inserts in either yarn or do Fair Isle color work in Palette's gorgeous 150 colors. The possibilities are endless, especially when you realize that you can embroider in duplicate stitch. Your wallet may curse me, but your friends will envy your gorgeous new clothes.