Please tell me I’m not the only one who struggles with the math for figuring out buttonhole placement on a sweater. When I used to sew clothing, I had a little tool . . kind of accordian like thing, that you spread out and marked where your buttonholes should be but with knitting, that doesn’t work so well, or even using a tape measure, because knitting can be scrunched in an area or more loose in an area til it’s blocked. Not being the world’s best at math or at those formulas you can create with . .excel? . . whatever . . I usually end up counting stitches, dividing, using removable markers to make sure I have it right and it’s a big hassle.
This morning while reading notes on a pattern, someone mentioned KnitAble’s Buttonhole Calculator. Ahh . . my life has just been made easier! I googled “calculating placement buttonholes knitting” and there are several similar calculators out there. Why didn’t I think to look for something like that before now?
Hopefully if you struggle with the buttonhole placement, this will help you too.
Joyce says
Figuring out button/buttonhole placement is tough. It’s one reason I like sweater patterns without buttons! I read once about doing a purl stitch in the spot where the button will go so you have a “bump” to sew the button on. It’s supposedly easier to find the spot. I agree it’s easier, but you have to plan even farther ahead to know where to put the bumps. I sometimes attach a removable stitch marker to the spots where I plan to put buttons, but you still have to get the buttonhole spots lined up too. It’s just hard…
JudyL says
I don’t have a hard time figuring out where to place the buttons. I don’t sew them on til the sweater is already blocked. Then I lay it out on my blocking mat, lay the side with the buttonholes on top of the side to get buttons, make sure everything is lined up, especially if there are stripes, then pin everything down and use a chalk pencil to make a dot where the buttons go.
Once I get the buttonhole placement right, everything else seems easy . . to me.
Denise ~ justquiltin says
There’s an App for that (depending on what kind of phone you have). 🙂 Amy Herzog has an app for buttonhole placement, pickup calculations along edges – can’t remember what else it can do – called Knitter’s Toolbox that you can get thru the ITunes app store. I haven’t used it (not having cell phone) but have read comments by others about how helpful it is.