Christmas is upon us

I'm sure when I was a child Christmas didn't start until much later. However when you move from the UK to the Southern Hemisphere it can be worth starting seasonal activities a little earlier, in order to get in the mood, get your overseas items posted on time, and of course all your seasonal knitting done.

This year I have decided to make three knitted bodice sewn skirt type dresses for DD. Three different patterns, three different fabrics. So far I have finished Sunny Christmas except for hemming, Apple of my Eye except for buttons, and have lots and lots of 4 ply knitting left for little Denim Flower. I am planning a post to compare the patterns and note any problems when I am finished with all three.

In the meantime, Christmas traditions are taking up my thoughts. Last year the children came downstairs each morning to find a new decoration each to hang on the tree. They also opened their advent calendars and played the new animation on their Jackie Lawson advent calendar (love love love these!).

This year they will also find out what the dolls in the dollshouse have been doing to get ready for Christmas. So last night the dolls began by installing a Christmas tree in the family room, although daughter doll had to run off and pee at the last minute....

A 'New' Afterthought Buttonhole

I recently made a silly knitting decision, not to put the last buttonhole on a baby cardigan I was knitting. A few rows later I realized it would look much better if I had put it in. How to make a buttonhole without ripping back?  Google led me to Elizabeth Zimmerman's Afterthought Buttonhole, where you cut the thread and weave in the ends. I could see this being tricky and it seemed a lot of work for one itsy-bitsy little yarnover p2tog buttonhole. I put the work aside and fretted over it for a couple of days (you can tell how much I hate ripping back now, can't you?).

After a few days I had a method in principle for creating a single stitch buttonhole as an afterthought, as long as the work is still live. It was based on the technique of picking up dropped stitches with a crochet hook. Why, I wondered, couldn't I just drop a stitch down to where I wanted the buttonhole, sew down the bottom stitch, and remake the stitches above the new buttonhole? I had never actually dropped a stitch and had to remake it, so I was a bit nervous about it. Cue swatching and practising and lo, Tamsin's Emergency Ladder Buttonhole was born.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=relmfu&v=oJhVZpLm9NY

Now I firmly believe that there is nothing new under the knitting sun, but I've put my name on this because I can't find any other reference to it online and it is a technique I can see having a few nifty applications.

I posted about it on Ravelry (of course) and instantly aggiemay contributed a genius suggestion that avoids having to weave in that little piece of yarn to hold down the bottom stitch. Her suggestion? Drop down two stitches, loop one over the other to recreate the yo p2tog that you would have done originally, and then remake the stitches as normal. Perfect! So now there is a new, improved video showing this technique.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=WnEF6-kKnGk

So there you have it, an afterthought buttonhole with no cutting yarn, and no weaving in ends. Suitable for use on stocking stitch, garter stitch and pretty much any pattern that you have confidence picking up the stitches on. It works great for a one or two stitch buttonhole (just drop three stitches instead) but would need reinforcing round the edge if larger than this I suspect. The joy of it is that once you get used to picking up stitches like this, all the fear goes away, and it becomes quite fun to deliberately drop stitches in order to make a hole.