Placket Band With Hidden Buttonholes

Stockinet Stitch Technique

Preliminaries

This band hides the buttonholes from view on the right side of the fabric. It creates a self-facing buttonhole band, with a simple stockinet band on the right side.

The Band

You will need to wind off an additional small cone of MC. CO the required number of Sts to equal 3½ inches of your gauge. Add an additional St, for seaming, on both sides of the band. The placket is on the right hand side of your band, while the buttonholes are on the left. This means that the ndl arrangement should be off-set to the right by ¾. The buttonhole occurs at center 0. Example:

3½ inches = 28 Sts

Place ndls 8L–22R into WP.

Procedure

With COR, “E”-wrap CO. K to the bottom of your first buttonhole. This must always leave your COR. Place in “Hold” all Sts left of center 0. Hang a claw weight directly under the last ndl in “Hold” position. Hang another claw weight under the first ndl in WP. Set the carriage to “Hold.” Knit as many Rs as needed for the length of the buttonhole. This must always be an even number of Rs. Remember the number of Rs you just knitted. Disengage the RC! Remove the yarn from the carriage. Push ALL “Part” buttons on the carriage. Slide the carriage to the left. Disengage the “Part” buttons. Bring the Sts in “Hold” position back to UWP. Place in “Hold” position all ndls right of center 0. Hang a claw weight directly under the last ndl in “Hold” position. Hang a claw weight under the first ndl in WP. With the additional MC, and the COL, K the same number of Rs. Remove this yarn. Push ALL “Part” buttons on the carriage. Slide the carriage to the right. Set the carriage to “Normal.” Engage the RC. Place the original MC back into the carriage. K to the next buttonhole. Repeat the process above, bringing the additional yarn into work without cutting the yarn between each buttonhole. When the final buttonhole is completed, cut the additional yarns between each buttonhole. All yarn tails will be on the left hand side of the buttonhole band.

Finishing

Fold the band in half lengthwise. The buttonholes will be on the inside of the placket, hidden by the remaining stockinet section. Seam both edges of the placket to your garment edge.

Fair-Isle Variation #1

Place the Hidden Placket on the extreme left side (right side for men) of your ndl set-up when knitting the right front garment piece (left front for men). Instead of adding an additional St to the right edge of the band (left for men), place this ndl in NWP. This creates a ladder for easy linking, or latching when finished.

Because there is a ndl in NWP, if you use KCI, the ndls adjacent to this ndl will always select. Thus, you will automatically have a column of Sts in CC on both sides of the NWP ndl.

Fair-Isle Variation #2

Create your pattern to include both bands, the buttonhole band as well as the button band. To keep the floats to a minimum inside the bands, a tiny geometric pattern is best.