Buttons and

buttonholes or something else?

Any knitter will know the "button and buttonhole" dilemma. Many an otherwise well knit garment has failed at that point. The buttonhole will be too small or too large or will not look as neat as desired even when the instructions have been followed exactly.

It is why some people never add buttons to anything and many more do so only reluctantly. 

Then there are buttons for other things. There are endless variations on what constitutes a button. They can be so small you can barely see them or so large that just one will suffice for an entire garment. They can be made from more materials than we think possible.

The Senior Cat made some buttons for me. Doing so was a slow, fiddly sort of process. He was not good at designing things - or so he said. He certainly could not design buttons. I told him how I wanted them. They were never very big because he would make them from "pen blanks" - pieces of timber intended for turning wooden cases for fountain pens, biros (ballpoint pens) and pencils. But, they were made from lovely timbers. One lot was Huon pine, another was "blackwood" and yet another was olive of special provenance. I added them to things I knitted and kept one set for myself - and used them all.

There were times when buttons came off things, particularly off our school shirts and blouses. Mum would sew them back on fiercely and crossly. As we grew old enough we were expected to do this ourselves. Even the Senior Cat would attempt to sew his own buttons on. Mum thought he should be able to do this because, after all, his father was a tailor.

I remember watching both Grandma and Grandpa sew buttons on. Grandma would do it quickly and neatly. She taught me how to do it and did not expect me to waste endless minutes trying to thread the needle.  Grandpa could do it too and do it skilfully but the reality was that the buttons on the garments he made would often be sewn there by one of the "girls" or women he employed. Why sew them on yourself when you have nearly forty women who could do it for you? 

As very small children we loved the "button box" belonging to Grandma. We were allowed to tip the buttons out and sort them. "Find me the small blue buttons," she would tell us, "I need one for this." We would look for those small blue buttons. She would even discuss the choice of button with us and then it would be sewn on a shirt or some other item. 

It was never quite the same with Mum's mother, "Nana". Yes, she had a button box and we were sometimes allowed to look in it but only under her supervision because, "You might swallow one." Oddly enough none of us ever swallowed a button at Grandma's house.

I thought of all this as I searched for the button box yesterday. When I finally found it there was nothing suitable in it. Today I will call into the charity shop. There are buttons there. I might be lucky. Looking there always reminds me of Grandma.