Yarn Buttons

This is a little something I whipped up one day when confronted with The Situation:

"You have just slaved and slaved and worked your little fingers to the bloomin' BONE over this lovely little project.  The final touch is a little strappy bit that should button over.  Dash over to the button stash and dig around...and...You Find Nothing!  The Horrors!  Whatever WILL you do?  You don't want to spend MONEY on a single little button to match this project, do you?  Of course not.  So you use that creative little brain of yours.  OR alternatively, you pop over to amAMZIng! and find this handy little technique."

All you need for this is:

• more of the stringy stuff you've been using, preferably in one of your "contrasting colors" for the project. 
• a smallish bit of stiffy cardboard.  Corrugated cardboard (like from a packing box) will do in a pinch, but doesn't hold up well for something that gets a lot of buttoning-and-un-buttoning.  
• a crochet hook, preferably on the smaller side.  Size G (4.25 mm) works well.
• a pair of sturdy scissors, not your pride-and-joy-best-set.
• a hole-puncher, the standard size.

Dash off and fetch all that stuff, and then come back!

*twiddles thumbs*

Ah, that was quick!  You're mighty speedy!  Ready to start?  Okay, here we go.

Step 1 :: Use those scissors to chip off a relatively circular piece of cardboard, about 1 inch or 2.5 cm in diameter.  Don't worry about super-smooth edges or perfect proportions.  A slightly wonky octagon works fine.

Step 2 :: Take your hole-puncher and stab a hole into the center of that little circle.  You'll probably need to punch it a few more times around the edges, to make it wide enough to allow the head of your hook through easily.  The hole in the middle should be about half an inch in diameter.

Step 3 :: Take your yarn and make a slip knot in the end, longer and looser than usual.  Don't put it on your hook yet!  First stick your hook's head through the hole in the cardboard.  NOW put the loop on your hook and draw it back through.  Come up over the edge of the cardboard and yarn over, drawing the yarn through the slip-knot-loop like a slip stitch.  Got that much?  Okay, let's move on.



Step 4 :: Go back into the hole with your hook and yarn over.  Pull it through to the front, and you'll have two loops on your hook.  Reach up over the edge of the cardboard and yarn over again, and pull that through two of the loops on your hook.  Yarn over again and pull through the remaining two loops.  See, it's the same as a US single crochet--UK double crochet.

Step 5 :: Repeat and repeat and repeat all the way around until the entire cardboard circle is covered by the long bases of the single crochets.  When you thinks you've squished enough single crochets onto it, join with slip stitch to the top of the first single crochet.  Finish off, thread a string through the underside, and tie onto your project!

*applause applause applause*

I've used this on my mug cozies, like so:

Hope you like!
AMZi x x x x x x

PS Alternatively, and I really love this, go construct one of these darling flowers from Attic24 and use THAT as the button, like I did with this project.