Definitely the Bestest

Buttonholes are an issue for a lot of knitters. They can be sloppy and ugly, and on top of that you have to decide whether to make them as part of the body of a garment or as part of the border, and you still have to decide whether to buy the buttons before or after making the buttonholes. And then you have to get them in just the right place, which can be quite an issue if you've shortened or lengthened the pattern. My favourite way of getting around all of this is to make crochet button loops once a cardigan or jacket is completed. This is what I did for Wakefield.

But, sometimes you just have to make a buttonhole in the body of a sweater and, if it's not a baby sweater and you can't get away with a simple k2tog, YO, then you need a really good method of making a beautiful buttonhole. This is one of those times. I'm making a jacket with no borders and there's no getting around the fact that I absolutely must make some buttonholes in the body as I work my way from the bottom up.
So, after some research and some experiments, this is it.

From Debbie Stoller's Superstar Knitting, although she credits Maggie Righetti with the technique. The detailed instructions are too long to include in this post. But trust me, it's definitely, the bestest.