I wasn't actually planning on knitting at my dear friend's wedding, but something made me tuck the spiral shawl project into my dressing bag. (The "something" was doubtless just that I feel calmer if I know my knitting is with me, even if I know I can't knit in the given situation. This is probably a sign of a concerning dependency, but we'll ignore that for now.)
Fast forward an hour or so. I slip into the dressing room to ooh and ah at the bride, who is gorgeous and whose dress is exquisite... frills and crinolines and a train and a bazillion itty bitty buttons with real loops that had to be closed over the zipper.
This task was being attempted with fingers, but it was becoming clear that would take way more time than we had. A crochet hook, we said, Didn't people use to use a crochet hook for this?
We had no crochet hook.
Lockable stitch markers seemed the next best bet, but didn't work at all. Size 9 knitting needle, though? Quite serviceable.
Stick needle down through loop, tuck tip under outside edge of button, pop loop over edge, work rest of button through. With two people and a circular needle you could even go twice as fast, with no danger of losing the knitting hanging from the cable. :)
