Chinese button knot

The Chinese button knot is essentially a knife lanyard knot where the lanyard loop is shortened to a minimum, i.e. tightened to the knot itself. There emerges therefore only two lines next to each other from the knot: the beginning and the end. The knot has traditionally been used as a button on clothes in Asia, thus the name.

"The Chinese Button Knot is worn throughout China on underwear and night clothes. Buttons of this sort are more comfortable to lie on and to rest against compared to common bone and composition buttons, and they cannot be broken even by the laundry. A Chinese tailor ties the knot without guide, flat on his table. But one may be more quickly and easily tied in hand by a modification of the sailor’s method of tying his knife lanyard knot (#787). The two knots are tied alike, but they are worked differently."

- The Ashley Book of Knots

Tying
The basic chinese button knot (ABOK #599 on one string) is usually tied with a carrick bend that attaches the two ends as a first step. This results then in a knife lanyard knot (ABOK #787) where the loop part can be sized and used as a button hole, while the knot part can be used as a button.