It seems that everywhere you look there is another top ten list – television, food shows, home shows, chat shows. Everyone has one.
So here is a useful one: the ten abbreviations that turn up in nearly every knitting pattern. Learn these and most patterns become readable.
The ten
k – knit. The basic stitch.
p – purl. The knit stitch mirrored. Between them these two make almost every fabric in knitting.
st / sts – stitch, stitches.
CO – cast on. Making the first row of stitches.
BO – bind off, or cast off. Finishing so the work does not unravel.
inc – increase. Adding a stitch.
dec – decrease. Removing one.
k2tog – knit two together. The commonest decrease: work two stitches as one, and the fabric loses a stitch. It slants to the right.
ssk – slip, slip, knit. The other common decrease, and the mirror image of k2tog. It slants to the left.
Patterns use both so the shaping is symmetrical – k2tog on one edge, ssk on the other. That is why there are two of them.
yo – yarn over. Wrapping the yarn around the needle to create an extra stitch with a deliberate hole beneath it. This is what makes lace.
Also worth knowing
rep repeat, rem remaining, beg beginning, RS / WS right side and wrong side, pm place marker, sl slip, tbl through the back loop, dpn double-pointed needles, MC / CC main colour and contrast colour.
Reading the punctuation
As important as the words, and where patterns are most often misread.
Brackets group stitches worked into one place. Square brackets with a number mean repeat that many times. An asterisk marks a point to return to – “rep from *” means keep repeating that section.
A practical note
Most patterns list the abbreviations they use at the top, including any unusual to them. Read that section even when you are experienced – a pattern may use a familiar abbreviation for a slightly non-standard operation, and that is exactly the sort of thing that goes unnoticed for twenty rows.
Keep an abbreviation list to hand while you work. Nobody memorises all of them, and there is no reason to try.
