Knitting Lingo 101

Knitting fans love their lingo. Wonder what the terms mean? Here’s a dictonary of common knitting jargon. Happy Knitting!

Ravelry.com - A social media platform for knitters. It’s a fun place to index your stash, create a library of your favorite patterns and show off your projects. Mrs. Knits has maintained a notebook for many years with her projects. Going from analog to digital is very time consuming but worth it. Her plan is to simply start the digital portfolio from the present day forward. To friend Mrs. Knits and see her portfolio she is queenofknitting2.

LYS - Local Yarn Shop. More than just a place to buy yarn and feed your stash, an LYS is a community presence and a fun opportunity to connect with other knitters. Mrs. Knits loves to help with your projects and her studio is open by appointment or to bring your friends to get together.

KIP - Related to the LYS community, KIP (Knitting in Public) is taking your knitting out into public venues. Includes yarn bombs where knitted pieces and yarn is hung from trees and poles.

WIP - Work in Progress. Pretty self-explanatory. It’s anything on your needles.

UFO - Uh oh. UFO’s are unfinished objects. Mrs. Knits has found 10 year old projects in her garage. It’s hard to let go of UFO’s because of emotional attachments (like inherited projects) or feeling compelled to save them because of the cost and time invested. Hard as it is Mrs. Knits has found it to be liberating when she is able to rehome unwanted UFO’s to free up space for new ones.

TINK - Made a mistake? Dropped a stitch? No worries. Happens to the best of us. Tinking is knitting spelled backwards. It’s when you unravel a handful of stitches one by one to correct errors.

FROG - When you need to ribbit or rip out multiple rows and then rehang them. Often requires kleenex and perhaps an adult beverage. Sometimes a pattern is confusing and generates repeated reworking. Know when it is time to let go and not create a stressful project. Knitting is supposed to be fun!

Finally - Knitting Guilds. Guilds are a fun way to connect with other knitters. Fun activities include yarn swaps and charity projects. Special events like designer presentations are also a lot of fun.

Thank you all who support Mrs. and Mr. Knits. Happy Knitting!