Knitting Crafts
Craft Knitting Patterns Explained
Like many other Arts and Crafts, Knitting Crafts have existed for centuries, but craft knitting patterns, really only evolved over the last 100 years of knitting craft. Without an understanding of the abbreviations used in these patterns, a person will be unable to create knitted crafts by working from a pattern. It is possible to create knit craft without a pattern, of course, but more complex knit crafts will require crafts knitting patterns , much as they are needed in Sewing Crafts and other Family Crafts.
Some of the abbreviations used in craft knitting patterns are fairly straight forward for anyone with basic knitting skills, such as K for “knit”, P for “purl”, and ST for “stitch” and will often be used in conjunction with other abbreviations. The word “slip” may be indicated by S or by SL. These abbreviations may be found in such combinations as SSK (slip, slip, knit) and in SL ST (slip stitch). SL ST PWISE is a combination that means to slip a stitch purl wise. TOG is the abbreviation for “together” so K2TOG refers to knitting 2 stitches together. The sides of a knitted work may be referred to within as knitting pattern as the RS (right side) or the WS (wrong side). If the pattern requires a “yarn over”, YO will be indicated. Binding off and casting on are signified by BO and CO, respectively. The end pattern of the stitches may be referred to with ST ST for stockinette stitch or G ST for garter stitch.
Unlike most of those in the preceding paragraph, some abbreviations refer to more complex stitches and their explanations will likely not make much sense to someone without a deeper knowledge of knitting. Often, these will reference different variations of increases and decreases. For instance, PSSO refers to “passing the slip stitch over”, and SKP for slip, knit, pass. K2TOG TBL means to knit 2 together “through the back loop”.
Since a letter may stand for different words in different abbreviations, such as CO (cast on), FC (front cross) and MC (main color), writing a key may be helpful when a person is first learning to knit using a pattern.
 |  |  |
