# The Complete Knitting Glossary: A-Z Terms Every Knitter Should Know
Every knitting pattern comes with its own vocabulary, and it only takes one unfamiliar abbreviation or one strange piece of forum slang to bring a project to a halt. This glossary gathers the stitch and technique terms, the yarn and materials language, and the community slang you'll run into across patterns and knitting groups, all defined in one place. Bookmark this page — whenever a term trips you up in another Knitters Guild article, you can look it up here.
A
Aran Weight — A medium-heavy yarn, part of the same general weight category as worsted, traditionally used for the cabled sweaters of Ireland's Aran Islands. It typically knits at about 16–20 stitches per 4 inches on US 7–9 needles.
B
Bind Off (also called *cast off*, especially in the UK) — The technique used to finish a piece of knitting by securing the live stitches so they can't unravel, usually worked by knitting stitches one or two at a time and passing the earlier stitch over the new one.
Blocking — Washing or wetting a finished (or nearly finished) piece and then shaping it while damp — pinning it flat, easing lace motifs open, or steaming seams — so it dries into its final, even dimensions. Example: "The shawl looked scrunched off the needles, but blocking opened up the whole lace pattern."
Bulky Weight — A thick yarn (weight category 5) that knits up quickly on large needles, roughly 12–15 stitches per 4 inches. It's a favorite for fast weekend hats, cowls, and blankets.
C
Cast On — The very first step of a project: creating the foundation row of stitches on the needle that everything else builds from. Dozens of cast-on methods exist, each suited to a different job — a stretchy edge, a decorative edge, or one you can later unpick.
Circular Needles — Two needle tips joined by a flexible cable, used to knit in the round for seamless tubes like hats and sweater yokes, or to hold flat pieces too wide or heavy for straight needles.
Colorwork — Any technique for knitting a design in more than one color within the same row or round. Stranded colorwork and intarsia (both defined below) are the two most common approaches.
D
Decrease — Any technique that reduces the number of stitches on the needle, used to shape armholes, hat crowns, sleeve tapers, and more. K2tog and ssk are the two most common decreases.
DK Weight (Double Knitting) — A lightweight yarn between sport and worsted (category 3), knitting at roughly 21–24 stitches per 4 inches. It's a versatile choice for garments that need some drape.
DPNs (Double-Pointed Needles) — Short needles pointed at both ends, used in sets of four or five to knit small circumferences in the round, such as sock legs, mitten thumbs, and sleeve cuffs.
E
Ease — The difference between a garment's finished measurements and the wearer's actual body measurements. Positive ease means the garment is roomier than the body (a relaxed pullover); negative ease means it's smaller and meant to stretch to fit (a fitted sock).
F
Fair Isle — A traditional stranded colorwork style, named for the Scottish island, built from small repeating motifs using no more than two colors per row. The term is often used loosely today to mean any stranded colorwork.
Fingering Weight — A thin yarn (category 1) commonly used for socks, shawls, and baby garments, knitting at roughly 27–32 stitches per 4 inches.
FO (Finished Object) — Shorthand for a completed project, as opposed to a WIP. Knitters often share photos of a new FO in groups and forums.
Frog / Frogging — To rip out rows of knitting to undo a mistake, named for the resemblance between "rip it, rip it" and a frog's ribbit. Frogging usually means pulling out several rows or an entire project at once, as opposed to tinking one stitch at a time. Example: "That cable chart was wrong three rows back — time to frog it."
G
Garter Stitch — The simplest knit fabric, made by knitting every row when working flat. It produces a bumpy, ridged texture that lies flat without curling and looks the same on both sides.
Gauge — The number of stitches and rows produced per inch (usually measured over a 4-inch square) with a specific yarn, needle size, and knitter's tension. Matching a pattern's stated gauge is what makes a finished project come out the intended size.
Gusset — A wedge-shaped section of extra stitches added to shape a garment around a joint or curve. It's most familiar in sock heels, where a gusset shapes the turn from foot to leg, but it also appears at underarms in some sweater constructions.
H
Hand-Dyed Yarn — Yarn colored in small batches by an individual dyer rather than a large commercial mill, giving it one-of-a-kind color variation — and also meaning dye lots can vary noticeably from skein to skein.
Hank — Yarn wound into a large, loose loop and twisted into a coil for storage. A hank must be wound into a ball or cake before you can knit from it, or it will tangle.
I
Increase — Any technique that adds stitches to the needle, used to shape sleeves, hemlines, and other widening sections. Yarn overs, kfb, and make-one increases are common methods.
Intarsia — A colorwork technique for knitting large, single-color blocks of pattern — a picture or a bold geometric shape — using a separate strand of yarn for each color area, twisted together where colors meet, rather than carrying yarn across the back.
K
K2tog (Knit Two Together) — A basic decrease worked by knitting two stitches together as one, which slants the resulting stitch to the right.
KFB (Knit Front and Back) — An increase made by knitting into the front of a stitch as normal, then knitting into the back of that same stitch before slipping it off the needle, turning one stitch into two.
Knit Stitch — The foundational stitch of knitting, formed by pulling a new loop through an existing loop from back to front. Alternated with the purl stitch, it's the basis for nearly every other stitch pattern.
L
Laceweight — The thinnest commonly used yarn weight (category 0), fine enough to knit airy, cobweb-like shawls. It's often held together with a second strand for larger or warmer projects.
LYS (Local Yarn Shop) — Shorthand for an independent, brick-and-mortar yarn store in a knitter's own area, as distinct from buying online or at a big-box craft store. Example: "I need size 6 needles — quick trip to the LYS."
M
Magic Loop — A method for knitting small circumferences, like socks or sleeves, using one long circular needle instead of double-pointed needles, by pulling a loop of the cable out between two sets of stitches.
Mattress Stitch — A nearly invisible seaming technique that joins two knitted pieces edge to edge from the right side, worked by weaving a strand of yarn between corresponding stitches or rows.
N
Notions — The small tools and supplies knitters use alongside yarn and needles: stitch markers, tapestry needles, row counters, stitch holders, a tape measure, and similar accessories.
P
Ply — Individually spun strands of fiber twisted together to make a single strand of yarn. In North American labeling, ply usually describes actual construction, but in UK and Australian yarn names (like "4 ply" or "8 ply") it functions instead as a weight category and doesn't reliably match the true strand count.
Provisional Cast-On — A cast-on method using scrap yarn or a crochet chain that can later be removed, leaving live, workable stitches — useful when a project needs to be worked in two directions from the same starting edge.
Purl Stitch — The mirror image of the knit stitch, formed by pulling a new loop through from front to back. A purl on one side of the fabric appears as a knit stitch on the other side.
Q
Queue — A knitter's running list of patterns they intend to make next, most often kept on a pattern-database site, roughly equivalent to a reading list for future projects. Example: "That cardigan pattern has been sitting in my queue for a year."
R
Rib / Ribbing — A stretchy stitch pattern made by alternating knit and purl stitches within the same row, such as k1, p1 or k2, p2. It's commonly used for cuffs, hems, and collars because it pulls in and holds its shape.
Roving — Loosely twisted, unspun fiber prepared for spinning. It's occasionally used directly in very bulky, textured knitting, but it isn't the same thing as finished, spun yarn.
S
Seaming — Sewing knitted pieces together after they're off the needles, using techniques like mattress stitch or backstitch, typically with a blunt tapestry needle and leftover project yarn.
Second Sock Syndrome — The common reluctance to start, or ever finish, the second sock of a pair once the excitement of finishing the first one has worn off.
Short Rows — Rows worked only partway across the stitches on the needle before turning back, used to add extra fabric in one localized area — shaping heel turns, bust darts, and sloped shoulders without a separate seam.
Skein — Yarn machine-wound into a long, cylindrical, ready-to-use bundle, as opposed to a hank. Most yarn sold in stores comes as a skein you can knit from immediately.
Sport Weight — A light yarn (category 2), heavier than fingering but lighter than DK, knitting at roughly 23–26 stitches per 4 inches.
SSK (Slip Slip Knit) — A decrease worked by slipping two stitches knitwise one at a time, then knitting them together through the back loop. It mirrors k2tog but slants to the left.
Stash — A knitter's personal, accumulated collection of yarn, often bought for future projects — or simply because it was beautiful — rather than for anything currently on the needles.
Steek — A bridge of extra stitches deliberately knit into a piece worked in the round, later cut open with scissors to create an opening, such as a cardigan front or an armhole. It feels alarming the first time, but the surrounding stitches hold the cut edge secure.
Stockinette Stitch — The classic smooth knit fabric made by knitting every right-side row and purling every wrong-side row (or simply knitting every round, in the round). It shows a V-shaped stitch pattern on the front and a bumpy purl texture on the back, and it curls at the edges when unblocked.
Stranded Colorwork — A technique for knitting with two or more colors in the same row by carrying the unused color loosely across the back of the work as "floats" until it's needed again.
Superwash — Yarn, almost always wool, that's been chemically or mechanically treated to smooth down the microscopic scales on the fiber, so it can be machine washed without felting or shrinking.
Swatch — A small sample piece of knitting, worked in a pattern's stitch and yarn before starting the real project, used to check gauge and see how the stitch pattern and yarn actually look and behave.
Sweater Curse — A tongue-in-cheek superstition holding that knitting a sweater for a new romantic partner will doom the relationship before the sweater is finished.
T
Tink — "Knit" spelled backward: to tink is to un-knit one stitch at a time in reverse order, used to correct a small, recent mistake without ripping out entire rows.
U
UFO (Unfinished Object) — A project that's been cast on and set aside, often for a long time, without being finished or formally frogged. It's distinguished from a WIP mainly by how long it's been sitting idle.
V
Variegated Yarn — Yarn dyed with multiple colors along a single strand, which shift and pool as they're knit up, creating stripes, speckles, or color blocks depending on the stitch pattern and how many stitches are worked per row.
W
WIP (Work in Progress) — Any project currently being actively knit, as opposed to one that's finished (an FO) or abandoned (a UFO).
WPI (Wraps Per Inch) — A way of measuring an unlabeled yarn's thickness by wrapping it snugly around a ruler for one inch, counting the wraps, and comparing that count to a standard chart to estimate its weight category.
Worsted Weight — One of the most common yarn weights (category 4), medium-heavy and versatile, knitting at roughly 16–20 stitches per 4 inches. It's a reliable default for sweaters, hats, and mittens.
Y
Yarn Chicken — The tense guessing game of trying to finish the last few rows of a project while unsure whether the remaining yarn will stretch far enough, racing toward the last stitch before it runs out.
Yarn Over (YO) — A technique that wraps the working yarn over the needle to create a new stitch and an intentional hole, used to shape lace patterns and to make eyelets for buttonholes or drawstrings.
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Keep this glossary handy as you work through patterns and other guides on the site — knitting's vocabulary looks intimidating at first, but nearly every term here describes something you'll pick up naturally within a project or two.