Good morning:
Knitting is filled with all sorts of very necessary abbreviations. Some include: K2tog aka knit two stitchs together; YO aka yarn over; P aka purl and the list goes on and on. But I think that most crafts have their own special terminology. I know that a rock-hound uncle of mine introduced me to a rock called leaverite. I was very interested in finding some leaverite until I realized I was walking on leaverite and that most of the river’s rock bed was composed of leaverite. For those who are not rock hounds leaverite is the rock you leave right where you find it.
As noted above, knitting has its own incredible abbreviations. One that still has me kind of bewildered is the SSK. Am still looking at pictures in the back of magazines trying to figure that one out. I can do an SK just fine. That is the stitch where you slip one stitch from the left needle to the right needle, knit the next stitch and then slip the first stitch back over the knitted stitch. But that SSK still has me bafffled.
Two really important knitting abbreviations that you will probably never find in a knitting magazine or knitting instruction book are: WIP and UKO.
The WIP is the easiest to grasp. It is the project that is on your needles or the Work in Progress. Now a lot of knitters, I know, have only one WIP. The table on the left side of my work chair is my WIP table. At this precise moment, I have a WIP table reaching close to the height of Mt Everest. This is because I have several sets of circular needles and have a cap cast on to all of them most of the time. Along with the projects are the directions for the various WIPs. And along with the WIPs and the directions for them are the latest additions to my yarn stash, like the beautiful rainbow colored yarn I got at the Winterfest Market last weekend. That yarn is so gorgeous that I just want to keep looking at it. Eventually, I will find the right pattern for it. The colorway of the yarn is pretty busy with all the color changes. But I think I will probably make it up in a busy pattern that keeps the eyes bouncing.
At any rate, that is WIP.
The next abbreviations necessary to a lot of knitters — myself in particular — is UKO. Translated out of knitting and into English is Unidentified Knitted Object. I have not a clue how many knitters have UKOs. I have a lot. I created one last weekend when I was at the market. Thought I had an idea for using some left over yarn and worked hard on it all day Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, I took it out of my little project bag and pulled the needles out and cast on something else. It was just that the longer I worked on the UKO the worse it got. Eventually, I’ll take out the stitches, rewind the yarn and let it rest and then cast it on in another cap. The one I worked on so diligently all weekend was just too ugly for words — the only thing reasonable to do with it was UKO the thing.
Happy knitting. Granny LJ