Knitting terms and abbreviations can be overwhelming for new knitters. Don’t worry about putting down your needles to search the Internet—you’ll find all you need to know here in one place!
Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash
Whether you’re a beginner knitter working on your first pair of socks or an adventurous knitwear veteran, there’s always a point in a pattern where you look at knitting terms and abbreviations and think, “what does that mean again?”
I’ve created a table with 16 basic abbreviations every knitter can reference whenever they need to without putting down the needles to search around on Google. From basic abbreviations like ‘k’ and ‘p’, to more advanced ones like ‘M1R’ or ‘ssk’, you’ll find them all here!
At the end of this post, you’ll find a link to a free downloadable and printable pdf of this glossary so that you can keep it in front of you while you knit.
16 Knitting Terms and Abbreviations
| k | knit |
| p | purl |
| CO | cast on |
| BO | bind off |
| dpn | double-pointed needles |
| k2tog | knit 2 stitches together |
| m | marker |
| M1R | make one right |
| M1L | make one left |
| pm | place marker |
| p2tog | purl 2 stitches together |
| RS | right side |
| WS | wrong side |
| ssk | slip 2 stitches knitwise, knit both stitches together through the back loops |
| wyib | with yarn in back |
| wyif | with yarn in front |
Are you also a sewer looking to refresh your sewing term knowledge? Here’s a post with a glossary!
