14 Essential knitting terms to make you sound like an expert knitter

“Gah! This project is so fidgety, I’m going to have to frog it completely or put it in a time out.”

If you’re a knitter, this sentence might make perfect sense to you but if you’re not and you’re sitting next to me, be prepared to hear me say things like this all.the.time.

It’s taken me four years to learn these common knitting terms (and I’m sure that I’m missing some) but these are my favorites and you’ll find me saying them often. But you don’t have to wait four years or even 10 before you can sound like a seasoned knitter.

This could easily be considered a yarn barf, no?

1. Frog – to undo a knitting project either because of a mistake or you found another use for the yarn. Frogging comes from “Rip it” the yarn out or when you “rip it” back.
2. Hibernate or Time Out – when you set aside a knitting project for a short (or really, really long) period of time.
3. UFO – Unfinished object
4. FO – Finished object
5. WIP – work in progress
6. Tink – to knit back to a point in your project or to un-knit the project.  (tink is knit spelled backwards). I do this when I’ve caught a mistake and it’s maybe a row or less back.
7. Lifeline – Not to be confused with Who wants to be a millionaire, this is a piece of yarn or other item inserted into the row you’re knitting to hold your place in case of a mistake. Many people insert life lines when doing lace or complicated projects because who wants to completely frog a project when you can just frog back to the lifeline? (Psst! Check out my tutorial on how to create a lifeline with circular needles!)
8. KAL – knit-a-long. A really fun way to knit a project as a group.
9. LYS – Local yarn shop
10. KIP – Knit in public
11. Gifting –  the act of giving or getting yarn or needles for free.
12. Yarn barf – when a large amount of yarn gets pulled out of wound ball of yarn or when you are looking for the end on a hank of yarn so you can wind it. (Think about the yarn you see in stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby – those are just yarn barfs waiting to happen).
13. PDD – Having started too many projects and not finished them; ie – Project deficit disorder. (may also be referred to as “startitis”
14. Stash – A (usually) large assortment of yarn from various shopping expeditions. Projects need not be planned in order to create a stash of yarn. In fact, you don’t even need to knit to have a stash started (I didn’t). You just have to have the desire to touch, collect, and dare I say, hoard the yarn.

The next time you get together with your local knitting group and someone says, “I brought a UFO out of hibernation tonight.” You can nod in agreement and say, “I could probably knit a sweater with all the wips I have in time outs!”