Foreign Language

Knitting has a particular language. To read patterns and converse with other knitters you need to know the language. People often ask to look at a pattern I am using. I enjoy watching their faces when I show it to them.
When you first start to knit you typically learn how to do two stitches. Knit. Purl.
Putting these two stitches together can give you a tone of pretty stitch patterns. But at some point you want to make something more than dish clothes and scarves.
At first knit and purl combinations seem hard, then you see something like this...

Row 31: ssk, k2, yo, k2, yo, k, yo, k2, yo, k2, k2tog, ssk, k, k2tog, ssk, k2, yo, k2, yo, k, yo, k2, yo, k2, k2tog, Repeat
Row 33: yo, ssk, k2, yo, k3, yo, k, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, s2kp, yo, ssk, k2, yo, k3, yo, k, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, Repeat

Wait... WTF? What is yo, or ssk, or sk2p and k2tog???...tog???
This is a pattern. It will make something really cool if you following the instructions, but they are all in code (secret knitting code, for knitters only).

So you learn the code!!

K1- Knit one
ssk- slip, slip, knit
s2kp -slip two, knit one, pass slipped stitch over
k2tog-knit two together
yo-yarn over

However, now you encounter yet another language problem. You know that yo means you should do a yarn over. But what the hell is a yarn over?

So you learn the lingo.

Yarn over=put the yarn in front of the needle and make a knit stitch. This makes a little hole in your knitting, which is basically what lace is made of, lots of little holes in your knitting.

So now you are ready to make all sorts of things. You have a good "dictionary" that tells you how to acomplish all those little codes. Then you get a pattern of something you REALLY want to knit that has no written directions, but has one of these instead...


This is a chart!! Each of those little symbols represents one of those little code things we talked about before. You read from right to left. Once you get the hang of them charts makes life fabulous, especially for lace (which has lots of funky stitches, aranged in funky way, with funky increases and decreases).
By the way, this chart is from the wonderful lace shawl pattern Gail by Jane Araujo. It can be found for free at Ravelry, here.

Eventually you learn the grammar. You can look at a line (or a bunch of lines) of a pattern or a chart and "see" what it will look like when it is knitted up. This is super cool the first time this happens!! Cause now you get it, it means you understand knitting language. You are a real knitter!!