Translating Hand Knitting Patterns
Hand knitting patterns have a language all their own. Filled with k's, p's, beg, yo's, and co's, to the uneducated eye it is very confusing and could be considered "all Greek to me." Sometime, you know the basics and are knitting along without any problems, until you come to something that you don't understand at all. That puts the brakes on your knitting project until you figure out what the person who wrote the hand knitting pattern meant for you to do.
But it is easy to learn what the different abbreviations mean, and then it can become second nature to read through a hand knitting pattern. You will hardly pause at all when you come to something that used to feel so foreign.
This Means What?
In most cases, the pattern will give a guide to the abbreviations used in the pattern. It will be located right at the start of the pattern, usually right below the information about the type of yarn, needle size, and gauge information. If you follow those items, the correct type of yarn in terms of thickness and weight, the recommended size of needles, and knit a sample swatch to be sure that the gauge is accurate (usually a small swatch of 2" by 2" is sufficient for this) then you can feel more secure that the hand knitting pattern will give you the results you seek.
What does the rest of it mean? Those letters and abbreviations are shorthand for common stitches and procedures that are found in hand knitting patterns. The "k" means knit, the "p" means purl, and "yo" means to do a yarn over. "Beg" means beginning, "co" is cast on, and "inc" means increase while "dec" is…you got it. Decrease. See? Not hard once you know the code!
There are also some symbols that are used to designate certain things. One, an asterisk (*) is used to mark the start and end of a section of the instructions that needs to be done more than once. For example, if it says "rep between * * twice" that means that after you have done what is between the asterisks once, you should repeat that portion twice more, for a total of three times.
Some directions are put within parentheses, like this: (k2p1)twice. Translated, this will be: knit, knit, purl, knit, knit, purl. (knit two, purl one, done twice) In other words, the portion within the parentheses is to be repeated as it says. Sometimes parentheses are also used to distinguish sizes for clothing or to give extra information about the hand knitting pattern. Brackets can also be used in a similar fashion.
Once you know the "code" of knitting, understanding your hand knitting pattern is simple.
