Glossary
Knitting words, explained.
- Cable
- Stitches crossed over each other, worked with a cable needle.
- Cast on
- The first row of stitches put on the needle.
- Chart
- A grid where each square is a stitch, seen from the right side.
- Decrease
- Working stitches together so there are fewer.
- Float
- The strand of an unused colour carried behind the work.
- Gauge
- Stitches and rows to 10 cm (or 4 in): how big the stitches are.
- Increase
- Making a new stitch, such as a yarn over or make 1.
- In the round
- Knitting in a tube, always from the right side.
- Intarsia
- Colourwork with a separate yarn for each area of colour.
- Mosaic
- Colourwork with one colour per row, slipping the other colour’s stitches.
- Panel
- A stretch of stitches worked as a chart of its own.
- Repeat
- The stitches (or rows) worked again and again.
- RS / WS
- Right side / wrong side of the work.
- Short rows
- Rows worked part of the way, then turned, to add shaping.
- Stockinette
- Knit on right-side rows and purl on wrong-side rows: smooth Vs.
- Stranded
- Colourwork with two colours per row, the unused one carried behind.
- Swatch
- A test square knitted to measure the gauge.