Common Knitting Abbreviation Explanations

One thing I love about using Blogspot is that I can see the search keywords and phrases that lead people here to my blog.  Sometimes they're the names of my patterns, sometimes they're vague, like 'free mittens pattern', and sometimes they make me feel super guilty for using abbreviations and not explaining them, like 'what does c4f mean?'.  I figured before I check out and head on vacay for another couple weeks here, I'd try and give some clarification to those who happen upon my blog looking for explanations.

C4F - Literal: Cable Four Front

You're knitting a cable that in total consists of four stitches.  Using a cable needle (or a circular needle if you're lazy and don't feel like getting up from the couch...  or a double pointed needle if you're really lazy and don't mind it being annoying to knit the stitches), transfer 2 needles to the cable needle and let the stitches sit in front of your work, just hanging out.  You're then going to knit the following two stitches with your regular right needle, and then knit the two on the cable needle after them.  Ta da, cable!  If the instructions had been C6F, you would have transferred THREE to the front cable needle and then knit the next three, then knit from the cable needle.


C4B - Literal: Cable Four Behind

Just like C4F above, except you hold the stitches on the cable needle behind your work instead of in front.  It will cause your cable to look like it's twisting in the opposite direction, i.e. clockwise instead of counterclockwise.


PM - Literal: Place Marker

Place one of your circular place markers on the right needle, between your stitches, to mark a division.  You may be working with sets of 10 stitches, for example, and this makes it MUCH easier to follow your pattern with these easy markers.  When you come to a place marker as you're knitting, just slip it from the left needle to the right, between the stitches.

What else am I missing?  What have a written quickly in my patterns that may not make sense?  Let me know and I'll get it fixed or explained!  Until then, have fun knitting!