Favorite Knitting Help

Knitting is a forever-learning craft. Sometimes answers are hard to find. Sharing my go-to knitting resources accumulated over the years. I would love you to share your favorite resource! 

Absolute Favorite Sites

Handy Knitting Calculators and Charts - This website contains other calculators you will use over and over again! Also, look at the bottom of the page to links of other useful tidbits of information! https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-us/knitting-calculators#countryYarnWeightConversion

Knitting Calculator - Want to know how much yarn you will need to knit that women's sweater? What about when you want to use a specific weight of yarn? This is the only website I can find that does these calculations for you!!! https://www.jimmybeanswool.com/secure-html/onlineec/knittingCalculator.asp

Ravelry - The world's largest collection of free knitting patterns! Did you know that it allows you to do amazingly detailed searches? You can even save these searches and get alerted when new patterns are added that fall into your criteria! It's a fantastic website! https://www.ravelry.com/

Standard Yarn Weights - Want to know how many yards/meters are in that skein which states 50 grams? Or how about when a designer lists, for their pattern, how much yarn you will need ... but in grams! How do you figure out how many yards of yarn that actually is? This website will do that for you! I've also saved off a copy of this page as a PDF so that I ALWAYS have it available! https://www.thecraftyjackalope.com/pages/standard-yarn-weights

Standard Yarn Weight System - I'm forever wondering various things about yarn I find such as suggested needle size and other things. This website by the Craft Yarn Counsel is perfect for finding all this information! Yet another website I've saved off as a PDF! https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/yarn-weight-system

Tools to Help You Convert Knitting Patterns - Website is nothing but links to various calculators! I haven't found anything like it anywhere else! So many converters at your disposal! http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/index.html

More Worthy Sites

Beginner's Guide to Knitting - Direct download link to a fantastic guide for the absolute beginner. Good information to get you started and help you with the true basics. How to Knit for Beginners

Comprehensive Guides to Knitting - Link to their index and how to use it. Amazing and a must-bookmark site! https://techknitter.blogspot.com/2010/04/revised-unified-index-for.html

How to Find Your Knitting Measurements for Hips, Waist, and More - This is a direct link to a free downloadable guide. Free-Measuring-Guide-from-Knitting-Daily.pdf

How to Fix Knitting Mistakes - Direct download link for a great free PDF guide to help when you make a mistake! Free Guide to Fixing Knitting Mistakes for all Knitters

How to Thread a Lifeline - Good, straightforward information and tips on how to thread your lifeline. https://www.hollychayes.com/2014/03/10/how-to-thread-a-lifeline/

Knitting and Crochet Techniques Tutorials - Wealth of information, a huge library of various knitting techniques where they provide instructions for each one! https://www.woollywormhead.com/knitting-crochet/

Step-By-Step Lifeline Instructions - More detailed instructions on how to do a lifeline. https://knittingyards.wordpress.com/lifelines-step-by-step/

Various Knitting Techniques - Guide to help you be successful in your knitting! Direct download link. Knitting Techniques for more successful Knitting

Knit-Related Apps

Alpaca - iOS only - Your Ravelry companion app! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/alpaca-your-ravelry-companion/id1242116318

Bellish - iOS only - Knitting pattern generator! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bellish/id1470242260

Knit2 - iOS only - Excellent knitting counter you can use for multiple projects. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knit2-knitting-counter/id1512656007

Knit Bucket - If you don't plan to use Ravelry to catalog your needles, then try this app! http://www.knitbucket.com/

Knit Row Counter - iOS only - Does exactly what it says! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knit-row-counter/id320641298

Knitting Yarn Calc - iOS only - It's a reference app with information including suggestions on amount of yarn needed for common projects. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knitting-yarn-calc/id1467540958

Planned Pooling - iOS only - Figure out how your pattern will look with that variegated yarn. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/planned-pooling/id1448622145

Woolmi - iOS only - Fantastic knit counter and pattern generator! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/woolmi-knitting-patterns/id1513711382

Common "Knitting" Terms"              

CAL	Crochet-A-Long (see KAL for knit version)
FO	Finished Object (finished project)
Frog / Frogging	Process of undoing your knitting, usually because of a mistake made and need to go back and correct it. Basically, you remove the needles and rip the stitches out. Why called Frogging? “Rip it! “Rip it!” sounds a lot like “Ribbit! Ribbit!”, the sound frogs make!
Frog Pond	Process of giving up, removing your needles, and ripping out ALL the stitches. Then use the yarn for a different project instead. Example: “I’ve sent that sock to the ‘frog pond’ and decided to make a scarf from that yarn.”
Halfpint	A project you would love to do but have no time to do it! “Have A Lovely Fantasy Project” is what ‘halfpint’ stands for.
KAL	Knit-A-Long
LYS	Your “Local Yarn Store”. This not only includes small businesses but also your local chain yarn store.
OTN	“On The Needles” – Your current project on your knitting needles.
SSS	“Second Sock Syndrome” – When you’ve finished the first sock and have lost the enthusiasm for making the second sock.
Tink / Tinking	Same as frog/frogging except you are going back stitch-by-stitch to correct the mistake. Why “Tink”? It’s Knit spelled backwards!
UFO	“UnFinished Object” – Those projects not yet finished. And might be in limbo at the moment.
WIP	“Work in Progress” – Project you are working on.

Yarn Chicken

Attempting to finish a project (or row) before your yarn runs out. Basically, you are playing "chicken" with the yarn.

Common Web Terms 

dd / DD	Dear Daughter
dh / DH	Dear Husband
ds / DS	Dear Son
dw / DW	Dear Wife
giyf / GIYF	Google Is Your Friend (so true!)
jfgi / JFGI	Just F***** (Flipping) Google It! -  (Meaning, ‘why haven’t you already used Google to find your answer?’)
lol / LOL	Laugh Out Loud!
phishing	Pronounce it as “fishing”. When you receive an email which looks like it came from a reputable website/company, such as your bank or ebay. But it asks you for your security details such as username and/or password (no one reputable will ever ask you for these!). Or when they provide a link for you to click on and takes you to a website which asks for that information. Where do these emails come from? Scammers attempting to steal your identity and hack into your banking account or other types of accounts.
rotfl / ROTFL	Rolling On The Floor Laughing!
rotflmao / ROTFLMAO	Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** (tush) OFF!
so / SO	“Significant Other” – Your romantic partner, including spouses.
Troll	Person who joins the group or discussion with only the intention to make trouble or incite strong emotions for their own amusement. Never waste your time on these people but instead just block them.
Trolling	See “Troll” – This is when they are being a Troll.