How’s That Again?
It has come to my attention, somewhat belatedly, that I am out of step with the rest of the knitting world (or perhaps that the rest of the knitting world is out of step with me) in the matter of language; to wit, the usage, the syntax, and especially the pronunciation of the vernacular known as Knitters’ English. Like someone who has learned any foreign language by reading a dictionary without a pronunciation guide, I speak a somewhat idiosyncratic and highly idiomatic Knitters’ English of my own. Mind you, I speak my personal dialect very fluently, but I wouldn’t expect you native speakers to understand a syllable.
It isn’t really surprising that I haven’t had occasion to observe this before. You see, until quite recently, I had virtually no one to practice with.
My mother taught me to knit when I was about 6. I didn’t get seriously interested in it until more than 10 years later - not, at any rate, to the point of reading stitch patterns and thinking about them and talking about them. When I did talk about them, it was with my mother, the only other knitter I knew. To the best of my knowledge, until that time came, she had never had such conversations with other knitters; so the language that evolved between us was entirely new to both of us. It originated with me, but I realize now that it was a natural outgrowth of a silly habit peculiar to our family - that of pronouncing and interpreting abbreviations literally and/or phonetically. The fewer vowels, the more scope for play. Pronounce exactly as written, interpolating as many exaggerated schwas as necessary, with the occasional surreal touch of external association. Road signs, for instance: “Tpke” became “tup-key,” “Blvd” became “bluhvd.” Cookery: why bother to sound out “teaspoon” or “tablespoon” when the measurements in recipes are clearly intended to be pronounced “tisp” and “tuh-busp”? To this day I invariably and unthinkingly refer to an intravenous needle as a “four” because it is traditionally abbreviated “IV” (and you can bet I have a moment of crankiness when the doctor or nurse then looks at me as if afraid that my “four” must contain an overdose - or what I’d call an “odd” - of something fiercely hallucinogenic).
Well, you know what comes next. After all those years of semi-private knitting, followed by a long fallow period and a stretch of entirely solitary knitting, I suddenly discover that at some point while I wasn’t paying attention, knitting has gone out and become the focus of a huge, vibrant, active community. Much delighted, I jump in with both feet. But mind you, what I’ve jumped into is still a virtual community. (Which of course is a big part of why it’s so huge and vibrant. Hello. Here we are, Q.E.D., thanks to the marvels of the Internet Tubes. Yesterday I couldn’t spell “knit-blogger” or imagine such a concept; today I are one.) It’s on-line and my communication with it is still via the written word. Or written abbreviation. Far as anybody knows, I’m perfectly fluent, and we’re all speaking the same language - because we aren’t in fact speaking it.
Let me tell you, it was a rude shock, some months later, to start hanging out with real live knitters and to hear them speak about knitting in knitting terms. Wow. It turns out that even when they talk to themselves, Real Knitters pronounce “ssk” either “slip-slip-knit” or, more colloquially, “ess-ess-kay.” When they see “k2tog” they say “knit two together.” When they see “yo” they say “yarn over.” Yes! Even when they’re memorizing and muttering to themselves!!!!
Sheesh. Haven’t these people discovered slang? Don’t they believe in nicknames?
When I see “ssk” I pronounce it “SIS-sik.” I say “kuh-TWO-tog.” And “kuh-THREE-tog.”
I say “YO!”
It means the same thing, but suddenly the old gag about America and England being two countries divided by a common language really comes home to me. You say no knitter is an island? Ha - I’m a continent of one!
I calculate my gauges in “stuhs” and “errs” to the inch. “M1″? I don’t “make one” - I “MUH-one.” A twisted stitch (k1-b) is “kuh-ONE-buh” because it’s worked tbl - “TUH-ble.” I can’t be bothered to say or even think “knit into front and back of stitch” - I see “kfb” and I promptly “kuh-FUB.” I can “kuh-BUF,” too, if necessary.
Before I read Barbara Walker and became sophisticated enough to understand the fine points of the “sissik,” my mother and I occasionally got a good giggle out of our default left-leaning decrease, which to us was “SLUH-one-KUH-one-PIS-so” - or just “pisso” for short.
A vertical double decrease, to me, is “SLUH-two-KUH-one-pih-TWO-sso.” Or again, “pih-two-sso” for short. I’m especially fond of the double yarn-over, which in my mind is a “yo-yo.”
It all seems perfectly logical to me. Like calling an IV a “four” - it comes so naturally now that 90% of the time I don’t even notice I’m doing it. (The other 10% of the time I get a bonus chuckle out of how ridiculous it sounds.)
And I recommend it highly. I don’t see why the whole knitting universe shouldn’t adopt the practice. It’s cute and silly, it’s practical, it’s fun, it’s unequivocal. It’s different. And it’d be like a secret handshake. Think about it. It’d have the added advantage of seriously freaking out the muggles. Not that they don’t already get a little nervous if they see “k2, p1, k2tog, yo” on paper - not that they don’t already start edging toward the door when they hear you muttering, “knit two, purl one, knit two together, yarn-over” like a thing possessed. But trust me: if instead you say “KUH-two, PUH-one, kuh-TWO-tog, YO” - well, then you’re getting into magical incantation territory. Next thing you know, they’re heading for the straitjacket or the exorcist. Try it. Nothing enhances the natural mystique of knitting like the use of a secret cypher carried to its logical extreme.
I used to scoff at the idea of knitting as a “sport” (I don’t think poker is a sport either, so sue me) until it dawned on me that it MUST be one because it has its own built-in cheerleading vocabulary. Where else, after all, will you ever hear a more inspirational cadence than
SLUH-two, KUH-one, PIH-two-SSO -
MUH-one! SIS-sik! SIS-sik! YO!!!!!
See what I mean? Kind of catchy, isn’t it. I’m telling you.
Go, knitters. Go, knitters. Go, knitters, GO.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
All right — first as a word lover, and then as an isolated knitter — I was rolling on the floor as I read this post! My family has the same propensity; we say trafficway as it is abbreviated — TRUHfwy. It is either laziness, that ordinary English is too easy for us, or that we have a really peculiar sense of humor. Your pick.
So, naturally, this system makes perfect sense to me — I even do it myself, though not to the highly-developed extent that you do, dear Lisa.
Oh, and “four”? Man alive. Every cake there is to take, you would.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Your Knittish pronounciation is a little different mine, but we’d certainly be able to converse.
And I always find that saying “Kay two tog tibble” brings a smile to my face, even during the worst sort of knitterly crisis.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:10 am
And I thought I was the only one cr(l)azy enough to do this. Being a good Southron girl, though, I tend to elide certain things - so I kuhtwog, and sisk, etc. Different dialects, but I think we could all make ourselves understood to one another.
This vaguely rational statement follows five minutes of laughing hysterically.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
hmmm. Are there REALLY knitters out there who SAY “yarn over”?? really??? It’s “yo”, just as you said, just as it says right there on the page.! Sheesh.
Although you and I, we speak the same language … I do speak a slightly different dialect.
I say “kay-two-tog”, and “ssik” (sometimes even “sss-kuh” where the k is an ending sound and so not really voiced). I do say “tibble” and “kay-two-tog-tibble”…. though I rarely actually do them, preferring the sssik, I do SAY “slik-pisso”
I think perhaps you’re surrounded by knitters who don’t really speak the language?
June 6th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Ok, I’ll confess that I’m very linear and literal, and I actually DO say things like “yarn over” for “yo”.
I have no imagination.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Hi! I got here from Choclolate Sheep. (She’s great) I just had to comment on this post. So funny, yet–I suspect–much more common than we’re admitting. I too say things like “tisp” and “Kay, two, tog” although in a much more limited fashion. How much fun is that!! I love the sock patterns BTW!
June 6th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Hmm…I just read knitting and rarely have a need/opportunity to speak the language. But now you have me imagining a Harlot appearance where she may be greeted by a chanting of the pattern for her Snowdrop Lace Shawl. Or some such thing.
And I wonder how Harlot will pronounce her Knitting on the audiobook?
Here, I’m still helping people detect the different between knitting and quilting. So there are miles to go before I sleep. But there is progress: Mr. Beth recently read a Wendy Johnson pattern and asked how you could knit until there were four stitches left, because how did you know how much yarn that was on the skein? I waited a sec, asked if he was serious, and explained. You have to reward this kind of interest. Especially if you want to have a sheep farm someday.
June 6th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Oh dear. My computer has lost its way to the Flock Sock club website. Would you please help me find my way back?
Thank you!
Grannie Annie
June 7th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I tend to say the whole thing (slip, slip, knit) as I do it, just to keep it straight in my brain, but I love YO! It’ll make a good greeting for fellow knitters.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:35 am
I see you don’t follow the US Army convention on IV. The Fourth (IV) Infantry Division, at Fort Hood, is the Ivy Division, with an ivy leaf on the patch and everything else.
I have over four decades practice at pronouncing acronyms, having worked at NASA, the USAF, and GSA, among others. NASA is so well acronymized that it regularly publishes acronym decoders. Knitting is simple by comparison with what was my average working day.
However, I have to admit that k2tog is a “thisaway” and ssk is a “thataway” when they’re not kay-two-tog and sisk, respectively. And what could a yarn over be but “YO!”, I ask you? Maybe I spent too much time with the ex-military guys.
June 8th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Lisa, leave it to you. Delightful post. Must admit, I do pronounce them out in my mind as I do each operation. And in my various group knitting situations, we pronounce them out, too. We must be boring and unimaginative. Absolutely love the above Mary’s “thisaway” and “thataway”.
Since you brought up the subject, I have a question. I learned to say “I cast on” or “I cast off” in present and past tense of the action. Lately I see everywhere “casted on” and “casted off”. It is jarring when I see it, but perhaps I am wrong and not up to current useage. Set me straight, please.
June 8th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Angeluna,
I looked up the conjugation of “cast,” and you are right, all the tenses are, rather than conjugations, just “cast on” or “cast off.” If you want to make it really obvious that you’re using it in past tense, you’d say “had cast.”
The complete conjugation is here: http://www.verb2verbe.com/conjugation/english-verb/cast%20.aspx At least, that’s where I went; it was the first hit on Google. (Love Google.)
Just put it down to the general deplorable state of English grammar. If it really bugs you, have a piece of chocolate.
June 8th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Thanks to Connie. I’m seeing this casted on/off usage everywhere. Just now on one of my favorite, truly genius person’s blog. If I hadn’t quit smoking, it probably wouldn’t bother me so much. Pass the chocolate, please!
June 12th, 2007 at 1:04 am
I CAST on
Why, yes, I HAVE CAST ON
After that, I also DID CAST off
I think we are all CASTaways on your continent of 1!
I speak a limited patois of your dialect — tbl is clearly ‘tibble’ and, as above, who can resist YO!
More chocolate for me too, please.
June 12th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I am so glad I came back to read all these responses, I don’t think I’ll wipe this smile off my face all day. While, I don’t tend to “knit speak” I can see a need for it and have to agree YO is it. I’ll take some chocolate too, please. After I that I will cast on a new ….
October 24th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I have also heard the usage “knittish” quite a bit recently. Clearly I spent too much time in my impressionable youth reading Tolkien because every time I hear that I think “elvish”. Lovely post, although I have to say that I am more likely to say the actual words for fear of sounding even goofier than I am.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Having just found this post from one of the Rav threads–I do a bit of that, too, though things like M1 get stretched based on how long it takes to work them.