Crochet guide
Crochet slang and acronyms
Crocheters have their own words for projects, yarn and mistakes, and no pattern explains them. Here are words you are likely to meet, with what each stands for and what it means.
On this page 8 parts
Slang is not pattern language
The words on this page are how crocheters talk to each other, mostly online. You will not find them in the instructions of a pattern. The short forms that patterns do use, such as ch and sl st, are stitch abbreviations, and the crochet abbreviations chart has those.
Most of the words on this page are acronyms. A few are plain words with a meaning of their own, such as frogging and stash.
Projects
| Word | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| WIP | work in progress | A project you are working on. |
| UFO | unfinished object | A project that is not finished. Much the same as a WIP. |
| PHD | project half done | A project left partway through. |
| USO | unstarted object | A project you have not started yet. |
| YAP | yet another project | One more project. |
| FO | finished object | A project that is done. |
| HOTH | hot off the hook | A project you have only just finished. |
| FOTH | fresh off the hook | The same as HOTH. |
| JOTH | just off the hook | The same again. |
| PIGS | projects in grocery sacks | Projects put away in bags. Some say "grocery bags". |
| TALC | take along crochet | A project to take along with you. |
| CAL | crochet along | Many people working the same pattern at the same time, often as it comes out in parts. |
Undoing and giving up
| Word | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| frog, frogging | "rip it" | Pulling out stitches you have made: a few, a row or the whole piece. |
| TOAD | trashed object abandoned in disgust | A project given up for good. |
Frogging gets its name from a joke. Say "rip it, rip it" quickly and it sounds like a frog. Our page on frogging shows how to pull work out.
Yarn
| Word | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| stash | (a plain word) | All the yarn you own. |
| destash | (a plain word) | Giving away or selling yarn from your stash. |
| SABLE | stash accumulated beyond life expectancy | More yarn than you could use in a lifetime. Some say "acquisition" for "accumulated". |
| PABLE | patterns accumulated beyond life expectancy | The same, for patterns. |
| LYS | local yarn store | A yarn shop near you, usually a small one. |
| yarn barf | (plain words) | The tangle that comes out when you pull the yarn end from the middle of a ball. Also called yarn vomit. |
| yarn chicken | (plain words) | Carrying on when you may not have enough yarn to finish. You win if the yarn lasts. |
| yarn bomb | (plain words) | Crochet or knitting put over something in a public place, such as a lamp post or a bench. |
| yarnie | (a plain word) | Someone who loves yarn. |
| crojo | crochet mojo | The drive to crochet. |
Online shorthand
| Word | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ISO | in search of | Looking for something, most often a pattern or yarn. |
| TIA | thanks in advance | Said when asking a question. |
| NCR | not crochet related | Marks a post about something else. |
| FS | for sale | Yarn or finished work offered for sale. |
| CIP | crochet in public | Crocheting out where others can see. |
| MGBTC | must get back to crocheting | Just what it says. |
Ways of working that go by their initials
| Word | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| C2C | corner to corner | Fabric worked on the diagonal, from one corner to the opposite one. |
| JAYG | join as you go | Joining pieces as you make them, not all at the end. Also written JAYGO. |
| ami | amigurumi | A crocheted stuffed toy. |
These three name ways of working, not moods or mishaps, and you will meet them in the names of patterns too. We have a page on corner to corner crochet and one on join as you go.
A sentence of slang, read out
"My WIP nearly became a UFO, but it is an FO at last, HOTH."
In plain words: the project I was working on was nearly left unfinished, but it is done at last, and only just.
Where to go next
- The crochet abbreviations chart spells out the short forms that patterns use.
- How to read a crochet pattern goes through a pattern line by line.
- US and UK crochet terms side by side shows the stitch names that differ between the two countries.