"Knit 2 pult loopy K2tog" I beg you pardon?

January 4, 2013 3:16 PM

Ok, so a friend is knitting a dog puppet out of an English language book. They are not so fluent in English, I am not fluent in knitting. They are hang up on the following instruction: "Row 21 (eyebrow row): K2tog at the same time making loopy st 1cr, loopy st 2cr, k2sc, loopy st 3cr, k1sc, pult." Can anyone offer any way to explain this? I think I can wrestle it into German. Thanks!
posted by From Bklyn to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 answers total)

Would it be possible to provide the name of the book and of the pattern? It's possible that these abbreviations are more clearly defined at the start of the pattern. For example, "loopy st" is probably a specialty stitch - as far as I know it's not a common term. I've also never encountered "K2sc".
posted by muddgirl at 3:30 PM on January 4 [4 favorites]

Agree with muddgirl. Knitting books frequently define the special stitches they want you to use - either at the start of the pattern, or in a glossary at the beginning or end of the book.
posted by Squeak Attack at 3:47 PM on January 4

I looked up pult (which looks complicated but doable) and it does look like those stitches are explained in a book - is your friend's book Knit your own Dog?
Those explanations could be a much easier starting point.
posted by pishposh at 3:47 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]

Not sure how Germany fits into all this, but I think knitting also has different conventions in US/UK?

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I don't know much about knitting. I do, however, know how to crochet, but for years I was confused by American crochet books and everything I tried to make was off because I learned the British names for stitches growing up -- maybe someone who knows more about knitting can chime in.
posted by lesli212 at 3:57 PM on January 4

The preview part on the above Amazon site actually contains the glossary. I'm not that great of an explainer or a knitter, but if nobody else can help I'll give it a try.
posted by pishposh at 3:59 PM on January 4

Not sure how Germany fits into all this, but I think knitting also has different conventions in US/UK?

US and UK patterns are pretty much mutually intelligible. It's crochet where it gets confusing. I find moving between English and German patterns a bit... odd, but I can help the OP if they run into trouble.
posted by hoyland at 4:19 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]

pishposh has provided a good link to explain the "pult" stitch.

OP, ask your friend which type of dog s/he is knitting. Then go to the "more inside" Amazon link for Knit Your Own Dog and scroll to p. 173. You'll need to translate the instructions for "loopy stitch" for that particular dog pattern. (Post again if you need clarification on what the instructions are asking you to do--one of us knitters on here will help you out, but we need to know which set of instructions you're translating.)

I think I have figured out the "cr" and "sc" --it looks like this is an idiosyncratic way for the author to indicate which colour of yarn to use for that particular stitch. For example, in the Afghan Hound pattern visible in the Amazon preview pages, one of the colours is Toffee which is abbreviated in the pattern as "tf"; another is Bark, abbreviated as "ba"; another is Framboise, abbreviated as "fr." So in the pattern you are asked to knit with tf, ba, or fr, depending on which colour the author wants you to use. This leads me to think that when the pattern requires you to "K2sc," "sc" refers to one of the yarn colours used to make the dog--your friend will need to check the yarn requirements to find out which one.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:43 PM on January 4 [6 favorites]

I was assuming that German knitting notation was different from English knitting notation. But, after asking again, it turns out there _is_ a glossary (over-looked somehow) and these terms are clarified there. We will take a look and try to work it out from there. If that doesn't work, if there are still terms that don't seem to translate, I will come back.

Thanks so much!
posted by From Bklyn at 6:59 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]