CAL is short for “Crochet Along” which is an event where a designer creates and releases a known pattern in parts and a huge community all work on it at the same time. 

CROJO is derived from “mojo” and means you are motivated about something. CROJO then means you are motivated to crochet.

FROGGING is derived from “ripping out” which sounds like a frog, and means that you have to pull out your already-made stitches and undo your work. Typically you would do that when you have made a mistake or don’t like your project and want to redo it and reuse the yarn. You might frog just a few stitches, or a row or the entire project.

HOTH/ FOTH mean “hot off the hook” or “fresh off the hook” and you are very happy you just finished your project and want to show it off to the world proudly.

ISO means ”in search of”… so you are looking for patterns or yarn or related things.

OCD means “obsessive crocheting disorder”.

PHD means “project half done”

PIGS means “projects in grocery sacks”.  You really should invest in cute project bags!

TOAD is almost related to FROG and means “trashed object abandoned in disgust”… so you pretty much gave up on it completely and will not even FROG it.

UFO means “unfinished object” and is basically the same as a WIP. But typically you haven’t touched your UFO in a while whereas WIPs are the ones you are currently working on.

WIP stands for “work in progress” and means that you are currently working on a project, whether it’s crochet, knit or anything else.

A YARNIE is someone who loves to work with yarn. Typically that is a crocheter or a knitter.

YARN BARF means you tried to pull just a strand of yarn from the middle of a yarn skein, but were unsuccessful and you pull a “mini skein” out instead which looks like the yarn skein barfed.

YARN BOMB means someone crocheted something and is displaying it in public on lamps, benches, ground, fences and other places. 

YARN CHICKEN is not a thing; it’s a game that knitters and crocheters play.  It happens when you either have just enough yarn to finish a project or you don’t have enough and need to get more. It’s like a game and competition between you and the yarn, and no one knows who will win. The yarn or you?

YART means “yarn acquisition road trip”  Take me with you! When do we leave?

“Yarn” in Spanish is “hilo.”  In French, it is “fil.” In Italian, “filato.”  In Maltese, “hjat.”  Any way you say it, the search for a Local Yarn Shop was just as exciting for me in Europe as it is in the United States!  The first yarn I saw in Spain, however, was from Denmark and made in China (but that didn’t stop me from buying some…). 

The rumor is true, you cannot touch the yarn in Spain.   Unless it is in a clearance bin, then you can touch it.  But they take all the info off the yarn so you don’t know the weight or fiber content… maybe that’s not such a good deal after all.

 

A lack of Local Yarn Shops (LYS) did not stop me from crocheting on this trip! I was hoping to be able to do a tribute to Dr. Seuss with photos of me crocheting on a train in Spain, on a boat with a goat (you get the idea) but I couldn’t find a goat….

I took Branch-Weaving and Mesh-Weaving from Back Gate Studio’s Barbara Balkin at my Local Yarn Shop (LYS) the Twisted Ewe. It got my creativity flowing in a different direction! And I got to use leftover yarn from my stash. Check out Barbara’s website at www.backgatestudios.etsy.com and Twisted Ewe’s website at www.twistedeweidaho.com for future classes.