Wednesday, 21 January 2015

What does CAL, WIP, Frogging and JAYGO mean in Crochet?

If you are new to crocheting, just learning the basic stitches can leave you feeling a little left out of the party, but what about when you come across not just new stitch abbreviations but a new crocheting lingo that you didn't even know existed?

And by this I mean all the strange abbreviations such as WIP or CAL, which can be exhausting to Google and find out what they mean so you don't feel so silly asking the crochet community.

So here is my quick breakdown of the acronyms I have come across over the years, that even befuddled me once upon a time.

WIP is probably the easiest acronym to figure out, especially when it goes along with a certain picture you've seen which says it underneath, and it means 'Work In Progress'. I still have numerous WIPs I know that.

Afghan Baby Throw
Video tutorial available here
Petal Trim Tunic
Free pattern available here
Frogging is a rather strange expression that even to this day I still don't quite understand why it is called frogging, but maybe that's due to me being quite calm when unpicking my projects as I do it so frequently to save on yarn, and that's exactly what it means, 'to undo your project' and start over again. The joke being, that as frogs go 'ribbit ribbit', when you unpick you 'rip it rip it' in frustration. I prefer to just say I undid it but call me boring. ;)

The biggest project I have ever 'frogged' was my Petal Trim Tunic, which became my Afghan Baby Throw not so soon after.

CAL is an acronym that can elude crocheters for quite a while as it is never exactly clear even when seen alongside a certain project, but it is fairly simple and means 'crochet along' and a 'crochet along' is an event that many designers like to run to engage viewers to join them in making something unique, such as an afghan, and different granny squares will be shared at various times so you can crochet the same time as other crocheters or the designer.

So now you know the term, maybe you can enjoy something new! which reminds me, I really must run a CAL at some point. Any suggestions for CAL subjects please feel free to post a comment below with your ideas.

JAYGO is an acronym that is often seen again with CALs or other large on-going projects, and it means 'Join As You Go' so can often relate to afghans that require sewing or crocheting together many squares or shapes.

So now a few strange acronyms and expressions have been demystified, I hope you don't feel so left out of the crochet party and can come in and join the rest of us, because like you us so called lingo experts all started with just that one chain and quite a few frogs! (^-^)

As and when I remember more acronyms or expressions I shall add them to this blog post.
Happy crocheting folks!



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