k — Knit (Abbreviation)
k is the single most common abbreviation in any knitting pattern — it means "knit," the basic stitch nearly every other technique on this site builds on top of. The right needle goes into the front of a stitch, yarn wraps around it, and a fresh loop gets drawn through to finish it — a smooth "V" shape on the side facing you as you work it.
What a knit stitch actually does to the fabric
A column of knit stitches, worked on every row, produces stockinette's smooth front face — but only on the side it was worked from. Flip the fabric over, and that same row of knit stitches reads as a bumpy purl row instead, because a knit stitch and a purl stitch are the same physical loop, just viewed and formed from opposite sides. This is why garter stitch (knit every row) looks identical on both faces: each row alternates which side is "facing," so the smooth-versus-bumpy difference cancels out.
Where it shows up in pattern shorthand
"k4" means knit the next 4 stitches; "k to end" means knit every remaining stitch on the needle; "*k2, p2; rep from *" describes a repeating rib sequence. The letter itself never changes meaning — only the count or context around it does.
Related abbreviations
- p — purl, the knit stitch's mirror-image counterpart
- k2tog — knit 2 stitches together, a right-leaning decrease built directly on the plain knit motion
- kfb — knit into the front and back of a stitch, an increase using the same starting insertion
FAQ
Does "k" ever mean something other than a plain knit stitch? In a small number of specialized techniques (brioche's "brk," for instance) a modified version of k appears with its own distinct abbreviation — plain unmodified "k" in an ordinary pattern always means the standard knit stitch described above.
Is knit worked the same way in continental and English style? The finished stitch is identical either way — see continental versus English for how the two styles differ in which hand tensions the yarn, not in what the resulting knit stitch looks like.