AKC: Ravelry’s Impact on the Language of Knitters

AKC: Ravelry’s Impact on the Language of Knitters

Katherine Korth

Knitters have specialized language to communicate with each other about knitting.  Using concepts by Asif Agha and M. A. K. Halliday, I explore how the internet, especially Ravelry.com, has transmitted and changed knitting language.  Knitters have long been using the internet to communicate, but Ravelry, founded in 2007, has provided a central database for knitters to share their projects, research yarns and patterns, and communicate on discussion boards.  Ravelry has over three million users who generate tens of thousands of discussion board posts daily.  In my study, I divided knitting terminology into two categories: technical knitting terms and jargon.  Technical knitting terms tend to be transmitted through pattern instructions in books and magazines or as single patterns on a webpage or in PDF form.  These terms are generally abbreviated (k2tog means “knit two together”).  Other language related to knitting, what I call jargon, appears to be transmitted and created through online interactions.  In order to test this, I researched the etymology of knitting jargon and technical terms, and I tracked discussion board posts on Ravelry to see how frequently knitting vocabulary is used.  I also created an anonymous survey for Ravelry users and asked them how long they have been knitting, how they learned to knit, from where they learned knitting vocabulary, and to list any words learned on Ravelry.  I received 351 responses from knitters who have been knitting from a range of six months to 75 years.  A few knitters mentioned displeasure at the exclusivity of what they perceive to be new knitting vocabulary on Ravelry, but my results suggest that almost all of these words have been used for decades at least.  While Ravelry is responsible for greater transmission and enregisterment of knitting jargon, it is not a place where new knitting vocabulary is coined.

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