As you graduate to working tougher designs you will realize that you have to make sure that you understand exactly what the instructions mean. Making a guess is not something that will be able to take you further at this stage. The fact is that when you have reached a stage of complicated designs, you are also expected to have understood and learnt the abbreviations that are so commonly used in the knitting instructions. So here are some of the most common ones that are used for your reference.

Instructions between the square brackets indicate the number of times you need to repeat a set. This means a given pattern of stitches needs to be repeated a specific number of times. Bo indicates 'bind off' and CO indicates 'cast on'. Beg means beginning and bet means between. Dec means decrease and inc indicates increase.

The small letter k or the capital K means the knit stitch and p and P indicate a purl stitch. K1P1 indicate that you need to make one knit stitch followed immediately by a purl stitch. G st means that you are expected to know what a garter stitch is and you are expected to create that here.

Sl indicates a slip and therefore Sl1K means that you are to slip 1 knit wise and Sl1P means that you should slip on purl wise. Tbl means through the back loop and yfwd means that you need to bring the yarn forward. Yon means yarn over needle and wyif and wyib mean with yarn in front or with yarn in back.