Moth noun: The devil incarnate, eater of both stash and finished objects. Should be treated with a zero-tolerance attitude. –The Secret Language of Knitters * More than 140 terms, from acrylic to yarn porn, are collected and defined for America s 60 million knitting-obsessed.

From the 25-year-old hipster to her 85-year-old grandmother, more than a third of the women in the United States knit.

For the yarn-obsessed, Mary Beth Temple offers a glossary of knitting jargon and terminology in The Secret Language of Knitters with entries like:

* Design Elements noun: Mistakes. As in The fact that one sleeve is five inches longer than the other is not a mistake, it is a design element.

* Stress Knitting noun: When the going gets tough, the tough get knitting.

With a universal affinity for cashmere and an absolute abhorrence of moths, veteran and beginning knitters alike will be certain not to cast off this humorous lexicon compendium.