do you tricotez polyglotte ?

One of the things that really entertains me in that knitting business, is the completely unreasonable approach that rules this small world.
The most strange things happen. Knit a nordic sweater in 16 days? All right. Spinning in the Tube? You bet. Load a truck worth of balls and skeins in an average city-sized flat? Just squeeze and use the fridge if necessary (that should prevent pilling, by the way). That exquisite lopi pattern is written in olde icelandic ? Okay. Where's that Institute for gaelo-nordic languages ?

I rejoice at all these fanciful behaviors. Adventures in exotic languages, in particular, always make my day.

Many a knitter has already taken an attempt at Drops Designs. It's a very nice place. If you slip on the norsk instructions, you can still grasp at the dansk ones. Lately we've had an hilarious post featuring a canadian trying to decypher a finnish pattern. Finnish people, on the other hand, do not want to rest on their laurels. Give yourself a treat and go check here the japanese charts translation produced by a fearless finn. The intrepid LaSof Frankenstein, in Paris, wasn't wasting time either on her japanese two-end-knitting instructions. Her beautiful hat stirred big agitation in the traditionnal knitting group TricotNordique, and the parisian japanese bookstore was suddenly overwhelmed with orders. "You know that book that should probably read back to cover and features knitting symbols I don't have any idea about? Send it to me. Right away!".

While far, far east, a japanese lady (let's call her moo) dedicates herself on Phildar patterns....

Take your average french-speaking belgian here. I am far from being a natural polyglotte and never learned proper english (you don't want more evidence, I guess). Even more, I hardly know technical knitting terms in french, but in just a few weeks I've grown fully familiar with ssk, yo, tbl and the likes. So far so good, I'm still in a rather comfortable area. It may not last.

At our monthly knitting café, just on departure time, I noticed the two japanese 'Let's Knit Series' brought by Anne. I was immediately mesmerised, and she kindly let me bring them home. Let me tell you, those japanese designs are KILLERS.

ouououou

oh là là

bong. that's me falling from my chair. you know, my weakness for cables and turtlenecks.

Some of these patterns may qualify for Über-cuteness (kawaaaï !). So what ? We should all know by now that knitting is also about putting your wardrobe préjugés at bay. I will happily knit garments I would probably never buy. And perhaps even wear them - as long as the shoulders do not fall to my elbows. (Very unlikely to happen with a japanese pattern, btw!)

So what's next? I will probably not have the smallest chance to try a japanese pattern this year. With a full-time job and a house to renovate from cellar to roof, knitting time won't stretch to decyphering those beautiful charts, alas. But once that house business is over, who knows ?

Yes! I might as well start all over again with my bits and pieces of russian. Hah.

Kharocheva trikotaj tout le monde !

 

Some useful links to sustain your nipponophilia:

japanese charting lesson
japanese knitting basics
How to Read Japanese Graphical Knitting Charts
Super-Goodies! A helluva lot of free japanese patterns
(the horizontal menu where you can read 'Kids & Babies' leads you to the various sections: winter, spring, scarves, men...)

**Special thanks go to Amanda for her great japanese knitting 101 links !**

Japanese stitches symbols
(click on 'Basic Stitches" in the left-hand column)

Vous pouvez constater que je fournis en ce moment des efforts désespérés pour mon audience internationale de deux personnes. Non content de déverser sur ces pages des kilomètres de fautes, j'arrive au bout du post totalement épuisée. Le topo francophone sera plus restreint, j'espère que vous me pardonnerez !

Une des choses qui m'émerveille continuellement dans le monde tricotique, est la dimension totalement déraisonnable de ce beau sport que l'on voit fleurir chez certaines d'entre vous (car moi je reste tristement raisonnable, il faut bien l'avouer). Qu'il s'agisse de défis olympiques, de stashs hymalaïens, de brassières tricotées en deux jours pour les bébés afghans (mes respects), de séances de filage dans le métro (si-si, il y en a qui essayent), de chaussettes tricotées l'une dans l'autre sur cinq aiguilles, de pulls de huit kilos tricotés en 2 mm... bref. Vous connaissez tout cela!

Mais là où je me régale vraiment, c'est au rayon des patrons intraduisibles. Enfin, plus ou moins traduisibles.
Un résumé des derniers échos du multilinguisme tricotique :

Stephanie s'échine sur un patron en finnois.
Une finnoise nous traduit des grilles japonaises.
LaSof nous éblouit avec du double-bout japonais, également. Je dois dire que quand elle a présenté son chapeau sur TricotNordique, j'ai bien ri en pensant à la libraire japonaise subitement submergée de commandes. Ça n'a pas fait un pli: tout le monde a voulu le livre dont personne ne comprend les symboles. Merveilleux, non ?

Au café-tricot cette semaine, Anne avait amené deux "Let's Knit" japonais, et je suis complètement tombée sous le charme. Vous avez vu les photos plus haut... Rien que du super-beau, raffiné et torsadé à souhait... Si les japonaiseries vous tentent, essayez les liens dans l'encadré. Entre autres, certains signes cabalistiques y sont expliqués...

Je ne suis pas près de m'en servir moi-même. Les horizons sont quelques peu bouchés (gravats et maçonnerie, entre autres). J'espère que dans un an et quelque, je serai toujours là et prête à empoigner le tricot nippon par le bon bout. A moins qu'entre-temps, je ne me mette à l'Estonien. Ou que je recommence le russe à zéro. Avec le tricot, tout peut arriver.

Bon week-end !

Comments

[mona]

I have that magazine! And I want to do that brown one on the left in the 2nd picture.

[contet-david joc]

je parle le russe assez bien et je sais aussi tricoter:je peux t'aider en cas de besoin...Jocelyne

[3369]

Hello. i am moo you called.
i am sorry, i can't understand French almostly.
But i learned to French tricot words to knit phildar patterns.
i made a French-japanese knitting dictionary pdf. Can you see Japanese letters?
http://3369.moo.jp/knitting/_dic/dictionary.pdf

if you can't japanese letters, ask me questions about japanese patterns.

French patterns have a lot of charts and regularity and look like japanese patterns,i think.

[milouson]

bonjour!

moi aussi je tricote et je m'occupe d'un café tricot près de chez moi (waterloo en belgique).
J'aime beaucoup ton blog et je reviendrais!!!!

Amicalement,

le chat qui coud

[AnneV]

Hihi. Now my life is really easy: I just buy some books, lend them to someone and let her tell what is in them. I have some other unread books in my shelf at home - do you want to have a look at them as well?

And since it's Friday again: have a nice weekend!