French Knitting : Knitting from the french

NB: I also do translations of french patterns into english. I need a scan or good digital pic (and permission from designer of pattern) and usually charge between $15 and $60 depending on length and complexity of the pattern. Contact me for a quote !

Knitting from the French

Why would you ever want to knit in french? Even though knitting is nowhere near as popular and trendy in France as it is in North America these days, France still offers a variety of yarn companies and pattern makers that offer unique and mostly untranslated pattern books. The most famous are probably Bergŕ¨re de France and Phildar, but Bouton d’or and Anny Blatt enjoy a devoted following as well. Some of these companies offer a selection of free patterns online, offering a perfect opportunity to test your translation skills.

TRICK-O-TER

When it come to wine and food, the French are famously wordy, but when it comes to knitting they are tighter-lipped. In French, « tricoter » (to knit) is just a generic term for the action of knitting, and doesn’t describe a precise stitch. In English, there is a specific term for each of the 2 basic stitches (knit/purl), in French you’ll be told to « tricoter ŕ  l’endroit » (literally knit on the right side) or « tricoter ŕ  l’envers » (knit on wrong side). To make matters worse, this will be abbreviated into the quite similar looking « m. endr. or m. env. ». You’ll just have to be very careful.
Also, always keep in mind that the only system we have in France is metric. Therefore, all measurements will be in centimeters, and « aiguilles n°5 » will always mean 5 mm needles.

MATHEMATIQUES

French pattern often use a representation that looks like a math formula to note increases and decreases. Knitter’s who’ve worked with Japanese patterns will scoff at these but here’s an explanation. As a general rule, you’ll find first the number of times to repeat the action and next the number of stitches concerned by this action.
For example,
« augm. de ch. cŕ´tŕ© (..) ts les 8 rgs : 5 x 1 m. et ts les 6 rgs : 9 x 2m. »
will translate :
Increase at each end – every 8th row : five times one stitch, – then every 6th row : nine times 2 stitches.

**EDITED TO ADD: Seeing as several people asked about this french “Mathematiques”, here’s another example:
Augm. de chaque cotŕ© tous les 2 rgs 3 fs 1 m puis ts les 4 rgs 3 fs 2 m would translate :

“Increase at each end – every second row :three times one stitch, – then every 4th row : three times 2 stitches”

Assuming we start on row 1, the anglophone way of writing it would be

row 1 : inc 1 st at each end
row 3 : inc 1 st at each end
row 5 : inc 1 st at each end (= 3 times the same 1 st increase, every second row)

Then
row 8: inc 2 sts at each end
row 12: inc 2 sts at each end
row 16: inc 2 sts at each end (= 3 times the same 2 sts increase, every fourth row)

FRENCH KNITTING DICTIONNARY

Access the French Knitting Dictionnary for a translation of all the french knitting terms !

 

USEFUL LINKS: French free patterns.

Here’s a selection of french yarn companies, magazines or websites where you’ll find a large choice of free knitting or crochet patterns:

– Bergŕ¨re de France, this famous french yarn company offers tons of free patterns in the “Tricothŕ¨que” for all, men, women, kids ect…

– Phildar. This famous french yarn store offers many free pattern in the “Modŕ¨les tricot” section: move the cursor to 0€ to see the free knitting and crochet patterns for women and kids.

– Tricotin.com : A collection of links of free patterns in french gathered on this site, including many Bergere de France, Adriafil .. and even translations of some Knitty.com patterns..! ;-)

– Bergers-cathares.com : This small french yarn company lots of free knitting patterns, for women and kids sweaters, shawls ect…

Cheval Blanc: this french yarn company offers lots of free knitting patterns and crochet patterns for babies, women, from accessories to clothes

Pinguoin: another french yarn company, with lots of free patterns

Prima magazine: this french magazine offers over 30 pages of free knitting patterns from past issues

Plassard: you’ll find dozens of free knitting or crochet patterns on the site of this famous french yarn company.

 

Hope that helps !! :-D

 

 


This article was originally published in KnittingFog.net (now offline)

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