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*** FRENCH KNITTING DICTIONNARY: Access the French Knitting Dictionnary for translation of all the knitting terms in french ! ***
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 Bergère 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 à l’endroit » (literally knit on the right side) or « tricoter à 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. côté (..) 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 coté 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 (updated March 2022)
Here’s a selection of french yarn companies, magazines or websites where you’ll find a large choice of free knitting or crochet patterns:
– Bergère de France, this famous french yarn company offers tons of free patterns in the “Tricoth�que” for all, men, women, kids ect…
– Phildar. This famous french yarn store offers many free pattern in the “Modèles tricot” section, with beautiful 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. Move the “PRIX” cursor to 0 €uros to see only free patterns.
– Pingouin: another french yarn company, with lots of free patterns
– Plassard: you’ll find dozens of free knitting or crochet patterns on the site of this famous french yarn company.
Hope that helps !! 😀
This article was originally published in KnittingFog.net (now offline) in 2006.
© Sylvie Damey, 2006-2023.