I have been having fun searching the internet for interesting patterns that aren’t in english since I saw the bunch earlier here.

Alison, over at The Blue Blog has made some really adorable items for her twin sons from Phildar patterns. Some of the patterns she has used are from the Tricotez Calin books. (I have no idea how to get the special characters to show up, but there’s supposed to be a ^ thingy over the a). You can get a really good idea of what’s in these books/magazines by going to the Phildar web site. For instance, the latest one is here.

I wanted to get my grubby little hands on a copy in person, but that’s apparently easier said than done from here in the English-speaking United States since the local distributor went out of business or away or something. Phildar just recently started putting out English translations with them, but you still have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get one. Luckily enough, the awesome guys over at Threadbear Fiber Arts have done the hoop jumping for us! I called them up, placed an order and less than a week later, behold:

The big clump of papers are the English translations. They seem decent enough (although I haven’t read them in detail) and so far the only thing that drives me nuts is that whoever put them together didn’t put them in any sort of discernable order. Here’s a peek at what the non-English insides look like. First, a totally adorable pattern.

It only goes up to 24 months in size (and I haven’t figured out how big that really is because my Americanized brain doesn’t understand centimeters), but resizing probably wouldn’t be that hard for a toddler size.

Here’s how the layout of the patterns looks:

Now, I can’t read French to save my life, but a lot of the words are obvious. Just looking at how they have laid out the pattern on the page makes me like it. They use different colors for each of the different sizes, making it very easy to follow along and see which size is for what. There is a good amount of white space in the pattern, so you aren’t re-reading the same damn paragraph 10 times to find your place (*cough cough* dale *cough cough).

Overall, the patterns have a fresh feel to them. I like the different colors too - I may have to get some Phildar yarn to play with.

Katie’s new sweater
I started Katie’s Debbie Bliss sweater. First I used the needles suggested in the pattern. After about an inch or so, it looked 2-3" wider than the pattern stated for that size. Since Debbie Bliss pattern sizing tends to be HUGE anyway, and my fabric looked a little bit loosey-goosey (technical term) I decided I would go down a needle size and get closer to the real meaurements. As it is Katie will be able to wear the sweater for quite a while.

Rip Rip Rip.

Now I’m back to where I was and a bit further on the back:

(horrible picture, but you get the idea. The camera used the flash and washed all the texture out)
The knitting goes pretty fast. I made myself a cheat card with the three different patterns on it. I’ve almost got it memorized, but having to actually knit on the wrong side (where it’s not so obvious where you are) is messing me up a bit. This is also my first project with cables in it. It’s a relief to have no color changes and something more interesting than stockinette too.

I’ve decided Katie is being neglected in the sweater department. I don’t want to start Bjerk for my mom until I’m done with Hardangervidda. It uses the same yarn and it’s the same basic type of sweater (fairisle, with LOTS of stockinette), and she lives in Arizona anyway so it doesn’t get cold until January. :)

I’m going to make Katie this sweater:

With this yarn, Handknit DK Cotton by Rowan. I think it’s the same color as shown in the picture, but the picture makes it look like a dark purple and it’s really a soft lilac color. I’ve had this yarn in my stash for quite a while - I bought it from a vendor on ebay specifically for this sweater. I figured I better make it before she outgrows the sizing. (Although given the sizing Debbie Bliss patterns use, she could probably still wear it when she’s 10). I have another set of this same kind of yarn in blue that I bought at the same time. You’d think I knew I was going to have a boy as my 2nd child.

But What about Alex?
I also took a trip to my LYS and picked up this gorgeous pile of yarn to make Alex a cow/pig sweater.

The Baby Ull feels so soft. I’m trying to not think about the fact that it’s fingering weight yarn. He has so many gorgeous sweaters from a baby shower my knitting friends gave me that he won’t need it until next year. I’ll make the 36 month size and hope he doesn’t outgrow it before then. (Alex officially weighs 17 lbs 4 oz as of Sept 7th, his 4 month-day)

Those of you who are paying attention can see the needles lurking in the corner of the above picture. I’m addicted to buying needles.

Really.

But I do use them.

Really!

New Knitty is out!
My favorite quote from this article:
“Quit spazzing, get some needles, and try it.”