Wednesday, April 11, 2007


me gusta el monstro!





Yeah, I like the monsters, but did you really

expect otherwise? I like the nightlife, I like

the monsters, on the disco floor! Michelle sent

me a link to a very cool new Free knitting

magazine, Tejemanejes (sorry, I don't know

the translation for the name).




So you say to the computer screen "Great

Haley, YOU may read 5 languages, But I

DONT! This is a big tease, thanks for nothin'."

Take a chill pill. I didn't learn Spanish, but I

did, however, learn some useful short cuts.

Tee-Hee (my evil academic laugh)! Go to

Google Language Tools and put the Tejemanejes

web address in the "Translate a web page"

field, choose the languages (spanish to english).

Bang, the text is translated. An alternate way

is to google the title of the magazine, then click

on the link "Translate this page" located next to

the title.





Caveat emptor (it's latin) ....

1. Any text that is embedded as a

picture (like the title of the magazine)

will not translate.


2. Machine translation is not perfect because

languages do not translate literally. The words

that the sofware recognizes will be translated

into the most commonly used equivalent. The

computer is good with syntax, but

it can't account for cultural differences and the

grammar isn't perfect. You are going to have

to put on your thinking cap and decipher what

words that don't make sensewould translate

to inenglish knittingeese.


For example, in the Monster pattern, I'm going

to assume the following translations based

on what i know about how knitting is done:


Machine trans: the doll is tiled of above to down

Human trans: the doll is knitted from top down


Machine trans: we mounted 40 points using a provisional assembly
Human trans: we cast on 40 stitches using a provisional cast on


Machine trans: Weave to smooth point until we have 6.5 cm
Human trans: Knit (or work) in stocking stitch until you have 6.5cm


Machine trans: Now we began last the short ones (or returned shortened) to make the heel
Human trans: Now we at last begin the short rows (or wrap & turn) to make the heel


Machine trans: 1ª return: Tile 14 points of the right, to surround a point and to give return to the work. 2ª return: Tile 13 points of the misfortune, to surround a point and to give return to the work.
Human trans: 1st short row: knit 14 stitches to the right, wrap and turn the work. 2nd short row: knit 13 stitches to the left, wrap and turn the work.


i figured that "misfortune" must translate to "left" (as in the direction) because of the cultural stigmatization of left handed people (the etymology of " left" is closely tied to "sinister" ). It was also used on alternating rows with "right".



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice try. I did similar guesswork when "translating" a pattern from Finnish. But you forgot one crucial step when translating knitting patterns: use a knitting glossary to correct too specific terms MT will get wrong. For Spanish: revesderecho.com wiseneedle.com mybev.club.fr/dico.html

That's why you got the "left/right" bit wrong (BTW left=sinister is correct in Italian not in Spanish: our "izquierda" derives from a Basque word).
Tejer del derecho > tile of the right > knit, K
Tejer del revés > tile of the misfortune > purl, P
("revés" means "wrong side, backwards, the other way round" and also "misfortune", and of course in a knitting context "purl").

We apologize for creating such a tease! But now you know how Spanish-speaking knitters feel when they browse knitting sites in English. ;-)

PS: We did translate the backpack pattern into English (it's available on our site), but we won't be translating the others.