Que faites-vous?*

*What are you making?

No Tour de France KAL would be complete without a dictionary of knitting terms and phrases en Francais. Les madames cheres of Knit.1 magazine compiled a list of common knitting and crocheting terms in ten languages for their Spring 2006 issue, some of which we'll share here (with occasional help from wordreference.com). Should you ever travel to France, you'll be able to ask with confidence, "Where is the nearest yarn shop?"

We encourage you to practice these by leaving comments here and on other participants' blogs. Thankfully, since it's summer and winter break, there won't be an examen. :)

Basic terms:

knit stitch maille a l'endroit
purl stitch maille a l'envers
knitting/to knit tricot/tricoter
knitting needles les aiguilles a tricoter
crochet needle l'aiguille a crochet
yarn fil a tricoter
gauge chantillon
swatch enchantillon
to cast on monter
to bind off rabattre toutes les mailles
right side/wrong side of work endroit de l'ouvrage/envers de l'ouvrage
to increase augmenter
to decrease rabattre
row le rang
yarn over jete a l'endroit/a l'envers (knit side/purl side)

Some phrases pour vous:

1. Where is the nearest yarn shop? Ou est le magasin de laines le plus proche?

2. How much is this ball of yarn? Combien coute cette pelote de laine?

3. What is the fiber content? En quoi est-ce?

wool laine
acrylic acrylique
mohair mohair
silk soie
cotton coton
cashmere cachemire
nylon polyamide
angora angora
rayon viscose

4. What are you making? Que faites-vous?

Je fais... I'm making...

a scarf le foulard
a sweater le pull or le chandail
a cardigan le cardigan
a shawl le chale
a hat le chapeau
a vest le gilet
socks les chausettes
mittens les moufles
skirt la jupe
blanket la couverture

5. I would like to make a __. Je voudre faire un/une_. (add word from above minus le/la/les). Where can I find a pattern? Ou puis-je trover la fiche tricot?

6. I love to knit/crochet. J'aime tricoter/crocheter.

7. Oh dear, I have dropped a stitch (what you say when the race gets exciting!!).
Ah non, je me suis lache une maille.

8. Oh dear. I need to rip back. Again. (I hope none of us need this one, but just in case!).
Ah non, je dois dechirer. Encore.

What everyone will ask when you show them your amazing FOs:

9. Did you make that yourself? Avez-vous fait cela vous-meme?

And you can say:

10. Yes, I made this myself! Oui, j'ai fait ceci moi-meme!!

Try and see if you can't incorporate some French knitting terms into everyday use during the Tour! And for the linguistically-inclined, Charisse has started up a Word-of-the-Week feature on her blog. For the month of July, she will choose words related to French. This week Charisse gives us a handy run-down on the word harridan.

And if you're still trying to come up with a project idea which would be relevant to le Tour, check out Meg's Lanterne Rouge hat. She's written up the pattern and offered it for free, all in honour of le Tour! If you all did your homework last time and watched the Tour 101 video clips, you will know that the Lanterne Rouge is a red flag traditionally carried by the last-place rider in the Tour. Why not knit yourself a Lanterne Rouge hat to boldly proclaim that, yes, just showing up is something to be proud of!