When in Rome...

Which we're not of course, but you know how the saying goes.

Whilst out and about this morning, I found this in the magazine shop in town and thought it would be rather fun to see how the Italians go about their knitting mags...

Admittedly it's a beginners guide rather than a quarterly, but a good find nonetheless. It comes with a handy CD-rom demonstrating the basic techniques which I'm hoping will be useful for learning the local lingo. I cannot speak a word of Italian, so what better way to go about it?

I did find something disturbing inside relating to that Hat on the cover:-

It's a beginner's guide, I know, but still. Hats knit vertically, flat & seamed drive me bonkers.

The Italian for the Knit stitch is "Diritto". The Purl stitch is "Rovescio" and Stocking Stitch is "Maglia Rasata", which is interesting, as their term for knitting in the generic sense is "Maglia". Moss Stitch is "Grana di Riso" (literally translates to "grain of rice"), a Yarnover is "Gettato" and Crochet is "Uncinetto". The are lots of others I can work out the translations for but many of them are mouthfuls - for instance k2tog is "Due Punti Assieme a Diritto"!

Having always been completely useless at learning languages, I may have just found the right tool for the job.