(Not bad...?)
(Oggi ho fatto un esercizio: ho fatto la traduzione senza dei dizionari. Chiedo scusa per tutti i sbagli!)
While waiting in the Milano Centrale train station to make a connection to Venice, I spotted several Italian knitting and crochet magazines in a newsstand. I chose one based only on the cover; these stands display their less-popular magazines behind locked glass doors, so you can't flip though them, and it takes a braver person than me to riffle through all the pages while the newsstand proprietor is standing there waiting, key in hand, glaring at you as his other customers shuffle their feet impatiently.
Mentre stavo aspettando un treno nella stazione Milano Centrale, ho visto alcune riviste lavorare a maglia ed uncinetto italiane in edicola. Ne ho scelto una usando solamente il coperto; queste edicole hanno tante riviste dentro vetrine chiuse, quindi non si puo vedere le pagine, e ci vuole qualcono piu coraggioso di me di vederle con calmo mentre il commesso (e gli altri in coda) stanno aspettando.
So I had no idea of what I would find inside this magazine, and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and creativity of styles. Altogether there are 38 patterns, and pictured are my favorites.
Ecco, non sapevo per niente che cosa trovarei dentro questa rivista, e non aspettavo cosi tanti modelli diversi. Sono 38 modelli, e queste foto sono di miei preferiti.
When would I ever find the time to knit these? No idea, to be honest. But I took a look at the directions anyway, and very quickly I noticed a few things:
1) All yarns called for are Lana Grossa. Yes, this magazine is in fact published by Lana Grossa.
2) It was published in Germany (and translated into Italian), thus cannot really be called an Italian knitting magazine.
3) For most of the styles, directions are given for only one size; for 13 of them, directions are given for 2 sizes.
Quando avrei il tempo per fare questi? Non lo so. Pero', li guardavo attentamente, e subito ho scoperto alcune cose:
1) Tutti i filati sono Lana Grossa. E' vero, questa rivista e pubblicata da Lana Grossa.
2) Era pubblicata in tedesco (e tradotto in italiano), quindi non si puo chiamarla veramente una rivista italiana.
3) Per la maggiorparta dei modelli, le istruzioni sono per soltanto una taglia; per ne 13 di loro, le istruzioni ne sono per due.
I had read that most Japanese patterns are written for only one size, and it is up to knitters to resize if they are unlucky enough to fall in love with a pattern that doesn't happen to be written in their size. I'm bemused by this: on the one hand, the Japanese patterns I've seen tend to be quite complex and would probably be difficult to write in a range of sizes; on the other hand, that complexity would make it hard for the average knitter to resize a pattern for her (or him) self. On the other hand, every pattern doesn't have to be written for lots of sizes; a complex stitch or color pattern might work with only a certain number of stitches (some of Alice Starmore's work comes to mind), and could probably be resized somewhat by changing gauge.
But I digress. The patterns in this booklet are not that complex. So out of curiosity, I got out my calculator to see how many of these 37 patterns (1 of 38 was for a cap, in one size) a knitter of a certain size could make. I've changed European sizes of 38 to 50 to CYCA standard sizes; note that XS-S, S-M and M-L are in-between sizes, NOT inclusive of both.
Causa di curiosita', volevo capire quanti modelli qualcuno di qualche taglia (CYCA taglie) potrebbe fare. Ed eccoci qua:
XS-S: 0
S: 10
S-M: 21
M: 12
M-L: 8
L and up: 0
Now, I know that this is not because all women in Germany are between a size S (bust circumference 33 to 34 1/2 inches) and a size "M-L", (bust circ. of 38 to 39 1/2 inches)! I've been told that Italian knitting patterns tend to be written in only one size; is this typical of European patterns in general?
Allora, ben so che questo non e' perche' tutte le donne in Germania sono fra taglie "S" (84-88 cm) e "M-L" per una taglia; e' anche generalmente normale per modelli europei? (96-100 cm)! Ho sentito che le modelli maglie italiane sono solitamente scritti