14 knittingmag.com
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How did you first get interested in Japanese knitting?
I started studying Japanese in college, spent a couple of years in Japan,
and did my best to keep up with the language during the many years
I worked as a management consultant all over the world. During that
time, I lived in Asia and knitted a lot from Japanese books. Then I
wrote an article for K nitter’s magazine about the topic. In 2008, XRX
asked me if I’d like to teach the topic at a Stitches convention, and I’ve
been teaching at knitting events ever since.
And how did that lead to translating Japanese knitting books?
My publisher, Tuttle, has been known for its extensive catalogue
of Japanese and other Asian topics for a long time. They decided to
expand their craft offerings, but their regular translators thought that
knitting was a different ball game. So the editor in charge of crafts
contacted Amy Singer at the online magazine Knitty. I had taught at
various events with Amy, so she sent them to me. The first book we
did was the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible, and it turned out to be one
of Tuttle’s overall best sellers for the year.
Japanese knitting patterns can be so beautiful, but
they’re also daunting to many UK knitters. Do you
have any advice?
My number one suggestion is to use Ravelry. It’s an
unmatched resource. There’s a Japanese Knitting
and Crochet group where you can get your questions
answered. A number of Japanese designers have
published downloadable patterns, many in English.
The yarn company Pierrot Yarns offers hundreds
of totally free knitting and crochet patterns, many
of which also have English language versions –
comparing the two is quite educational. The group
pages are full of good information. It helps a lot if
you’re a pretty experienced knitter, too.
GAYLE ROEHM
C a s t o n w i t h ...
TRANSLATOR AND TEACHER GAYLE ROEHM TELLS US ABOUT
HER LOVE AFFAIR WITH JAPANESE KNITTING DESIGN
Any advice for readers who find knitting from charts challenging?
You’re missing out if you refuse to use charts. Try the small projects
in the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible as skill-building practice. The
hat, for instance, is worked in the round, so you don’t have to worry
about wrong-side decreases. Remember, it’s just knitting – you make
one stitch at a time. It will be slow at first, you’ll be consulting the
symbol table often, but gradually it will seem natural.
That will lead you to bigger things – chart reading opens up a
whole new world. There aren’t that many symbols to remember,
though they get combined in what seem like infinite ways. The
genuinely chart-phobic knitter, though, will probably have to give
Japanese designs a pass.One big difference between Japanese and UK patterns is that most
of them are in only one size. What would you advise?
You’re probably fine with accessories. For a full garment, you’d
approach it the way you would an English-language pattern
that doesn’t include your size: make a good-sized swatch, then
recalculate the stitch counts for your personal measurements.
Depending on how much you need to change, you
may be able to get away with just enlarging the
gauge: knit at 4 stitches to the inch, for instance,
rather than 5, so that all dimensions increase
proportionally. After that, re-sizing becomes more
an art than a science. You need to analyse the
design: can I use the stitch pattern as is, with more
repeats, or should I add panels of stocking stitch
at the sides?
Alternatively, you could choose one of the
Ravelry patterns from a Japanese designer who has
published in English. Junko Okamoto’s patterns are
all oversized. michiyo has published a collection of
patterns in English for the Fibre Company. Yoko