Knitting -- come on, who does it?

我也很喜欢针织。 We need an Advanced lesson on handicrafts.

"...nothing seems to sink in..."

I must add the disclaimer that I don't study very hard.

I love to knit and I love Chinese Pod. I've been listening to Newbie for two years because nothing seems to sink in.

I found a hat knitting book in Chinese in my local library (Vancouver, BC) called "Wo de shou bian mao xian mao" (sorry I can't do the characters). ISBN 986-7758-62-5. I though it would be good practice for me to try to follow a pattern in Chinese. There are very good illustrations and charts to help.

I was looking for knitting pattern books to get some of the vocabulary used for instructions. All I could find were books with photos of models wearing clothes, and a small picture or chart of the basic pattern stitch for each garment. Turns out that these are all they use!

I once taught basic mathematics to a group of older women who had never been to school. They couldn't read, and were afraid of basic arithmetic, but they all knitted, just by eye. It turns out that during that process they were using some complex mathematics, including estimation, probability, and problem solving skills, even a little borderline calculus, way beyond what the course required, they just didn't recognise those skills when expressed in classroom form, and couldn't write down what they did.

Most knitters I know will slavishly follow a garment pattern without any thought or checking, and cannot do it any other way. Patterns are developed by magic, and any deviation is believed to guarantee failure. It is a shame that these skills have been dumbed down so much.

I knit! This is my first post and such a great topic drew me. I began to learn after watching so many women in China knitting. It seemed a great mysterious process to me. No patterns or anything. In my area of Yunnan, it was Han Chinese women who knitted (nationality women cross-stitched). I am away from my Chinese-capable computer, but the word listed above "bian1 zhi1" was what I heard people say for knitting. Cross-stitch, another fabulous handicraft, is "shi2 zi4 xiu4" ("10 character embroidery"). They would also say "da3 mao2 yi1" as mentioned above.

I also crochet...but I never met anyone in China who did. Knitting was very common; cross-stitch with patterns, DMC floss, etc. was just becoming popular in Kunming when I lived there 2001-2004. Yi nationality women generally cross-stitch without a pattern, just from sight and experience, and make wonderful handicrafts (www.stoneforestcrafts.com).

I had not knitted anything for many years before I found Chinesepod. Then all of a sudden, listening to the dialogues, I wanted to do something with my hands. Since then I have been producing "Chinese socks" like crazy although slightly embarrassed. Of course, now that Jenny confesses to knitting, too, I know this is true Cpod style. ( Dass du lismisch, Wildyaks, das hani fasch tänkt! Die Szene steuen i mir gärn vor!) I keep thinking that I have come across the expression 打 毛 衣 for knitting. Or am I up the creek?

Jeez goulniky, don't encourage them.

Thanks Yves! I wonder if the last one 勾儿针 is actually a crochet needle? On the other hand in some parts of the world they knit with hooked knitting needles. Oh, the nerdiness of knitting. If you only knew.... :-)

针织 (zhēnzhī) knitting needle vocab: 棒针 bàngzhēn n. knitting needle 织针 zhīzhēn n. knitting needle M:fù 副 竹针 zhúzhēn n. bamboo knitting needle 针法 zhēnfǎ n. needle technique 钢针 gāngzhēn n. steel needle M:ge/gēn 个/根 毛线针 máoxiànzhēn n. knitting needle M:gēn 根 毛衣针 máoyīzhēn n. knitting needles M:gēn/fù 根/副 织衣针 zhīyīzhēn n. knitting needle M:fù 副 勾儿针 gōurzhēn n. ①hook-shaped needle ②knitting needle M:ge/dǐng 个/顶

LOL :^)

I will store that one away for later use. It's toadaly awesome.

Ribbit. Ribbit.

Bingge, do you know what knitters call unravelling? Frogging... because you rip it. :-)

Lunetta - are you referring to these ladies? Looks a lot like what I have to do when I try to knit. 哈哈 I've made a couple of scarves before, and a few baby blanket, but anything that requires a lot of fancy stitches -- count me out. I've got not talent for it.

I knit! Just put the cardigan down on which I have been working for the last couple of months. Don't often get time and I never knit anything for me anymore. So, if I don't have anyone to knit for, I don't knit.

And let me tell you this: Chinese women knit, Tibetan women knit. I am sure there are many other of the 50 plus ethnic groups in China they knit. When they see me knit (I often knit on long-distance bus rides or train rides) I have women come up to me to watch and comment. Because the way we hold the needles is slightly different. A Tibetan woman once taught me her way. I did not get used to it, so I am back to my own style. You see shopkeepers sitting around, knitting all day long. They knit pullovers for their kids, nephews, husbands. They knit woolen underwear, scarves, etc.

In short, in the areas of China where I have lived, knitting is a very common thing. Cities and countryside alike.

Aunty Sue,

when I met with my Chinese friend yesterday I tried to tell her in Chinese that I had knit the cardigan I was wearing myself. It promptly made her burst out: 你自己织了！

Of course it doesn't change the problem, it can still be used about weaving as well but at least now we know how to talk about it in everyday conversations.

I agree, jlswedberg: Auntie Sue, you're a real knit wit. ;-)

I knit, too. I'm glacially slow, but I have managed to make a few nice things. The pinnacle of my achievement is a baby sweater I made for my niece. It took six months and damn near killed me.

AuntySue, your description of what true knitting is cracked me up. You're absolutely right, of course. :-)

aHA!! I've worked out that it's not our problem with the word for knitting, it's the thousands of Chinese people who've got it wrong and totally confused everything by misusing the word knit in English. Anything at all that is made out of any kind of fibre is called knitting at every opportunity when they write in English.

Maybe in Chinese there is some interchangeability of terms that does not exist in English, or maybe they are simply trying to use an English word they like, while avoiding the dreaded weave/woven word problem. Whatever it is, it's wrong and it's confusing all us knitters who want to know about knitting, yeah the thing you do with two sticks and a piece of string, just that and no other crafts thank you.

I'm not making this up, I wish I was, but look here for one of many examples.

http://www.suzhou.gov.cn/English/Travel/54.shtml

There is absolutely nothing on that page that is even remotely related to knitting, yet they use the term many times. It's all quite clearly about weaving and nothing else. I don't know much about embroidery, but it's likely that they're "borrowing" that term too and applying it to weaving.

All over the Chinese web you see references to "silk-knit" when I'm sure they are talking about woven material. Silk-knit?!? It's not even a word. Maybe to the translator the sound of "knit" was irresistible. (If only I knew the exact translation, I could start using that word in all of my own Chinese sentences whenever I couldn't think of the right word, now that would be grand!)

Also, all over the web you'll see promises to tell you about ancient Chinese knitting, and it always turns out to have nothing whatsoever to do with knitting. What a tease!

On Webshots there's a photo labelled "a tradtional chinese knitting machine" and it's clearly a weaving loom.

The only place where I've seen the term knitting correctly used on a Chinese site is when modern knitting factories advertise, and even then you have to look closely at the pictures and descriptions to be sure. It's not the kind of knitting I'm interested in, of course, but at least I've seen somebody get it right.

Look, I refuse to believe they don't knit over there, and I suspect they've done a bloody good job of it for centuries, but they don't seem to talk about it in public. Meanwhile, everything that ever had a thread in it or on it is referred to as "knitting" with oh so great authority, so as to confuse the bejeebers out of us.

Cut the crap. Knitting is knitting, only knitting. Like, when hair off sheep has been spun into strands of wool and then you get two sticks and twiddle it until you've made something warm to wear that stretches infinitely, and runs into ladders and collabses when it catches on nails, and shrinks short and wide and hard when you put it through the laundromat. Knitting. What you do with those two sticks is knitting. It's only knitting if you can make it happen with two sticks, no exceptions. Knit knit knit. Not embroidery or knotting or weaving or tatting or spranging or macrame or crochet or any other lump-them-in-a-heap yarny fabricy things. Just knitting. I KNOW it's out there. Why can't I see it and hear about it? Is it dirty or something?

What about the word used in the video Knit Pickin'? It's ? 毛衣. Is it specific for making sweaters or can it be used about any kind of knitting?

I have to admit my mum taught me knit as a child but haven't really done it since, I don't think I can remember how now.

Aunty Sue,

We must be sisters separated at birth. I knit too (kind of)!!! I've knitted 3 scarves with gigantic holes on them. But the holes have got smaller and less.

I sewed my own Halloween costume once. Does that count? (One needle, John. That's all it takes, man. Those other people are showing off!)

err.. shipped FROM America...

Just because something is made in China doesn't mean it is used there, or even if it is, that it is popular. Most products are outsourced, and not allowed to sell in China. I even have a friend who owns a factory that does mass embroidery, which kind of fits this topic. Yet his stuff is not allowed to be sold in China. The raw materials are shipped to America, his people do the work, and the stuff is shipped out. Otherwise there would be import taxes and such.

The only words for knit I know are the aforementioned 编织 and 针织.

One thing that's cool about knitting in China is that some people do it with three needles! I'm not sure how that works, really, but I've seen it done.

There's also 针织 zhēnzhī 针zhēn (needle)+织zhī (weave; knit) and jié 结 tie, knit (from 结婚jiéhūn: to marry). The only thing I can knit are my brows (蹙眉cùméi ). Seems like a very useful skill, though I'm not sure I have the patience (or fingers and dexterity) for it.

Yes, I would like to know the word for knitting as well. I've used the word 编织 but I suspect it's more used for weaving.

I've heard that it used to be quite common in China to wash your knitted wool sweaters by unravelling them, washing the yarn and reknitting them, often in a different fashion.