Quite a few people in the world speak both Finnish and English. That doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to translate a knitting pattern from Finnish to English.
Translating from one language to another takes certain skills. Firstly you need to know the grammar and spelling of both languages you’re working with. If you’re going to translate anything that deals with dialogue, like TV shows and movies or novels, you also have to understand idioms and slang in both languages.
Then we have specialty translations. Any topic that has its own terminology needs yet another level of translation expertise. I can’t translate computer manuals, because I don’t know the terminology involved in both languages (some of it goes over my head in both languages). Same with cars, the medical field, and paper manufacturing.
But one topic for which I know terminology, idioms, slang, and quirks is knitting.
I first started translating patterns with a Facebook group Knit-Along to be helpful to non-Finnish speaking participants. Did you know that Google Translate doesn’t always know whether “calf” refers to the back of your leg or a baby cow? I’ve now worked with those KALs for almost four years. I’ve also helped a few other designers with translations, some of whom have become regular clients.
In the “regular” translating world, translation is often billed by the word. This doesn’t work as well for patterns because there are often a lot of numbers that don’t get translated, and in some cases the same instruction is repeated in multiple places and only needs to be translated once and then copied and pasted to the right place. Because of this, I have decided to use by-the-hour pricing for pattern translations.
Here are some average times based on past translation projects:
- Beanie Patterns – 30 minutes
- Sock Patterns – 45 minutes
- Sweater – 1 hour 15 minutes
- KALs with 12+ segments – 2 hours 30 minutes
If a pattern is more detailed and complicated, it will of course take longer to translate than a simpler one. I track my time using Track by Toggl and provide reports with my invoices. I can also format patterns and charts in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and create ready-to-share PDFs in your desired format.
I also offer Ravelry upload services at a flat rate. You can add me as an employee to your Ravelry account so that I don’t have full access to your profile, and I will go through all the steps of entering the pattern details, writing in the description, and uploading the files for you.
If you would like to chat more about how I can help, please e-mail me!